ROCKINGHAM — Thursday was Halloween, but it wasn’t all tricks and treats for several of Richmond Senior High School winter sports programs.
The holiday marked the second official day of the North Carolina High School Athletic Associations’s winter sports season, and it was the first day for several of Richmond’s teams to conduct tryouts.
While many of Richmond’s six winter programs have been conducting offseason workouts the past couple of weeks, the boys’ and girls’ basketball programs hosted their first full day of tryouts in the school’s gym.
Second-year Lady Raiders’ head coach Teddy Moseley and roughly 30 female players practiced and conditioned for two hours, only to be followed by third-year Raiders’ head coach Donald Pettigrew and the boys’ team.
Both squads are looking to replace a couple of key players from last season, but have a handful of rising seniors and underclassmen ready to fill the void. As his players ran agility drills during the first hour of practice, Moseley reiterated he “loves the energy of this year’s group.”
Basketball tryouts for both teams will continue Friday before kicking off official practice later next week.
Also in the gym on Thursday was the Raider wrestling team and veteran coach Earl Nicholson. Working out along the upper concourse, approximately 25 hopeful wrestlers went through a series of pushups, situps and other core workouts, along with running around the back half of campus, led by returning senior Austin Gallops.
Nicholson and the Raiders will continue their official preseason regiment Mondays through Thursdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Fridays will consist of just one-hour practices from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The final three programs, boys’ and girls’ bowling, boys’ and girls’ swimming and girls’ indoor track will all convene starting Monday.
Third-year swimming head coach Mike Way will hold tryouts at FirstHealth Fitness on Monday and Tuesday beginning at 6 p.m. As the program enters its third year, both the Raider and Lady Raider teams bring back some experienced swimmers, but will need to replace the likes of about a half a dozen seniors from last year.
Bowling, coached by Ralph Butler, and indoor track, coached by Reggie Miller, will see tryouts run Monday through Wednesday. Anyone interested in bowling should report to Strikers Bowling Alley in Rockingham. Indoor track, which is strictly a girls’ team, will run tryouts the same three days beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the high school.
Any Richmond student-athlete wanting to participate must have an updated athletic packet, physical and conconcussion form on file. For more information, call the RSHS at 910-997-9812.
