1Carteret: Students. Sports. Success.

1000 Words

These photos, each of which says a thousand words, have been sent in recently by One Carteret sports fans.

Band of Brothers

Thrill of Victory!

Bold Moves in Soccer

The high school soccer post-season is in full bloom. The CHS Cougars have advanced to the sweet sixteen in the 2A Eastern Conference by defeating South Brunswick 2-0.

Here’s a link to the soccer post-season bracketology.

Middle School Volleyball Underway

The season is underway, as the girls on seven middle school volleyball teams learn the fundamentals of bump…set…spike!

Pamlico has jumped out to an early lead on the standings board with Bulldogs of Broad Creek nipping at their heels.

Middle school football standings are finalized with BMS pulling off a big victory to end the season.  Be on the lookout for soccer which cranks up on Nov 1.

MRSA Workshop for Coaches

On Wednesday, October 31, 2007, I will be hosting a meeting for all school custodians, contract custodians, athletic directors and coaches. This meeting will take place from 1:30 * 2:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of West Carteret High School, and the subject will be Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).

Brad Sneeden, Superintendent

MNF

Due to rain and other postponements, we have a generous slate of football games on tap for Monday, October 29.

• Pamlico vs. ECHS  (Homecoming)
• Washington JVs vs. WCHS JVs (last home game)
• CHS vs. South Lenoir
• BMS vs. BCMS

Cross country, golf, and tennis are winding down.  Here’s an Extra! Extra! from the CHS Sports Network:

Tennis State:  Christine Conti and Kathryn Gould

Finish in the Top Eight

Cross Country: Girl’s Team wins Regional Title

Cross Country All-Region: Erin Piner (4th Time), Kayla Baker, and Kendra

Dorn

Soccer: Team finishes 2nd in the Conference

WCHS Reaches Elite Eight

On August 16 and 17, we held Coaches Workshops at the Civic Center. The theme was “One Carteret.” Sure, we knew we would compete against each other during the seasons, and it would be every dog for himself.

But the post-season runs represent county athletics as a whole. We all shared in the magic last year of some great runs by ECHS football, girls basketball, and volleyball. And the CHS girls basketball team represented the county well in the post-season.

Here’s one for all to support this season…

Kudos to the West Carteret High School Volleyball team for reaching the Elite Eight in the 3A East playoffs. The Lady Patriots are still in it with D. H. Conley, West Brunswick, South Central, Eastern Alamance, Triton, Rocky Mount, and Webb.

West will face off against a scrappy South Central on 10/25 in Pitt County for the rights to continue. Way to go, Coaches Henderson and Woodson. Go get ‘em, girls!

Personal Hygiene and Routine Cleaning

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a virulent strain of staph infection that has been around a long time. Recent news reports indicate that MRSA is on the rise. It is spread via physical contact.

Last week, Carteret County Schools sent home a MRSA brochure to all families. I draw your attention to the guidelines listed in the Sports Teams section:

• Immediately after each game, meet or practice, shower with soap and water.
• Keep abrasions or cuts covered with a clean dry bandage. Change bandage at least daily.
• Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, razors, soap, or deodorant.
• Use a barrier (e.g. clothing or towel) between your skin and shared equipment.
• Wipe down surfaces of equipment or gear before and after use with alcohol or approved anti-bacterial solution.
• Report suspicious lesions to the school nurse / coach / manager immediately.
• Athletes with draining wounds should not participate in contact sports uless the abrasion or cut can be covered with a clean dry bandage.

Here is further guidance on equipment from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health:

• Wash towels, uniforms, scrimmage shirts, and any other laundry in hot water and ordinary detergent, and dry on the hottest cycle after each use. Inform parents of these precautions if laundry is sent home (laundry must be in an impervious container or plastic bag for transporting home).
• Avoid whirlpools or common hot tubs, especially when having open wounds, scrapes, or scratches.
• Inform their coach or athletic trainer if they think they have a skin infection.

In addition, develop procedures for cleaning athletic area and equipment, and educating staff and athletes about these procedures:

• Clean the athletic area and sports equipment routinely—at least weekly—using a commercial disinfectant or a fresh (mixed daily) solution of 1 part bleach to 100 parts water (1 tablespoon bleach to 1 quart of water).
• Clean mats and other high-use equipment before each practice and several times a day throughout a tournament, using a commercial disinfectant or a fresh (mixed daily) solution of 1 part bleach to 100 parts water (1 tablespoon bleach to 1 quart of water).

This is worthy of downloading and printing:  Comprehensive Procedures on Equipment Sanitation (Univeristy of Maryland Sports Medicine Staph and MRSA in Athletics: Recognition and Prevention, 2007).

A Case For Coaches Education

I am committed to bringing the National Federation of High School’s Fundamentals of Coaching workshop to Carteret County on February 18. Like all professionals, coaches need their saws sharpened too. Coaches Ed will help new coaches collapse the learning curve. It will help cagey veterans learn a few new tricks.

A recent News-Times article entitled “Conley Coach Gone after Altercation at West” speaks to how far a situation can devolve when coaching goes south.

The coach’s dismissal apparently came as a result of the coach’s behavior after the game when he helped engineer the celebration at midfield that was labeled “unprofessional” by West coach Ben Emmons.

“The coach was way out of hand,” Emmons noted. “It has not just been us, it has gone on a few other places where other schools have had a lot of problems with them.”

“It was very unprofessional about what happened after the game, running their mouths at me and the fans in the parking lot. The guy that started it all was the assistant coach, not the head coach.”

Pitt County Schools athletic director Bob Dailey said of the Conley assistant coach: “He is not with the team for the rest of the season. We are trying to move on in a positive way. We try to promote good sportsmanship, and we did some things internally to ensure that.”

You just never know where and when breakdowns in organized athletics will occur. Therefore, you can never be proactive enough in ensuring that the fundamentals of coaching are in place for every sport in every season.

Winning Isn’t Everything

Indeed, inter-scholastic athletes can gain so much from being a part of a sports team in a thriving program. Athletic contexts give students a chance to test some necessary life skills: teamwork, commitment, drive, determination, endurance, belief, humility, grace, respect, confidence—among others. Truly, all who participate in sports can be winners who gain winning qualities.

That said, being ahead on the scoreboard helps to make good seasons great. From the school websites, here’s a rundown of teams who are posting their share of wins during the fall sports seasons:

• MMS Girls Soccer (8-0-1)
• BCMS Girls Soccer (7-1-1)
• MMS Football (3-1)
• BCMS Football (2-1)
• CHS Soccer (11-5-2)
• Croatan Cross Country
• Croatan Volleyball (14-5)
• WCHS JV Football (5-3)
• WCHS Volleyball (Advancing to 2nd round of playoffs)
• WCHS Cross Country
• South African Springboks (2007 Rugby World Cup Champions)

. . . and the middle school volleyball season starts this week!

Battle of the Heavyweights (Middle School Football)

On October 17, two undefeated football teams went toe-to-toe at Bulldog Field. Pamlico came into the game with a 3-0 record, and Broad Creek came in at 2-0.

The final score was PMS 14 and BCMS 6. Dwayne J. scored the TD for BCMS.

It was a great hard fought game, and it was the first time BCMS has been scored on.  BCMS has scored 91 points this year so for and had 14 scored on them.

Coach Coppa is ” proud of the heart the Bulldogs had during the game.”

Here is the remaining schedule and current records for middle school football.