NCHSAA commissioner says association will return some live TV money to schools

N.C. High School Athletic Association interim commissioner Que Tucker took questions Wednesday from the Raleigh Sports Council members about, among other things, this year’s live televised football games.

Tucker said that the NCHSAA will make a recommendation to its board of directors to give the schools that host live televised games a minimum of $500 per game.

Tucker said the NCHSAA is able to use some of the money it receives from its television partnership with Time Warner Cable to help cover the costs of officiating.

“We sat down and said ‘If you’re able to get a check from this opportunity it at least would cover our officials and some the expenses to play the game,’” Tucker said. “The game was going to be played anyway, whether we broadcasted it live or not, but this is an opportunity for us to kind of give an incentive to move the game to Thursday night.”

Cary HOF: Few remaining high schools in the state can say they had a class of 1929, much less have a member in their sports hall of fame.

Cary High’s newest three-person class will welcome W.C. “Billy” Creel (class of 1929), Jeff Farwell (1982) and Suzanne Gardiner Mahar (1989). Creel will be inducted posthumously.

Farwell was the first state champion for NCHSAA Hall of Fame coach Jerry Winterton, winning the 1982 title back when there was just one wrestling champion per weight class across the state.

Mahar, who was Suzanne Gardiner in high school, won eight 4A state swimming championships and never lost an individual competition while at Cary. She went on to win an ACC title at N.C. State.

Creel was the leading scorer on the 1928-29 Imps basketball team and a letterman in football, baseball and track and field. He went on to play baseball and basketball at N.C. State College, as it was known then, and was selected for a tryout with the New York Yankees. He later was a member of the United States Navy, Cary town council and was the N.C. Department of Labor Commissioner.

The class will be inducted at halftime of Cary’s Sept. 11 home football game against Panther Creek.

Ravenscroft tournament: The oldest high school soccer tournament in the state, the 43rd annual Ravenscroft Soccer Invitational, is set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

In the opening round, which starts at 1:30 p.m. Thursday with two hours between each game, four Triangle N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association teams will play four NCISAA teams from the west.

North Raleigh Christian faces Hickory Grove followed by St. David’s against Charlotte’s Providence Day, Ravenscroft against Concord’s Cannon School and Cary Academy against High Point Christian.

Gibbons volleyball: Cardinal Gibbons found it hard to schedule nonconference games for the school’s volleyball team this fall, so it is going out of the state to fill out the schedule.

The six-time defending state champs are heading to Louisville, Ky., this weekend to play against national powers. The Crusaders cannot play teams from the Cap-8 and Southwest Wake conferences after both leagues passed bylaws earlier this year prohibiting its teams from playing private schools.

Gibbons is one of three Catholic high schools in the NCHSAA.

“Obviously, it was unfortunate how everything played out as far as trying to make the schedule this year,” Gibbons coach Logan Barber said, “but as far as coaching our kids, we just feel we should control the things we can control.”

Field hockey tournament: The annual “Play 4 the Cure” field hockey tournament is set for Friday and Saturday at Cary Academy. The tournament has raised more than $9,000 for breast cancer in the last six years.

This year’s 12-team field is broken up into four three-team pools. Following each round-robin, the pool teams will be seeded 1-3. The four No. 1 seeds will then advance to a four-team championship bracket. The four No. 2 seeds will play in the “blue bracket” and the four No. 3 seeds will play for the “gold bracket” title.

East Chapel Hill, Durham Academy, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Cardinal Gibbons, Jordan, Cary Christian and Cary Academy will represent the Triangle in the tournament.

Kaznowski resigns: Enloe lacrosse coach Chase Kaznowski is stepping down after three years to take a job in the “real world,” he said Wednesday afternoon. The 2010 Green Hope graduate will begin working in the sports traveling industry.

“I’m only 23 years old, and I accepted a job in the real world that won’t let me put as much time into (coaching),” he said. “I’m not going to do that to the kids if I can’t give it 120 percent.”

Kaznowski posted a 22-26 mark in three years with the program. Last season, the Eagles finished 13-5 and Kaznowski was named the Cap-8 Coach of the Year.

Jessika Morgan contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 4:25 PM with the headline "NCHSAA commissioner says association will return some live TV money to schools."