ROCKINGHAM — Evan Baxley, a senior on the Richmond Senior High School soccer team, has been named the Week 10 Official Richmond County Male Athlete of the Week presented by Moss Brothers Tire and Service.
Each week, one male and one female student-athlete from Richmond Senior High School will be selected by his or her coach as ROSports’ Official Richmond County Athlete of the Week based on his or her performance in helping their respective team.
Patrolling the back line as a center back, Baxley has picked up significant minutes during his senior season. As the Raiders continued their late-season push last week, Baxley’s speed, soccer I.Q. and willingness to play aggressive saw him help the Raiders earn back-to-back shutout wins over Sandhills Athletic Conference opponents. This marks his first career recognition.
Athletic Profile
Age: 17
Birthday: Feb. 9, 2002
Year: Senior
Fall Sport: Soccer
Position: Center Back
Years on Varsity: 2 Years
Height & Weight: 5-11, 167 pounds
Experience: 11 Years
“DEFENDING THE HOUSE” WITH EVAN BAXLEY
RSHS Academics: When he’s not defending his goalkeeper, Baxley is hard at work at Richmond and Richmond Community College getting ready for college. He’s enrolled in three clusters, having already finished the STEM cluster, which is involved with science and technology. He’s also taking classes to complete his Advanced Placement and RichmondCC clusters.
This fall, Baxley is taking Art Appreciation, Calculus I, Microeconomics and Psychology at RichmondCC. At the high school, he’s the secretary of the Junior Leadership Senate and also takes AP Chemistry with Mr. Matthew Learn.
“For me, RCC has allowed me to get college credits before I go off to school,” Baxley explained. “I’m thankful to get two years out of the way, and it’s nice that I don’t have to pay for my RCC classes.
“It may surprise people, but I really enjoy AP Chemistry,” he added. “I like Mr. Learn as a teacher, and we just started a new unit on periodic trends and electo-negativity.”
Other clubs around school he’s involved in are the National Beta Club and the National Honor Society. Baxley boasts a 4.7037 GPA, which puts him ranked No. 6 in this year’s class. He was a junior marshal last year and says he enjoys being a member of the Bleacher Creatures student section.
Future Plans: His liking of AP Chemistry stems from what Baxley hopes to pursue a career in — chemical engineering. His plan is to attend North Carolina State University, which he called one of the “best engineering schools in the country.”
“My brother’s a chemical engineer and works with pharmaceuticals for animals,” he explained. “I fell in love with it that way, and my mom, Rosemary Baxley, is a purchasing manager at Trinity Manufacturing, and I’ve gotten to meet and talk with some of the chemical engineers there.”
Although N.C. State is his top choice, Baxley has applied to the University of Georgia, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC-Charlotte. He’s also a Park and Morehead-Cain scholarships finalist.
Athlete of the Week Stats: Last week, the Raiders needed to end their regular season with back-to-back wins to try and sneak into the postseason. While the Raiders are still on the outside looking in, Baxley did his part in keeping Seventy-First and Scotland high schools off the board.
Richmond recorded shutouts in the wins over the Falcons and Fighting Scots, seeing Baxley’s efforts of block shots, force bad angles and limit scoring opportunities for both teams. The game at home against Scotland was senior night, which saw Baxley and his dozen senior teammates honored ahead of the game.
Coach’s Corner: Chris Larsen has been with Baxley both years he’s been on varsity, and said he commends his senior player for sticking out the rough times so he could play quality minutes as an upperclassmen. Larsen recalled Baxley not making the team as a freshman.
“After he didn’t make the team, he put in the work and came back as a 10th grader,” Larsen said. “He saw limited action last year as a junior, but he’s stepped in big and earned my confidence in the back to take over for Evan Hudson. He’s done a great job helping Drew Davis out.
“Evan has never given up, and that’s turned into him and Drew complementing each other,” he added. “He does a good job in the middle. Last week he did more stepping and marking up and winning the ball. Evan has done a lot better job winning the first ball and killing a rush before it gets to our last line of defense.”
Raider Video Chats: Evan Baxley, Official Richmond County Male Athlete of the Week
New this season is our “Raider Video Chats” segment that allows student-athletes to connect with fans and readers through video interviews. In his video, Baxley talks about Richmond’s late-season push, his final season as a Raider, and answers questions in our “Rapid Raider Response” segment.
Click photo for video.
