1Carteret: Students. Sports. Success.

Braggin’ Rights Settled for Girls

The girls high school basketball competition for local bragging rights is settled.

• Croatan Cougars have jumped out to a 10-0 start, beating East twice and West thrice. They own the bragging rights this year and are setting themselves up to be a very interesting sports story. Stay tuned.
• The young West Carteret Patriots went 2-1 against East and 0-3 against Croatan for a combined record of 2-4.
• The rebuilding East Carteret Mariners went 0-2 against Croatan and 1-2 against West for a 1-4 record.  East grabbed some value points, however, by winning the Holiday Classic.  They took out West in the first round and avenged an earlier loss to Grammercy in the championship game.

Grammercy, the new kid in town, is certainly one to watch.  Grammercy, with a pool of only about 40 high school girls from which to select a team, beat East and West during regular season play.

Hat’s off to all the girls playing high school hoops in Carteret County, their coaches, and their fans/supporters.  Now it is on to conference play!

Broad Creek Wins Soccer Title

Couple an awesome display of firepower with an unyielding defense. Add seasoned soccer coaches and a culture of soccer excellence. What do you get?

Broad Creek Middle School turned in another undefeated 9-0 soccer season to retain the Crystal Coast Athletic Conference middle school soccer championship.

The Bulldogs outscored their opponents 86-1.

The eight 8th grade Bulldog soccer players, several of whom play at the elite classic level in club soccer, exit their two-year middle school soccer career with a perfect 18-0 record.

And knowing Coach Holland and the Broad Creek soccer tradition, the pipeline of talent remains loaded.

There is no denying that our middle schools are the feeder systems to our high school athletic programs. This perfect two-year run by Broad Creek is a harbinger of continued soccer success at Croatan for several years to come.

Congrats, Bulldogs. The Creek continues to rise in this year’s middle school athletics.

Football Champs: Pamlico
Girls Soccer Champs: Morehead Middle
Volleyball Champs: Broad Creek
Boys Soccer Champs: Broad Creek

Up next—basketball and wrestling!

Not Necessarily a School Sports Story

This is a U-14 Classic club soccer team. The girls attend Broad Creek Middle, Morehead Middle, and Tucker Creek Middle (Havelock). As their record indicates, they have a tradition of winning. But they are not a super-star, win at all costs team. The coaches develop all players as responsible and caring young citizens first, quality athletes second. The winning has been a by-product.

WCHS Avenges Loss to East

The local high school basketball season is made up of three mini-seasons. First is the settlement of local bragging rights for the year. Second is the regular conference play. Third, to the qualifiers, is the post-season journey.

In the battle for local bragging rights, WCHS Patriots shook off their demons and returned to winning form with an 81-65 domination of the ECHS Mariners on Tuesday night in the Mariner Dome.

With only one day of practice since the Friday night victory by East, WCHS Coach Craig McClanahan tinkered with the lineup. West went small and fast, went deep into the bench early, and benefited from resurgent interior prowess.

The formula proved correct as West evened the series at 1-1. This sets up some intrigue for the Holiday Classic Tournament to be held at the WCHS gym on December 26 and 27—where West, East, Croatan and Havelock will shoot it out for final say on the local bragging rights.

Here’s a highlight reel—

West Girls Sweep East in Regular Season

ECHS Wins One for the Ages

The East Carteret / West Carteret sports rivalry pre-dates Gordy Patrick. And Friday night’s East-West B-Ball shootout ranks among the classic contests in this rivalry tradition. In a double-OT battle of attrition, the fleet feet and steely nerves of East proved to be the difference over the inside height of West.

New ECHS b-ball coach Billy Anderson has his team executing the fundamentals, and that kind of discipline can win the close ones. Down the stretch, the Mariners exhibited patience on offense, scrappiness on D, and near perfection on the foul stripe.

East Carteret took all of the joyous moments from that point on as the Mariners opened the overtime period taking the lead and never gave it up. West tied the game at 56 with 1:15 to go, but turnovers, fouls and missed shots doomed the Patriots as East eked out a 59-56 win, hitting three free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.

Conversely, the Patriots—in their third OT contest of this young season— struggled at the line and inside the paint. Three Patriot starters fouled out.

“Our kids played hard,” said Patriot coach Craig McClanahan. “But like I told our kids in the locker room, you have got to knock down free throws, you have to make layups and execute on the offensive ends. You have to be able to handle pressure, and we did not do as good of a job as East Carteret did.”

True to form, the gym was packed with fans from both sides of the bridge. And, as in any storied rivalry, the fanbase wasted little time in getting into the action. In an ironic 1Carteret twist, harmony existed between the fans during the 3.5 minute halftime dance performance by the WCHS Dream Team.

Outside of that, it was classic Friday night cross-county rivalry to the nth degree on the floor and in the stands. Advantage ECHS.

“I think that when you have 30 turnovers and give up 19 offensive rebounds, you are going to lose. We lost,” McClanahan said.

Fortunately for West, the Patriots do not have to wait long to try and get their revenge. The two teams will renew the series Tuesday night at East Carteret.

“We are all going to go home and get a lot of rest and a lot of water,” said Anderson. “It is going to be another dogfight Tuesday. I am new to the area, but I know rivalries, and this is a good one.”