By Richard Walker Sam Darnold’s return to action was a triumphant one for the Carolina Panthers as they defeated the Denver Broncos 23-10 on Sunday at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. Out since the 2022 preseason finale, Darnold became the third starting quarterback for the Panthers this season and directed a run-heavy offensive attack to […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb will set school history on Saturday in its 5 p.m. Football Championship Series (FCS) playoff game at Eastern Kentucky. It marks the Bulldogs’ first FCS playoff game and sixth national playoff game in its history. Previously, Gardner-Webb participated in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) playoffs twice – both times […]
By Richard Walker Conference champion Forestview received the most selections on the Big South 3A all-conference soccer team with six. Top individual honors went to North Gaston’s Braydon Johnson (offensive player of the year), Joan Bonilla (goalie of the year) and Jonathan Reed (coach of the year) and South Point’s Graham Williams (defensive player of […]
By Richard Walker New Charlotte 49ers head football coach Francis “Biff” Poggi was officially introduced to fans and the media on Monday. And Poggi talked about the 49ers and College Football Playoff. “The American Athletic Conference is an unbelieveable league,” Poggi said. “It’s the best ‘Group of 5’ conference in the country. As the College […]
By Richard Walker One of the area’s most prominent softball players recently received arguably the highest honor he has ever received with induction into the 41st annual National Softball Hall of Fame. Kings Mountain’s Rusty Bumgardner was among 11 inductees on Nov. 12 in a ceremony held in Shreveport, La. A 1987 Kings Mountain High […]
By Richard Walker It was a nailbiting finish in three of the area’s four high school football playoff games on Friday night as Burns, Kings Mountain and South Point took dramatic victories. Burns scored the game-winning touchdown with 1:30 to play in a 24-20 win over visiting Salisbury, Kings Mountain scored with 6.7 seconds left […]
By Richard Walker Entering this year’s state high school football playoffs, there was a sense that Cleveland County teams could have a special year. After all, it was the fifth straight season all four teams had made the playoffs. Entering Friday’s third round, it’s yet another banner year for the county – and has a […]
By Richard Walker After finishing with the best regular season record in the 2022 Atlantic League of Professional Baseball schedule, the Gastonia Honey Hunters have announced their 2023 schedule. The Honey Hunters won both halves of the Southern Division races with records of 45-21 in the first half and 43-23 in the second half beofe […]
By Richard Walker Perhaps the strangest Charlotte 49ers’ football season in the school’s 10-year history comes to an end on Saturday in what promises to be an emotional 3:30 p.m. matchup against Louisiana Tech. Five graduate players, 13 redshirt seniors and two true seniors will be honored before the game in their home finale which […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb has a chance at history this Saturday in its regular season finale that has become a championship game for the Big South Conference. The Bulldogs, who started the season 1-4 against a challenging schedule, have bounced back win four wins in the last five games of the season for a shot […]
By Richard Walker North Carolina clinched its spot in the upcoming ACC championship game on Saturday night one week after Clemson wrapped up its spot. In the final year of divisional play, each team enters the final two weeks of the regular season with unbeaten league records; North Carolina is 6-0 in the ACC’s Coastal […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain continued their school-best start to a season with an impressive 42-0 win over Smoky Mountain on Friday in the second round of the N.C. Class 3A state playoffs. The Mountaineers, now 12-0, got three touchdown passes from Lamont Littlejohn – two to Caleb Holland and one to JaQualyn Sanders – […]
By Richard Walker Burns defied history Thursday with an impressive 42-0 win over visiting rival Shelby in the second round of the N.C. Class 2A playoffs on Thursday night. The Bulldogs moved on to third round of the playoffs as they beat Shelby for the second time in three weeks. It marks only the third […]
By Richard Walker When Shelby visits Burns in a second round playoff game on Thursday in the N.C. 2A bracket, it’ll continue a Golden Lions’ tradition that proved quite successful. It’s because Shelby is facing a team in the postseason that it has played in the regular season for the 28th time. Since in-season improvement […]
By Richard Walker Seventeen players from Cleveland and Gaston counties are on the roster of the West team for the 2022 Queen City Senior Bowl. The game will be played on Dec. 17 at noon at Charlotte’s Olympic High School and pits Charlotte-area players divided by East and West against one another. The local players […]
