Prep notebook: James Alverson hired as NCHSAA assistant commissioner

Triangle sports radio host and broadcaster James Alverson was announced Thursday as the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s new assistant commissioner and media coordinator.

Alverson replaces Rick Strunk, who retired in December after 30 years. He will be in charge of media relations, publications and will oversee events like the NCHSAA Hall of Fame.

Alverson is a 2005 graduate of Lee County High, where he was an All-Conference quarterback. He later graduated from N.C. State in communication and has worked at Capitol Broadcasting, where he was the assistant program director of 99.9 FM The Fan.

He hosted a Saturday morning show on 99.9 FM on high school sports and has also done play-by-play of some NCHSAA championships, college baseball and Carolina RailHawks.

He was the 2015 recipient of the NCHSAA media person of the year award, which is named after N&O high school sports editor emeritus Tim Stevens.

Apex hits 3s: Apex’s boys basketball team made 18 3-pointers in a 93-75 victory over Fuquay-Varina, which is third-most in NCHSAA single-game history. Southern Durham holds the record with 22 made in a 121-73 rout of J.F. Webb in 2001.

Two Rivers 3A wrestling: Western Harnett was dominant in the Two Rivers 3A Conference wrestling tournament Saturday. The host Eagles won the wrestler of the year (132-pounder Mason Morris), coach of the year (Casey Gashaw) and took nine of the 14 weight classes.

Also capturing individual titles for Western Harnett were Trevor Wicker (106 pounds), Anthony Thompson (113), Khamani Holmes (126), Jacob Dawson (138), Carl Smith (145), Jordan Guimont (152), Aidan Keenan-Gray (160), and Michael Starks (285) as the Eagles added the Two Rivers 3A tournament title to go with their regular-season crown.

Larry Williams’ title helped Corinth Holders finish second and Cleveland (champs included Christopher McIver, Quinton Ross, Trevor Bryant) was third. Triton’s Hunter Johnson also won a conference title.

Northern Carolina wrestling: Franklinton won the Northern Carolina 2A wrestling tournament Saturday with 162 points, clipping regular-season dual champ South Granville’s 148. Bunn was third with 71, followed closely by N.C. School Science and Math (70.5) and Durham School of the Arts (67), Roanoke Rapids (64) and Southern Vance (58)

NCAC swimming: Raleigh Charter’s boys and girls swimming teams cruised to North Central Athletic 1A conference titles. The girls’ 175 points outdistanced Voyager Academy’s 105 and the Phoenix boys scored 161 to top Franklin Academy (107).

CFVC swimming: Lee County’s boys and Union Pines’ girls were runners-up in the Cape Fear Valley 3A swimming championships. Fayetteville Terry Sanford won both titles, hosted by Campbell University.

NCHSAA wrestling: The NCHSAA dual-team wrestling playoffs will start, and end, this week. The 32-team brackets play the first and second rounds at the same sites on Tuesday, third round and East final on Thursday and the state championships are Saturday.

Former Cary coach dies: Former Cary High track and field coach Roy Anderson died last month. Anderson retired in 2001 after 27 years at the school and is a member of the Imps’ sports hall of fame.

Anderson was a self-described people person and, at the time of his retirement, was believed to have been at Cary longer than any other coach at the school. Two of Anderson’s former athletes, Natalie Lew and Chris Castor, won national titles in the heptathlon and decathlon, respectively.

He grew up in Durham and attended N.C. Central University on a football scholarship.

Gymnastics championship: The high school gymnastics championships were rescheduled for Friday and Saturday at The Raleigh School of Gymnastics. They were postponed because of snow and ice.

The small teams competitions are Friday starting 6 p.m. and large teams are Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

Grace Smith: Cary Christian junior Grace Smith surpassed the 1,000-point mark last week in a 67-54 win over Fayetteville’s Village Christian.

Richmond’s scoring points: Richmond County’s boys basketball team is 11-8 but leads the nation in scoring, averaging 97.5 points per game.

The Raiders scored 105 in one contest, and lost 113-105. The NCHSAA record for most points in a loss is Orange’s 124-113 loss to Hillside in the 1972-73 season, but that took three overtimes to complete.

The Raiders are a little shy of breaking some NCHSAA marks, almost all set by teams in Durham. Hillside’s 1965-65 team averaged 105 per game. Richmond County’s season high is 126 points, but Hillside scored 147 in a 1966 147-57 blowout of Rocky Mount’s Washington High.

Richmond County goes to Pembroke’s Purnell Swett Tuesday. The last matchup was a Richmond 126-95 win. The 221 combined points in a game may be a record for a regulation game. The NCHSAA’s two records are 245 (East Mecklenburg defeats Harding 124-121 in 2000) and 237 (Hillside and Orange), both taking three overtimes.

Bunn scores 1,000: Former Bunn High star girls basketball player Whitney Bunn broke the 1,000-point mark in her college career last week. Bunn starts for Furman and is closing in on the school’s all-time assist mark.

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Prep notebook: James Alverson hired as NCHSAA assistant commissioner."