Prep notebook: Riverside’s Palmer glad to coach his alma mater

Durham Riverside wrestling coach Brandon Palmer said it is an awesome feeling to coach at his alma mater and see Pirates wrestlers in the thick of championship matches.

Palmer succeeded his coach, Walt Tolarchyk, at the school five years ago. The Pirates won the Class 4A state title during Palmer’s senior year in 2002 and added a championship in 2004 as younger brother Colton Palmer set national records for falls and victories. He still holds the state record for wins, with 284 from 2003-2007.

The program had not been as dominant in recent years and when Tolarchyk retired, he hoped someone with ties to the most successful programs would take the helm. Brandon Palmer, who was moving back from Iowa where he had been a two-time NAIA national qualifier at William Penn University, jumped at the opportunity.

“Coach T wanted someone to coach who loved the program as much as he did and he knew I did,’ said Brandon Palmer.”“When I came back, I knew that if I could be half as good as Coach T then I’d be great.”

Palmer turned to old teammate Broc Dickerson to begin the rebuilding process at the school. Dickerson was coaching at Carrington Middle.

“I hadn’t spoken to Broc since high school,” Palmer said. “But Coach T called to let me know he was coaching at Carrington and I should give him a call. I wanted us to coach together. We are sort of co-coaches.”

The Pirates reached the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A semifinals this season before losing to eventual dual-team champion Fayetteville Jack Britt.

The NCHSAA individual tournament opens with regional competition on Friday and Saturday. The individual championships will be Feb. 19- 21.

Goodbye gym: Princeton may have played its final varsity basketball game last week in its home since 1957. The Bulldogs (7-13 overall, 5-7 in Carolina 1A) won their final regular-season home game, downing North Duplin 77-44.

Princeton is scheduled to play next season in a new gym scheduled to be built next door.

Coach Jeff Davis, who is in his 12th year coaching at Princeton, is excited about a modern gym and he knows it is a big improvement for the school. But he’ll miss the current gym with its six row high bleachers.

“I’m going to miss this atmosphere,” Davis said. “We had a pretty good crowd ... but even when we have a small crowd, it’s a great atmosphere because it’s so small and loud. It’s a really big home court advantage.

“It was good to go out with it like this.”

The Bulldogs’ Michael Wooten scored 25 points in the win to become the sixth boys player to score 1,000 career points.

Mustangs rally: Middle Creek rallied from a five-point deficit with 15 seconds left to beat Fuquay-Varina 56-53 in a Southwest Wake Athletic Conference 4A basketball game on Jan. 30.

Middle Creek hit a 3-pointer, stole the inbounds pass, converted a three-point play, forced another inbounds turnover then hit two more free throws. The Mustangs went from down five to up three in eight seconds.

They’ve won four straight including a 78-37 win over Holly Springs and an 85-41 win over Athens Drive last week.

O’Neal swims: Southern Pines O’Neal School won the Eastern Plains 2A Independent Conference swimming titles last week. O’Neal nipped Cary Christian 343-322 for the boys title and Grace Christian Raleigh 374-340 for the girls crown.

Michael Held and J. Mike Blake contributed.

This story was originally published February 9, 2015 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Riverside’s Palmer glad to coach his alma mater."