By Richard Walker A pair of Lincoln County high school soccer teams have advanced to the Western N.C. semifinals after Monday night victories. East Lincoln defeated St. Stephens 3-1 in Class 3A, giving the Mustangs (18-4-3) a fourth round appearance for the fourth time in fifth seasons; East Lincoln will play at top-seeded Asheboro on […]
By Richard Walker After a home win and heartbreaking defeat in the previous two weeks, there were lots of reasons for Carolina Panthers’ fans to harbor hopes of another good effort from their team on Sunday. Instead, the Panthers had one of their worst efforts in franchise history in a 42-21 loss at the defending […]
By Richard Walker Shelby High set a state record on Friday in its 30-13 opening round Class 2A state playoff victory at Forest Hills. The Golden Lions have now won 28 straight first round state playoff games to snap a tie they had shared with Thomasville (1982-2012) and Crest (1993-2019). Shelby has won opening round […]
By Richard Walker As the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs begin on Friday, it marks the 13th time in history – and fourth year in a row – that all four Cleveland County teams are in the state football playoffs. The previous 12 years came in 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, […]
By Richard Walker Former Shelby High star Dax Hollifield was named Defender of the Nation on Monday by the Charlotte Touchdown Club. Hollifield, a sixth-year senior at Virginia Tech, won an award that goes to players from the nation’s service academies and senior military colleges that include Air Force, Army West Point, The Citadel, Coast […]
By Richard Walker A week ago, it appeared the Charlotte 49ers’ football program was in disarray. Not only had the 49ers’ head coach Will Healy been fired, but the team’s statistical rankings were all at the bottom of the conference and nation. And they had a 1-7 overall record and 0-4 Conference USA record after […]
By Richard Walker Two days after an overtime victory over the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, the Charlotte Hornets appeared in great position to win a second straight contest that would give them a winning record for the first month of the season. Instead, a 15-point halftime lead wasn’t enough for Charlotte to hold […]
By Richard Walker In their 28-year history, the Carolina Panthers have had their share of heartbreaking losses. Sunday’s 37-34 overtime loss at Atlanta has to rank right up there as one of the most heartbreaking. The Panthers fell to 8-20 all-time in Atlanta in a game in which it held a fourth-quarter lead and were […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain and Burns won county rival regular season finales to clinch unbeaten conference title runs on Friday night. Kings Mountain won 35-20 at Crest and Burns knocked off visiting Shelby 27-14. It gives Kings Mountain an unbeaten regular season (10-0) and a likely No. 1 seed in the Western 3A bracket […]
By Richard Walker Two of the biggest rivalries in Gaston County history will highlight a schedule that ends the 2022 regular season. And part of why they’re such huge rivalries is that they are huge even when a league title isn’t on the line. Bessemer City against Cherryville is the oldest of the two rivalries […]
By Richard Walker Former high school teammates will be on opposite sides of a nationally-televised ACC game on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN when N.C. State hosts Virginia Tech. For N.C. State (5-2, 1-2), Jaylon Scott (Shelby 2019 graduate) has 15 tackles in seven games. And for Virginia Tech (2-5, 1-3), Dax Hollifield […]
By Richard Walker Former Piedmont Community Charter and Kings Mountain High standout Adrian Delph was selected last weekend as the No. 22 overall pick in the G League Draft. Delph, who played collegiately at Appalachian State, was selected by the College Park Skyhawks; College Park is the G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks’ organization. […]
By Richard Walker One of the oldest axioms in the National Football League is that NFL says that any team can win on “Any Given Sunday.” After a second straight turbulent week on and off the field, the Carolina Panthers proved that Sunday with an unexpected 21-3 blowout loss of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain and East Lincoln improved to 8-0 on the season with large wins on Friday night. Kings Mountain won 63-24 at Cramer as Teddy Jeffries tied a school record with five touchdowns. Jeffries tied the five touchdowns scored by Kenny Bell (1977 against Burns), Joe Chambers (2008 against East Gaston), Da’Shon […]
By Richard Walker Cherryville American Legion Post 100 has had a tough last couple of weeks. Just this past week, a former star baseball player and a former player and longtime baseball official have died. It comes a month after longtime Fraley Field scoreboard operator Darise Hartman died at 89 on Sept. 15 Former star […]
By Richard Walker Shelby High’s Aubrey Hollifield will set local high school football history when he’s an assistant coach for the North Carolina team in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas on Dec. 17 at Spartanburg, S.C., High’s Vikings Stadium. Hollifield, who played in the 1986 Shrine Bowl game as a Kings Mountain senior, will […]
