Not long after the North Mecklenburg boys basketball team won the last of the eight NCHSAA state basketball championships on Saturday night at Joel Coliseum, key stakeholders in the organizational process could breathe a sigh of relief and reflect on the appreciation and positive feedback they received throughout the week about the new format.
The NCHSAA Board of Directors approved a new final four concept for this season’s state basketball tournaments, which combined the East and West Regionals for boys and girls teams in all four classifications at one venue and stretched across six days.
The new format originated after last season’s issues during the regional rounds, which were largely held at high school gyms, with numerous fans being denied entry into the games despite having tickets.
Under the new format, four games were held at Joel Coliseum on Monday through Saturday, with state championship games taking place on Friday and Saturday.
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Eight different state champions were crowned and a total of 24 games were played to rave reviews from the coaches, players, spectators, and staff.
“Everything just felt right about the week,” NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said. “We recognized the problem we had last year at the regionals and tried to figure out a solution that could fix that. We’ll sit down and assess everything, but we definitely came away from the week with more positives than negatives. Everyone involved was great. The staff here at Joel. The staff from Wake Forest. The Rhino staff. The support we got from the WSFCS ADs (athletics directors) and staff was off the charts. Everything worked super well. Overall, we had a great week here.”
As recently as 2018, the NCHSAA held the Western Regionals in Winston-Salem, utilizing Joel Coliseum and the Coliseum Annex.
“We’ve been here before and we have that familiarity, so that was also helpful,” Tucker said. “We gave them an outline of what we wanted to do and then came and met with them. Once we had the plan together and our board approved it and let us know we were good to go, we put everything together.”
John Sullivan, athletics director for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, also said that the week was a big success.
“I think the main thing for us from an organizational standpoint was to take whatever we could off the NCHSAA’s plate so they could really concentrate on the things they needed to concentrate on,” Sullivan said. “I think everything worked out great. The crowds were amazing all week. All the comments I kept getting and hearing were positive. We had a lot of things go right all week.”
ADs and coaches at the WSFCS high schools served as hosts for every team. Each team was assigned a host to greet them when they arrived at the coliseum. The host would lead the team to their locker room and to and from the arena floor and be a point of contact should they need anything.
“We wanted to make sure all their needs were covered,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to be sure they didn’t have to look for somebody if they needed something. We wanted to make the experience as seamless as possible.”
That also included taking basketballs to and from the court for pre-game warm-ups and to start the second half. Local coaches also ran the clock and kept the official book during games. Ken Winfrey was the public address announcer for the entire week.
Some teams held shoot-arounds at the local high schools before their games.
“Basically, anyone who was available during the week and didn’t teach fourth period was welcome to come and help,” Sullivan said with a laugh. “We had a lot of great support all week from everyone. The Wake Forest athletic department had someone here all week and we had access to whatever we needed on their end. The partnership with everyone involved was tremendous.”
Sullivan estimated that daily attendance Monday through Thursday was in the 4,000 to 5,000 range, and that increased to 5,000 to 6,000 on Friday and Saturday when the state championship games were played.
Joel Coliseum had to open the upper bowl of the arena to help accommodate fans during the 2-A title game Saturday night between Reidsville and Farmville Central.
“From their (NCHSAA) standpoint, they were impressed with the crowds,” Sullivan said. “With us being central to most everyone, it allowed teams and fans and families to travel and not have to go more than three, three and a half hours. Other than New Hanover and Cherokee, everyone else was two to two and half hours at most from here. And having that size crowd here, the atmosphere is electric.”
Count Athony Atkinson, the coach at Wilson Prep, which won its second straight 1-A state title on Friday night, as one of the fans of the new format.
“I love the stage. I love the fact that everyone is right here,” said Atkinson, whose team won last season at Reynolds Coliseum at N.C. State. “These kids get to play on a grand stage and some of these kids have never played at a place like this before. I told my guys that we are blessed to be here and be a part of the NCHSAA doing this…that’s a blessing that we bestow on these kids and that’s the blessing the NCHSAA bestowed on us. So, we’re grateful for it.”
About the only negative that Tucker and Sullivan mentioned were the Ticketmaster fees, something the NCHSAA has no control over.
“That’s not something we can do anything about, unfortunately,” Tucker said. “We did encourage fans to buy tickets when they got to the coliseum to avoid the Ticketmaster fees, and that also led to a couple of long lines to get in a couple of times. We hate that for the consumer, but they could save some money if they bought their tickets here.”
Both Tucker and Sullivan were optimistic that the event could return to Joel Coliseum next year.
“There is nothing official and no contracts have been signed, but I believe it is everyone’s hope that it comes back next year,” Sullivan said.
