PrepsNow roundtable: Championship favorites and longest trips

The News & Observer’s high school sports panel of five community sports editors, headed up by J. Mike Blake, will be taking on different questions each week. In this week’s writers’ roundtable, the group points out championship favorites and reminisces about road trips.

The N&O panel features:

▪ D. Clay Best (Smithfield Herald, Clayton News-Star, Garner-Cleveland Record)

▪ J. Mike Blake (The Cary News and Southwest Wake News)

▪ Aaron Moody (Eastern Wake News)

▪ Jessika Morgan (Midtown Raleigh News and North Raleigh News)

▪ W.E. Warnock (Chapel Hill News and The Durham News)

Q: Spring sports are well underway. Which team or teams in your conferences have the best chance at winning a state championship and why?

Best (Greater Neuse 4A, Carolina 1A): It’s hard not to look at Princeton in 1A softball because of the Bulldogs’ track record and the veteran state championship experience on the squad. They had a setback last week against conference rival North Duplin, but it’s hard not to see the Bulldogs still around come late May. Clayton girls soccer is a dark horse.

Blake (Southwest Wake 4A, NCISAA, etc.): Anything can happen in the boys lacrosse playoffs with Apex, Middle Creek and Green Hope. Same for baseball with the top five Southwest Wake teams. Same for girls soccer with the top four teams. Apex softball and Green Hope’s track teams look strong, too.

Cary Academy might have the best boys track and field team, girls track and field team, girls soccer team and boys tennis team in the NCISAA. Ravenscroft’s boys lacrosse team and Durham Academy’s girls lacrosse team are others you have have to account for.

Of those teams in the N&O area but not in a local conference, watch for Lee County softball and North Johnston baseball.

Moody (Two Rivers 3A, Northern Carolina 2A): South Granville baseball and softball look like they can repeat. Bunn softball has had a lot of big wins so far, but the Wildcats’ games have been fairly tighter since they entered conference play. Cleveland and Corinth Holders baseball are 3A dark horses.

Morgan (Cap-8 4A, North Central 1A): Heritage softball plus Enloe and Wakefield boys tennis look pretty good this season. Franklin Academy girls soccer is undefeated.

W.E. Warnock (Mid-State 2A, Big-8 3A, PAC-6 4A): Despite already giving up more goals (3) than it did in all of last year’s championship season (2), Carrboro looks capable of repeating in girls soccer.

Despite a mid-season slump after All-American catcher Brad Debo injured a finger, Orange could contend in 3A baseball. The Panthers still have North Carolina signee Bryse Wilson on the mound and have hopes Debo’s finger could heal in time for the playoffs.

Cardinal Gibbons could play for titles in baseball, girls and boys lacrosse and girls soccer, too.

Q: Covering high school sports, particularly in the playoffs, takes us all over the state. What road trip or trips are unforgettable in your mind?

Best: It’s hard to beat the Outer Banks on this front. I’ve covered playoff girls basketball and boys soccer games at Cape Hatteras, softball at Manteo and girls and boys soccer at First Flight in Kill Devil Hills.

I tend to think more in terms of trip experiences than game results on this front. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to top three I had as a local high school student: Garner’s road football playoff wins at Richmond County, Northern Durham and then against Charlotte’s Harding University High in Memorial Stadium on its run to the 1987 state championship.

Blake: The one I’ll always remember is covering Apex at Hoke County in a 2012 boys basketball third-round game. It’s the only game I’ve covered with my dad (he paid for entry and watched over my shoulder), who I picked up along the way because he knew a shortcut through Fort Bragg territory.

What a gym. The band was 30 feet away from the baseline, on a stage. People were seated in skinny bleachers on each side of the stage and had about 100 people in chairs in front of it. And that shortcut? Closed on our way back, so we had to take an hour detour through base on our way back.

Moody: I’ve followed East Wake softball on several playoff runs, mostly to Wilmington. And I cannot lie, it is nice to head to the beach on a warm, sunny day to take in a playoff game – so nice my parents wanted to go a few years back and even offered to drive.