By Richard Walker Two Cleveland County and Lincoln County players and one from Gaston County were named to the roster of the North Carolina team for the 2022 Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas team on Sunday. The event, which has been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, will return this year on […]
By Richard Walker When Kings Mountain hosts South Point on Friday, it’ll renew a rivalry that is one of the oldest in each school’s history. A series that began in 1924 will have some high stakes as the winner will take sole possession of first place in the league with three games to play. Belmont/South […]
By Richard Walker The 2022 Gaston County Conference middle school football championship game has been set after an upset in Division I. Unbeaten Belmont (7-0) will host Holbrook (5-1) next Wednesday at 6 p.m. with gates opening at South Point’s Lineberger Stadium at 5:15 p.m. Belmont recorded its fifth straight shutout to finish 5-0 in […]
By Richard Walker Cramerton won its fifth Gaston County Conference middle school golf championship in six seasons on Tuesday at Green Meadows Golf Course in Mount Holly. Belmont’s Will Monteith was the individual medalist for the second straight year with a 37 that was one shot ahead of five other golfers in the field. Cramerton […]
By Richard Walker Former Burns High and Cherryville American Legion Post 100 standout Christopher Proctor was a part of a professional baseball championship team. Proctor and the Lancaster Barnstormers won the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball title following series wins over Southern Maryland and High Point. A 2015 Burns High graduate, Proctor hit .243 […]
By Richard Walker The Cherryville American Legion Post 100 baseball family has had a rough couple of weeks following the death of longtime scoreboard operator Darise Hartman. Hartman died on Sept. 15 at 89 with one of the greatest attendance streaks in Legion baseball history; Hartman attended the American Legion World Series for 34 straight […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain and South Point set up the area’s biggest game of the regular season for next week with impressive Thursday night victories in Big South 3A Conference play. With games moved up from Friday to Thursday due to Hurricane Ian’s projected Friday rainfall in the area, Kings Mountain routed Forestview 48-7 […]
By Richard Walker When Crest visits South Point on Friday, it’ll again be a game with huge Big South 3A Conference title implications. It also reminds us of one of the first huge football meetings between the two schools that came on a day when another sport shined just as brightly. When Crest played and […]
By Richard Walker Local standouts continue having impressive college football seasons last Saturday, including one that set a league record. Former Shelby High record-setting quarterback Isaiah Bess completed the longest touchdown pass in Big South Conference history for Charleston Southern in last Saturday’s 24-19 home loss to Furman. Bess, who set the Shelby High and […]
By Richard Walker The Charlotte Hornets are back – and so is former head coach Steve Clifford. Clifford, hired for a second tenure as the team’s head coach earlier this summer, begins training camp on Tuesday morning with its first practice as the team prepares for a 5-game preseason slate that begins Sunday at 1 […]
By Richard Walker Two long losing streaks are over the Carolina Panthers. A league-worst nine-game losing streak? Done. A seven-game home winning streak that dated to Sept. 19, 2021 and made it the second-longest in franchise history? Also ended. Carolina wiped those streaks away with a defensive-minded 22-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints at […]
By Richard Walker Four teams from Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties entered Friday’s sixth week of the high school football season with unbeaten records. After Friday’s results, three remain unbeaten as East Lincoln, Kings Mountain and South Point won comfortably to each improve to 4-0 while West Lincoln couldn’t hold a late lead before losing […]
By Richard Walker Lincolnton High faces its third-oldest existing rivalry when the Wolves host Newton-Conover on Friday. Lincolnton first met “Newton” in 1929 – or 12 years before “Newton-Conover” was formed. And the Wolves hold a 32-26-3 all-time lead in the series that includes a 20-0 win in that inaugural matchup at Love Field in […]
By Richard Walker After blitzing Atlantic League of Professional Baseball opponents all season long, the Gastonia Honey Hunters will need to win twice this weekend to advance to the league championship series. The High Point Rockers evened the best-of-five Southern Division playoff series at one game apiece following Wednesday’s 11-4 victory at CaroMont Health Park […]