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Friday’s games (March 16)
Class 1-A boys: Wilson Prep 65, Corvian Community 63
Class 3-A girls: West Rowan 64, Fayetteville Sanford 52
Class 1-A girls: Cherokee 74, East Columbus 32
Class 3-A boys: Central Cabarrus 90, Fayetteville Seventy-First 62
Saturday’s games (March 17)
Class 4-A girls: Rolesville 65, Charlotte Catholic 58
Class 2-A girls: North Pitt 76, East Burke 66
Class 2-A boys: Reidsville 78, Farmville Central 77 (OT)
Class 4-A boys: North Mecklenburg 57, New Hanover 47
Other news and notes
Repeat performances
Wilson Prep boys (1A), West Rowan girls (3A), and Central Cabarrus boys (3A) all won state titles for the second straight season. Central Cabarrus has won 65 straight games, with its last loss coming in the 3A West Regional championship in 2022. D.J. Kent of Central Cabarrus won his second straight MVP award following his 20-point, nine-rebound performance in the win against Fayetteville Seventy-First.
Best game
The Reidsville and Farmville Central game on Saturday for the 2-A state title, a repeat of last year’s championship game, lived up to its billing.
Farmville Central hit a couple of key 3-pointers in regulation, including Mykal Williams’ with seven seconds left to send the game to overtime. Reidsville was clutch from the free throw line down the stretch, making 6 of 6 free throws in the final minute to make it tough on the Jaguars.
Johnniyus Sharpe scored 29 points for Reidsville, 6-8 sophomore Kendre Harrison had 19 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots in a MVP performance, and point guard Dionte Neal’s layup with 17 seconds left gave the Rams the win and an undefeated 29-0 season—but only after watching a potential game-winning 3-pointer by Farmville Central bounce off the rim as time expired.
Both teams made big play after big play when it mattered most.
The core of the Reidsville team also led the Rams to the 2-A state football championship in December. Even scarier–Neal and Harrison are sophomores. Sharpe is a junior.
Most supportive fan base/most dominant performance
Hands down, this one belongs to the Cherokee girls basketball team. Almost the entire lower bowl of the arena at Joel Coliseum was made up of Cherokee fans on Friday to support the Lady Braves, who rolled to a 74-32 win against East Columbus to win their first state title since 1996 and initiated a running clock in the third quarter after securing a 40-point margin. Their fans also traveled in masses to attend the fourth round win against Bishop McGuinness at Southwest Guilford, and then again for last Monday night’s Western Regional championship game against Mountain Heritage.
Cherokee is a fun team to watch and their enthusiastic fan base makes it even more fun.
Feels like the first time
The Rolesville girls won the first state championship in school history for any sport, rallying from a nine-point deficit in the second half to beat Charlotte Catholic for the 4-A title. The Rams outscored the Cougars 28-14 in the fourth quarter and had a dominant performance by point guard Caitlyn Jones, who finished with 27 points and seven assists in her MVP performance.
Wildest finish
Wilson Prep won its second straight 1-A state title in dramatic fashion.
The Tigers were down 63-62 with four seconds left against Corvian Community after Adrian Scott made one of two free throws. Leslie Minter got a 3-pointer off to beat the buzzer that missed, but was fouled on the shot. Minter sank all three free throws, then the Tigers had to watch a final attempt from Corvian bounce off the rim with .6 seconds left to pull out the win.
Crazy.
Top individual performers not already mentioned
Kate Sears, Watauga: in a losing effort in the 4-A Western Regional final against Charlotte Catholic, Sears, a junior, poured in 38 points and had eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Isaiah Evans, North Mecklenburg: Evans, a Duke signee, scored the last four points for the Vikings to send their matchup with Lake Norman in the 4-A Western Regional championship to overtime and finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds, five steals, three assists and two blocks. In the state championship win over New Hanover, Evans finished with 23 points and eight rebounds and was named the MVP.
Paul McNeil, Richmond Senior: McNeil, who has signed with N.C. State had 36 points and 12 rebounds in a loss to New Hanover in the 4-A Eastern Regional championship game.
Blanca Thomas, Charlotte Catholic: Thomas, the Cougars 6-5 center who has signed with North Carolina, had 27 points and 18 rebounds in a win against Watauga in the regional championship, and 16 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots in the loss to Rolesville in the title game.
Cecily “dvdaya” Swimmer, Cherokee: Swimmer, who was also the 1-A state cross country champion in November, scored 17 points and had four assists and five steals for the Lady Braves in the championship win against East Columbus. She was all over the court and was a force on defense and in transition.
Jordan Speller, North Pitt: Speller scored 31 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out four assists and had three steals in a 76-66 win over previously unbeaten East Burke.
Kara Brinkley, Braelyn Stillwell, East Burke: Brinkley finished with 28 points and 19 rebounds and Stillwell had 23 points, four rebounds and four assists in the loss to North Pitt.
Tom Muse honored
Former Parkland basketball coach Tom Muse was honored during halftime of the 2-A state championship game between Reidsville and Farmville Central with the John Wooden Legacy Award by the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association. Recipients are recognized for their excellence on the court, in the classroom, and in the community and embody the characteristics of Wooden–Excellence, Longevity, Character, Leadership and Service.
Muse won more than 500 games during his career at Parkland and is currently an assistant coach with his son Andy at Mount Tabor.