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.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1066268
DECEMBER 26, 2018-JANUARY 1, 2019 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM doubles, two triples and two RBIs. Christian elected to enroll at East Carolina and will join the Pirates baseball team this spring. 5. Cumberland County Schools becomes a lead- er statewide in promoting Unified Sports. Cumberland County Schools, with a strong push from student activities director Vernon Aldridge, becomes a state leader in promoting the Unified Sports program. Unified Sports promotes allowing special needs students to participate in select com- petitive athletic events with the assistance of main- stream athletes in those sports. A relay team from Gray's Creek High School made history during the spring by becoming one of the first Unified Sports teams from Cumberland County to bring home a state championship. 6. Former South View and Duke basketball standout Jeff Capel III named head coach at University of Pittsburgh. In May, Jeff Capel III, who led South View to a state 4-A basketball championship as a player in 1993 under the late Ron Miller, left his job as a long-time assistant at Duke University to become head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Capel was a head coach for five seasons at the University of Oklahoma, where he led the Sooners to the Elite Eight in 2009, sparked by current NBA star Blake Griffin. Capel returned to Duke in 2011 and was an assis- tant coach for Mike Krzyzewski until accepting the Pittsburgh job. In 1993, while a player under the late Ron Miller at South View, Capel led the Tigers to a 31-1 record and the school's only state 4-A boys basketball title. 7. Fayetteville Academy wins the school's 17th state boys soccer title. Another year, another soccer championship for the Eagles. Led by senior North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association All-State forward Hudson Zeisman and Julian Barbaro, the Eagles rolled to the school's 17th state soccer championship. Fayetteville Academy defeated Gaston Day 3-1 in the finals to finish 14-2. Zeisman had 22 goals and 12 assists for the state champions. Barbaro suffered a torn meniscus in Fayetteville Academy's Senior Day game, missed one game in the state playoffs, then returned to help the Eagles in their march to the state championship. 8. Wrestling trio brings home state titles. Three Cumberland County High School wres- tlers brought home individual titles in this year's NCHSAA individual wrestling championships. The winners included Daniel Peede of Pine Forest, Dallas Wilson of Cape Fear and Mike Vernagallo of Cape Fear. Wilson followed in the footsteps of his dad and coach, Heath Wilson, who was also a state champion at Cape Fear. The younger Wilson became the first sophomore in Cape Fear's rich wrestling history to bring home a state title, taking the championship at 132 pounds in the 3-A classification. His teammate, Vernagallo, recorded his second state championship, winning the 3-A 160-pound title. Peede won the 4-A 152-pound championship after a near-miss in the 2017 season. 9. Cumberland County enjoys banner year in Shrine Bowl selections. It was a banner year for Cumberland County in the number of local coaches and students chosen to take part in the nation's oldest high school all-star football game. Named as coaches for North Carolina were assistant coaches Ernest King of Westover and Marcus Wall of South View. Chosen as players were Tanner Morris of Terry Sanford, along with Emery Simmons and Donovan Brewington, both of South View. Also chosen to take part in the game was student athletic trainer Marianna Blount of South View. The game ended in a 10-10 tie with the team from South Carolina, the first tie in game since 1948. 10. Holiday Classic undergoes major format change. The Cumberland County Holiday Classic bas- ketball tournament, no stranger to different for- mats, underwent one of its biggest changes ever for the 2018 edition. Under the leadership of Vernon Aldridge, student activities director for the Cumberland County Schools, the tournament was divided into four separate brackets, two for girls and two for boys, each one determining a champion. The Cumberland County schools were split up to prevent them from having to face each other too many times, with five county teams in each bracket mixed with an assortment of outside teams. Each of the four brackets was named after a former outstanding county basketball coach. The two boys brackets were named for former coaches Len Maness of Terry Sanford and Ike Walker Sr. of E.E. Smith. The girls brackets were named for Westover's Gene Arrington and Pine Forest's Tom Jackson. Cape Fear wrestler Dallas Wilson (left) and Cape Fear wrestling coach Heath Wilson (right) It was a banner year for Cumberland County in its Shrine Bowl selections. Jeff Capel III Mey Christmas & HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ALL OF US AT DK SPORTS MEDIA Trey, Mark, Reggie, Bill, Fred, TJ, Sonny, Joe, Mike and Don