ROCKINGHAM — Normally reserved for the month of June, ROSports will begin its third annual “Top 10 Sports Stories of the Year” countdown this week.
With the high school sports year beginning without any issues, and finishing with the NCHSAA suspending the spring sports season until further notice, this year’s list will be limited to mostly fall and winter sports.
Richmond’s athletics department had another successful year in over a dozen different programs that got to play a full season. The seven spring sports programs only got two weeks’ worth of playing time due to the coronavirus.
The Richmond Observer will release its top 10 sports stories one at a time, counting down from 10 to one. Each story will contain a brief synopsis of events, and include the original publication for readers’ enjoyment.
In a year that saw Richmond take part in its third season of the Sandhills Athletic Conference, the varsity football team won its second straight conference championship under third-year head coach Bryan Till.
The Raiders also took down the Scotland High School Fighting Scots for the second consecutive season to lock up the conference title, and forged ahead to a fourth-round appearance in the NCHSAA state playoffs, one game away from playing for a state championship.
The varsity volleyball and boys’ basketball programs qualified for the 4A state playoffs, while the wrestling, bowling, and girls’ golf teams sent representatives to the state tournament as well.
The past school year was also filled with exciting moments on and off the playing surface for Richmond’s student-athletes, as multiple athletes signed letters of intent to continue their careers at the collegiate level.
That included seeing over a dozen football players on National Signing Day in February, and several underclassmen verbally committing to play their respective sports at the college level.
Two of whom were junior softball players Kearston Bruce (Bridgewater) and Payton Chapell (Methodist), and two more being junior football players Caleb Hood (UNC) and Jakolbe Baldwin (NC State).
Also, several new head coaches were announced, including new athletic director and baseball coach Rob Ransom. Jessie Covington was introduced as the girls’ cross country coach, Neely Herndon took over girls’ tennis and Mike Way saw his first season as the head of the softball program cut short.
Head wrestling coach Earl Nicholson stepped down after 26 years of service, and Reggie Miller ended his long-tenured run as the boys’ cross country coach to focus on indoor and outdoor track and field.
The ROSports department has analyzed each program’s individual season, and has chosen its top stories based on the prominence of each game/match in terms of importance to the season’s outcome, player performance and overall excitement and intensity.
The No. 10 story will be published in the Tuesday, April 21 edition.