Morgan: Not having strayed too far out of the N&O coverage area, I’ll take you back to my time as the sports editor at the Kinston paper. I was covering Kinston High’s girls’ basketball, and it was playing at top-seeded East Bladen in Elizabethtown. The drive was only about two hours, but it was so dark. The roads were wound every which way and were super narrow. After the game, I had to get back and it was 10:45 p.m. and even more dark. There were probably four other cars I saw on the road for the duration of the trip back -- well, once I left the limits of quaint Elizabethtown. Talk about creepy.

Warnock: After more than 1,000 games, I’ll admit I AM starting to forget some. But Washington’s 82-67 win in Carmchael Auditorium against Rockingham in 1979 to complete a 29-0 season with Dominique Wilkins stands out. So does watching Chapel Hill’s Ranzino Smith dunking over Danny Manning of Page in the 1981 West Region final in Greensboro. Also, Derr Track at N.C. State is the venue I saw Chapel Hill’s Tommy Ward set an NCHSAA record in the mile in 1973, run on a cool, crisp spring evening.

For strictly high school venues, Granville Central’s football field in Stem is memorable for being such a good athletics facility so far out in isolated countryside. The gyms at Durham’s original Hillside High (the one where John Lucas played) and Northwood in Pittsboro both have generated electricity when hosting a basketball rival. And Southern Alamance is an exemplar of quality design for its football field.

Speaking of concessions, I was impressed with Franklinton’s grills that produced hot dogs and burgers. But nothing tops Southern Durham’s fresh-fried fish.

Q: What’s the farthest you’ve had to drive to cover a game?

Best: Cherokee for a 1A playoff football game back in the early days of the split football playoffs with Princeton in the western regional. It was 330 miles — one way — from Smithfield. Memorable night; I got to meet the Tribal Chief, who took up residence in a private box (which was half of the press box).

Blake: I’ve been to outliers like Swansboro, Lumberton, West Forsyth and New Bern. For a summer league game, I drove to South Hill, Va. for nothing. The heavens opened up once I pulled into the parking lot, and the game was postponed.

Moody: To the north, Roxboro (no, it’s not that far, but there’s really no fast way to get there); to the east Wilmington; to the south Laurinburg. I don’t get out west much, not for work anyway.

Morgan:In my first year of covering sports in Raleigh, I haven’t had to travel very far! I didn’t have to venture too far our of the area until the regional finals in Fayetteville – and that trip is a breeze.

Warnock: Myrtle Beach for the North-South Carolina Beach Ball Classic and Jacksonville (N.C.) for the East Coast Invitational basketball tournament (in yet another example of a superbly designed, multi-court basketball facility.) Icard, more than once, for the West Region basketball finals.

Q: What’s your favorite place to cover a game outside of the N&O’s area?

Best: Ah, anywhere there’s fresh seafood on the pre- or post-game dinner menu? Then again, First Flight may be the most ideal with a sense of history setting for an outdoor game in the state with the Wright Brothers Memorial visible at the right angle.

Blake: I love anywhere in rural N.C., but I lean towards Wilmington here. It’s a pretty easy trip and it includes some great venues like Michael Jordan Gymnasium, Legion Stadium and Brogden Hall.

Moody: I also lean toward Wilmington, but my opinion probably is skewed by the profusion of games my local teams draw in opening-round playoff games there.

Morgan: I once had to go to an all-star basketball game in Myrtle Beach. The game was on a Saturday, and I stayed overnight. I spent sometime around the town Sunday, and that was pretty enjoyable.

Warnock: The Greensboro Coliseum or UNC-Greensboro’s Fleming Gymnasium for NCHSAA state or West Region basketball. On a much smaller scale, Bartlett-Yancey has seen some tough times, and the silver lining of that is Caswell County being stuck in economic amber, and the town looking like a place where Andy Griffith would be sheriff.

This story was originally published April 10, 2016 at 7:10 PM with the headline "PrepsNow roundtable: Championship favorites and longest trips."