Prep notebook: Pinecrest mourns loss of football player

Pinecrest High is mourning the loss of 16-year-old Mason Wagner, who was a varsity football, wrestling and track and field athlete. Wagner drowned Friday night.

“He would be dropped off every day at 5:15 a.m., his mom had to work at 5:30 and help us set up and take a nap,” football coach Chris Metzger said. “Just a gem of a kid, a sweet kid. He’s going to be missed. Mason was a tremedous leader, tough as nails. I can’t say enough great things about him.”

A Pinecrest teammate set up a GoFundMe page where others can donate to Wagner’s family to help cover the funeral costs.

As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday evening, almost $21,000 had been raised.

Fall sports begin: Monday is the first official day of the N.C. High School Athletic Association fall sports season, which includes football, cross country, boys soccer, volleyball, girls golf and girls tennis. Some N.C. Independent Athletic Association teams kicked off their season over the weekend.

Area cross country and girls golf previews will run in Sunday’s edition of The News & Observer.

TV games: At least two area high school football games will be televised live on TWC SportsChannel this fall: Southern Durham at Cardinal Gibbons on Aug. 25 and Fuquay-Varina at Middle Creek on Oct. 13.

Both games are moved to Thursdays and will start at 7:30 p.m. per NCHSAA rules for live football games. Last year was the first season where select basketball and football games were allowed to be broadcast live over the air, though many schools have streamed games online.

Austin Brice: Northwood alumnus Austin Brice made his Major League Baseball debut on Friday, pitching one inning of scoreless relief for the Miami Marlins against the Chicago White Sox. He struck out two, including the first batter he faced.

Brice, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound right-hander, was drafted by the Marlins in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB Draft.

NCrunners rankings: Cardinal Gibbons’ girls and Broughton’s boys were ranked No. 1 in the preseason cross country rankings by NCrunners.com, a fantastic resource for fans of track and field and cross country. Gibbons won the 4A girls title last year, while Broughton was runner-up.

The top 25 rankings were flush with Triangle teams.

On the boys’ side: 1. Broughton; 2. Green Hope; 3. Cardinal Gibbons; 5. Cary Academy; 6. Apex; 7. Chapel Hill; 8. Panther Creek; 9. Jordan; 12. Holly Springs; 13. East Chapel Hill; 15. Apex Friendship; 17. Durham Academy; 19. Cary; 22. Millbrook; 24. Raleigh Charter.

For the girls: 1. Cardinal Gibbons; 2. Chapel Hill; 3. Green Hope; 5. Cary Academy; 6. Apex; 7. Broughton; 12. Leesville Road; 20. Wake Forest.

Coaches’ polls: The N&O conducted various area football coaches’ polls with area conferences. Coaches for the most part, picked conference champions to defend, like Middle Creek (Southwest Wake 4A), Garner (Greater Neuse 4A), Wake Forest (Cap-8), Southern Durham (Big 8 3A), Rocky Mount (Big East 3A) and Cleveland (Two Rivers 3A).

The exception was the PAC-6 4A, where Northern Durham is picked to unseat Hillside.

This story was originally published August 14, 2016 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Pinecrest mourns loss of football player."