Up & Coming Weekly

October 16, 2018

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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24 UCW OCTOBER 17-23, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS Britt plays with purpose in run to volleyball title by EARL VAUGHAN JR. In her second year as a varsity volleyball coach at Jack Britt High School, Leigh Ann Weaver was supremely confident entering the 2018 season. "I think our team is on an elite level physically, with all the natural athleticism on top of the volley- ball experience in school or travel (volleyball),'' she said. "I knew that we were 100 percent capable. Our biggest battle was on the mental side.'' The Buccaneers overcame any misgivings Weaver had about the mental aspect. Last week, the Bucs traveled to Pinecrest and handed the Patriots their second conference defeat of the season, wrapping up at least a tie for the Sandhills Athletic Conference title and the league's No. 1 berth in the state playoffs. Through the Pinecrest match, with a couple of regular-season games to go, Britt stood 14-7 over- all and 12-0 in the league. They'll await the news on who their first-round opponent will be in the upcoming North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4-A playoffs. At season's start, Weaver decided to put the focus of this year's team on her two power hitters, Lexy Cole and Kaiah Parker. "I told the girls what their roles are,'' Weaver said. "Everyone has fallen into that perfectly, and identifying the roles straight away definitely helped.'' As the team met various expectations during the season, Weaver and her coaching staff kept lifting the bar and setting new ones. "The goal for a volleyball team is not to peak too early,'' she said. "We definitely made sure to have the girls progress at an appropriate time within each part of the season.'' As for her concerns about the mental aspect of the game, Weaver said it's something she preached to the team from the beginning, along with playing with a purpose. "If they don't play with a purpose, their heart isn't fully into it,'' Weaver said. "You're poking around in the dark, for lack of a better term. "You play with a purpose, warm up with a pur- pose. You've got to do everything with a purpose if you expect to do better at your craft.'' Cole, who leads Cumberland County Schools in kills with 199 through Oct. 10, has played a major role in Britt's success. "Lexy has stepped it up 110 percent,'' Weaver said. "She has blown my expectations out of the water. She's going to UNC-Asheville to play volleyball. That standard was set high for her, and she had a reputation of being a great volleyball player.'' In addition to being a power hitter, Cole is a vocal leader on the court. That may be as important as her skill at spiking the ball. "I feel like I'm very loud and energetic,'' Cole said. "I keep the energy pretty high so everyone stays alive.'' She tries to keep her chatter positive. "The only thing I want to be doing for my team is to make sure that everyone feels like they can do it,'' she said. "If they mess up, I don't want them to think they'll keep messing up. They can just forget about it and no one is mad at them. "I want them to do their best.'' The whole Buccaneer team will need to do its best to have a chance of advancing deep in the state 4-A playoffs. Cole feels the team needs to stay focused with the same end goal in mind. "We'll have to speed up our game to match theirs,'' she said of teams Britt might face in the postseason. "As long as we keep up with the speed, I feel we're perfectly fine.'' Lexy Cole A newly-constructed sign on the Fayetteville Academy soccer field lists the 16 state boys' cham- pionships and two girls' champi- onships the school has won. Two men, Jimmy Maher and Andrew McCarthy, were directly involved in bringing 13 of those titles to the school. For their efforts, Maher and McCarthy have been chosen for induction into the Fayetteville Academy Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place on Nov. 20 as part of the school's annual alumni boys' and girls' basketball games. Maher was head boys soc- cer coach from 1994-2000. He won four titles before stepping away to pursue a business ven- ture with Fayetteville Academy benefactor Dr. William Jordan. "I had a group of parents come to me and say 'please don't go,''' Maher said. He reassured them and told them he was confident a young man who had started helping out with the soccer team a couple of years before he stepped down would be an excellent coach. That coach was McCarthy. "They thought the sky had fallen when I left but Andrew didn't miss a beat,'' Maher said. "He took it to the next level.'' McCarthy, who took over in 2001 and has been there ever since, said he and Maher have a similar vision about how to coach the team. "Every day we're talking about life lessons,'' McCarthy said. "We talk about getting ready for games and dealing with issues that will help them in life. "We're trying to teach the things that will help them become good fathers in the future. Very few, if any, are going to make a living out of the game. From the lessons they've learned, they're going to be successful. I see a lot of our players going on and doing great things.'' Maher said the two approach the game with the same work ethic and share it with their players. "We worked extremely hard and tried to become better coaches,'' Maher said. "We traveled the state, scouting teams we are going to play. It was rare we came up against a team we hadn't seen on at least a couple of occasions.'' When Maher first wanted to come back and help coach the team in 2008, he asked McCarthy to let him work during the preseason only. McCarthy coaxed him into helping coach the boys and girls for one year. That has extended into 10 seasons. Maher praised McCarthy for his success and is convinced McCarthy could be a coach at any level of soccer. Neither is the type to promote personal success or accomplishments. "The game itself is enough for us,'' Maher said. "The most important thing is the relationship with the kids. That's the most valuable thing I get from what I do.'' McCarthy agreed. "It's nice to be rewarded, but at the end of the day, we're in it for the kids, how we see them growing and moving on to do wonderful things in the workplace.'' EARL VAUGHAN JR., Sports Editor. COMMENTS? EarlUCWSports@ gmail.com. 910-364-6638. Fayetteville Academy honors McCarthy, Maher by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Andrew McCarthy (left) and Jimmy Maher (right) Photo credit: Sonya Bruffey

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