By Richard Walker The Gastonia Honey Hunters routed the High Point Rockers 12-1 on Monday night in the first game of the best-of-five Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Southern Division championship series at Gastonia’s CaroMont Health Park. Gastonia, which went 88-44 in the regular and won the first- and second-half divisional titles, snapped a 1-all […]
By Richard Walker The Gastonia Honey Hunters just completed one of the best seasons in the city’s long professional baseball history. On Tuesday at 6:15 p.m., the Honey Hunters open their bid for Gastonia’s seventh pro baseball league championship when they begin a best-of-five Atlantic League of Professional Baseball semifinal series against the High Point […]
By Richard Walker When Cramer opened in 2013, since the school was so close to South Point, it seemed natural that the schools would soon become rivals. Well, as the ninth renewal of the series opens Big South 3A Conference play for both teams at Cramer on Friday night, the host Storm still seek its […]
By Richard Walker Gaston County Conference middle school football teams moved into their second week of divisional competition while the Tri-County Conference opened division play on Wednesday. Here are results from both leagues: GASTON COUNTY CONFERENCE Standings through Sept. 14 with division records followed by overall records: (Division I) Cramerton 1-0, 3-0 Southwest 1-0, 2-1 […]
By Richard Walker With the Charlotte 49ers enduring the school’s second-worst start in the program’s brief college football history, head coach Will Healy remains confident better days are ahead. “You’ve got to maintain positivity in the building,” Healy said during Tuesday’s weekly news conference. “I have to believe we’re making positive strides. What you have […]
By Richard Walker Former Grier Middle School and Ashbrook High standout Isaiah Whaley has been signed to a contract with the Charlotte Hornets, the team announced on Monday. Joining Whaley as Hornets signees to their upcoming training camp roster were Jalen Crutcher, Anthony Duruji and Charlotte’s Jaylen Sims. Whaley, who helped Ashbrook to the 2015 […]
By Richard Walker One of the area’s oldest rivalries highlights the lightest regular season playing date of the high school football season as most teams are off in preparation of starting league play next week. At Cherryville’s Rudisill Stadium, the Ironmen will host Chase in the 46th renewal of a rivalry that began in 1959. […]
By Richard Walker Local history was made on Wednesday when the first East Lincoln High product was called up to the major leagues. Alec Burleson, a 2017 East Lincoln graduate, was promoted to the St. Louis Cardinals major league roster after having the best season of his professional baseball career. Ranked the No.5 prospect in […]
By Richard Walker The Charlotte 49ers could have a third starting quarterback in three games later this week. But after an 0-2 start and the starters on each of the first two games limited in practice, 49ers head coach Will Healy wouldn’t name a starter for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. home game against Maryland. “I don’t […]
By Richard Walker Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson will be at Gastonia’s CaroMont Health Park on Friday for a meet and greet with fans from 5 to 6 p.m. before the Gastonia Honey Hunters’ game against Lexington. Johnson, who led Michigan State to the 1979 NCAA championship and the Los Angeles Lakers to […]
By Richard Walker There was so much to unpack from Friday’s Crest-Shelby thriller that it’s hard to know where to start in this week’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” high school edition for this week. Crest’s dramatic 54-49 victory in the 54th matchup of a series marked by defense fell just two points shy of a Cleveland […]
By Richard Walker Five former local standouts were involved the highest-scoring NCAA Division I football game in the history of both programs on Saturday when North Carolina outlasted Appalachian State 63-61. In front of a record Kidd Brewer Stadium crowd of 40,168, the teams combined for 62 points and 504 yards in the fourth alone. […]
By Richard Walker Many call the Crest-Shelby rivalry the best in the state given how many times each school has won state championships. It’s most often been a defensive struggle over the years. That wasn’t the case in Friday’s renewal in the series. In the highest-scoring game in the 54-game history of the series, Crest […]
By Richard Walker Two of the five NFL players from Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties survived Tuesday’s cut day – and one who didn’t was retained on his team’s practice squad on Wednesday. Two of the three who survived cuts are on the Minnesota Vikings roster – seventh-year defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard (Crest 2012 graduate) […]
By Richard Walker If the Charlotte 49ers are to break into the win column in Friday’s 2022 home opener, they’ll be doing it without their school-leader in quarterback starts and quarterback victories. Charlotte head coach Will Healy announced Chris Reynolds wouldn’t play in Friday’s 7 p.m. home opener against William & Mary due to an […]