High School Basketball Tonight with a number of games around the County

Got the good word from Coach Ed Johnson over at Ben L. Smith and his ladies are home tonight vs. Word of God and that girls basketball game will get rolling at around 6pm in the Ben L. Smith Gym…Smith boys vs. New Garden Friends School Bears at 7:30pm…
Smith girls are looking forward to an exciting season….Ben L. Smith update:
Varsity girls kick off the season with Word of God Christian Academy and the boys play New Garden Friends School tonight at home. Girls have Metro 4A All conference selections DJ Jackson (Jr) and Symphony Jackson (Soph) returning as well as 6”2 senior Destiny McCullough returning to lead the Lady Eagles.

Also tap for this evening you have in Hoops:
Piedmont Classical School at Page….Page girls with Roxanne Pfenning, Emma Heard, Jillian Heard and Ava Casper all due back and Piedmont, led by first-year head coach Ursula Williams is coming in at (1-0) and Coach Williams will have her kids ready for the Pirates, in what should be a very matchup overall….Page boys still led by Matt Harder and Piedmont Classical under the leadership of Kenny Free, will meet in the men’s game…PC has the Rogers kid who is very strong and they have a new backcourt leader in Brian Free….PC vs. Page will tell us a lot about how these two teams stack up and which direction they might be going in this season…Page will be be missing some of their football players, but Page had some really quick kids off on their team last year from the previous JV teams and those kids ought to be able to carry the load..Ken Free Jr. a graduate of Page and he did not play for Page, although his brother Ben Free played basketball at Page…Kenny did not make the team back in the day and that inspired him to become a much better basketball player as he got older and it led to him becoming a coach on a mission…
I have written so much about this game, I guess it becomes one of our feature games, so be sure to get out and see it…

Also coming through the net tonight….
Grimsley at Eastern Guilford….Game was set for Friday, but to make room for the BIG football game at EG on Friday night, hoops moved to this evening…Coach Tina Gunn takes her Grimsley girls team back to school where she coached and taught for over 20 years and she went to high school there as well and played basketball for EG back in the day and made a good name for herself there too, but tonight, Grimsley girls(0-1) come in led again by Rebecca Little, but she is going to need some help….Eastern Guilford(1-0) beat Western Guilford 44-43 back on Tuesday and that is some kind of way to start out the year…EG girls now led by Shawn Simpson….Boys it is EG(1-0) vs. Grimsley(0-1) and that will be a tough one for the G Boys, since they have help from last year and are still trying to find themselves this year…JV Boys game might be a fun matchup at 5pm with Grimsley led by Paris Key little brother Jamani vs. EG led by young Nathan White…These two played on the same AAU team for a few years and now they see each other on opposite sides tonight…

Dudley at HP Andrews will be a showcase for the girls with HPA and their coach John Shearin always ready for the season and they have won over 100 games over the past 4 seasons and Dudley is in that same neighborhood…Dudley spark plug Teara Johnson will lead a young Dudley team into High Point, but Dudley is a team likes to run and they will run and you can bet that Coach Shearin will have his Red Raiders ready for the run and the press and his full court breakdown, will not breakdown tonight….Coach Frank McNeil from Dudley loves games like this one, because it will test his team to no end and in the end, he will expect to win….Men’s game Dudley is (1-0) after the Panthers’ 63-60 victory at WS Parkland back on Tuesday…Dudley has Josh Hopkins ready, but how ready might be the question…Josh was on crutches yesterday and let’s hope the tape will tight enough to allow him to go tonight….The new Boulware kid led Dudley with 17 points and 12 rebounds at Parkland and much will be expected from him again this evening…Dudley hoping to (2-0) under new Coach Kenneth Ferguson when they come back home tonight after the trip to High Point and the return to Lincoln Street….

