High school athletics: Good weekend for the five-sport man
Published 3:12 pm Wednesday, January 29, 2025
- Salisbury's Jackson Sparger. Photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Salisbury senior Jackson Sparger helped the Hornets place second in the Rowan County Swimming Championships on Friday and was one of the Hornets’ four individual champions in the Central Carolina Conference Wrestling Tournament on Saturday.
That’s a pretty busy weekend, even for Sparger, who plans to be a five-sport man this school year.
And Sparger isn’t just out there to hang out with his friends. He’s a pretty important member of every team.
“As far as swimming, this is the first year I’ve done it for the school,” Sparger said. “I just wanted another winter sport. I’ve made some progress.”
He did well on Friday in the pool at the Hurley YMCA. He swam a leg on the Hornets’ 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays teams. Both finished second to champion East Rowan. He helped the Hornets score 52 points.
The 5-foot-8 Sparger wrestled as a freshman and sophomore, but he did not wrestle as a junior. He returned to the sport this season and enjoyed a somewhat surprising conference championship at 150 pounds. He wrestled at 132 a few years ago, but he’s grown some.
“I didn’t have as many matches as some of the guys in the CCC, so I was seeded next to last,” Sparger said.
It was a six-man tournament bracket, so the top two seeds got byes. Sparger had to wrestle three matches, but he got past the first round and won a 14-1 major decision against the top seed in the semifinals. In the championship match, he faced a fellow under-seeded wrestler from Lexington who had knocked out the No. 2 seed. Sparger won by pin to improve to 16-4 for the season.
In the fall, Sparger had a lot of roles for the Salisbury football that won another Central Carolina Conference champion. He was the long snapper. He made tackles as a backup linebacker and special teams player. On offense, he was the backup running back, but he became the main running back for a while when Hez Krider was out with an injury. He had 56 carries for 198 yards and three touchdowns and he also caught a touchdown pass.
His best sports probably are the two he’ll be tackling simultaneously as winter turns into spring. He’s successfully turned that double play before, jumping back and forth from baseball (he can pitch, catch or play infield) to golf. Part of a strong SHS golf team, he shot a 1-under 71 on the second day of the 2A State Championships in Monroe last year.
“I just like to compete and I like to stay busy,” Sparger said.