By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
The South Fork 2A’s championship basketball teams swept top honors in voting for all-conference.
The league released All-South Fork 2A teams on Wednesday, led by players of the year Cole Seagle of boys’ champ North Lincoln and Cassidy Geddes of girls’ champ Newton-Conover.
Seagle, a 5-foot-8 senior guard who sparked North Lincoln to 12-2 league record, averaged 22.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and shot 52 percent. He averaged 14.1 points as a junior.
The Knights’ head coach, Dennis Frye, was named coach of the year. They finished 15-3 overall, falling 75-59 to Hendersonville in the West 2A Regional title game.
North Lincoln has won 32 of 44 games since Frye took over two seasons ago.
Geddes, a 5-6 sophomore guard, helped Newton-Conover’s girls go 14-0 and win a league title. She averaged 17.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 5.4 steals and shot 42 percent.
The Red Devils finished 15-1, falling 59-41 to top-seeded West Stokes in the second round of the state 2A playoffs.
Newton-Conover’s Sylvia White was named coach of the year after finishing her third tenure as Red Devils head coach with another title.
Newton-Conover will enter a new league via statewide realignment in August riding a 48-game conference win streak.
White officially retired on Monday from an administrative position with the Newton-Conover City Schools. By state regulations, if she were to return as an employee she would not be eligible to do so until Sept. 1.
As of Wednesday, the girls’ basketball job at Newton-Conover was not posted as vacant at the school system’s webpage.
In an e-mail to HobbsDailyReport.com, White said only she has resigned from her administrative role, and said “I will be very interested in any offering that NCCS may have after my six months are up. At this point this is all I know.”
White also coached Newton-Conover from 1998-99 through 1991-92 and from 200-01 through 2003-04. Her third tenure began in 2018-19.
Her 11 teams were 214-80 with five conference titles, nine state playoff bids, four West 2A regional bids, a state 2A runners-up finish in 1989-90, a state 2A title in 1991-92 and a state 2A co-championship in 2019-20 when COVID-19 prevented the title game from being played.
ALL-SOUTH FORK 2A BASKETBALL
GIRLS
Macy Rummage, Bandys
Logan Dutka, Bandys
Taliyah Thomas, E. Lincoln
Ginny Overbay, E. Lincoln
Jillian Villanti, Lake Norman Charter
Maggie Andrews, Maiden
Lainee Hentschel, Maiden
Ashlyn White, N. Lincoln
Emma Fox, Newton-Conover
Cassidy Geddes, Newton-Conover
Grace Loftin, Newton-Conover
Chloe Norman, West Lincoln
POY: Geddes, Newton-Conover
COY: Sylvia White, Newton-Conover
BOYS
Jeremiah Jones, E. Lincoln
Drew Bean, E. Lincoln
Cal Reed, Lake Norman Charter
Oliver O’Brian, Lake Norman Charter
Connor Williams, Lincolnton
Amontre Finger, Lincolnton
Dru McClough, Maiden
Chris Culliver, Maiden
Zane Redmond, Newton-Conover
Jackson Mullins, Newton-Conover
Cole Seagle, N. Lincoln
Jack Carter, N. Lincoln
POY: Seagle, N. Lincoln
COY: Dennis Frye, N. Lincoln