Southeast Guilford at Ragsdale and from what I was reading earlier in the week on the Ragsdale Athletic Schedule, this game would be a go for the boys first and then the girls game would follow…Boys at 6 and then the girls at 7:30…That is what they did with Eastern Guilford at Western Guilford the other night/Tuesday and that may be a new trend that we will be seeing around the county this season….SEG will always be tough on the women’s side with Coach Rachel Clark and they always seem to have some very good guards at SEG, going all the way back to the Jim Clontz days, the Shawyn Newton days and the Coach Kim Furlough days…Coach Clark also loves to work with those post players too…The will be the first game of the year for SEG and two names off of last year’s team that I remember and they are back for the ride this year are Jewel Tinsley and Erin Jeffers…I will Katie Lewis and I still can recall when Don Venable told me to watch out for that kid/Lewis many moons ago…For the Ragsdale girls, long-time coach Jerry Fuqua has stepped down and the Lady Tigers have a new head coach in Ben Bradford…I think been has been on the AAU circuit for many seasons and now he is on the high school and he will have very talented daughter Brooke Bradford over there in Tiger Town to help him out on the hardwoods…On the boys end Ragsdale will kids like Tre Good, Jarious Drayton and Devan Boykin ready to drop in key buckets, but Ragsdale lost some key components and will be looking to reload and rewind this year and Coach Craig Shoemaker will be preaching that you can not Relax at Ragsdale…Time to get to work and get to it quick…Coach Corey Muirhead is back for his second season as the head coach of the SEG Falcon men and last year when they met Ragsdale in the first game of the year, it was Ragsdale 52, SEG 47 and tonight, both the Tigers and Falcons will be playing their first regular season games…SEG graduated 9 players off of last year’s squad, so not sure who will be returning this season, but it is time to find out in Jamestown tonight….

Rockingham County girls at Eastern Randolph tonight and we are big fans of the Woody Wall Cougars up in Rockingham County…..

+++++This looks to be a pretty good hoops roundup/preview for today and be sure to hit us up with your scores again tonight….+++++

****Got any changes or see any need for adjustments, send them our way.*****

23 thoughts on “High School Basketball Tonight with a number of games around the County

  1. Andy,

    Please clarify how Bradford who’s a non-faculty/AAU coach get hired at GCS. I assume the Moe Green and the Stan K rule no longer s apply?

  2. Yes, Andy or anyone else with an answer. How does Bradford get the girls job at ragsdale????? Many good coaches have been turned away simply because they are not certified educators.

  3. Heard from the grapevine, he threatened to transfer his daughter…Pretty sure AAU coaches STILL can not coach in the public school setting!

  4. To my knowledge the rule still applies where you can not coach high school ball and AAU ball at the same time or during the same season or school year in Guilford County…

    As far as I know, the rule still applies….

    And if you see a coach coaching high school ball, he or she would no longer be coaching AAU ball….

  5. Those are stupid rules. This is why so many schools can’t keep their better players in their district because good players don’t want to waste their playing career with school teachers that can’t even make a layup themselves. Players want to play for coaches that understand and live the game 12 months a year not just 3 months during the winter time.

  6. The hiring of Ragsdale’s girls coach appears very shady.. I remember the Northern situation and how is this any different? Did these Gater girls move into the Jamestown area? Also this position was never posted!

  7. The problem is not with Ben or even Ragsdale, what the few of you on here griping about is the fact that these young ladies have been given the honor to be coached by a GREAT COACH and yours are not. Ben is strictly by the book so if there was any issue regarding him coaching he would not be coaching. If you do your research there are many coaches in both middle and high school that are not teachers. Parents have the choice to live where they want and if they choose to move to Jamestown for whatever reason its their business. Are you mad because you cant afford to move? Obviously who ever is anonymously writing stories dont know Ben because he would never make idle threats about his child being removed if he dont coach her, thats ridiculous. Yes,Ben coaches the top girls in Guilford County on his AAU team thats no secret and each of them was watching and cheering him on last night whether they was from SW,NW and Northern. Its sad that people make up stories to try and hurt others. Ragsdale is going to be a great team in due time as evidence by what they did last night against a great team in Southeast which also has one of his AAU players on it. By you complaining and taking time out to respond about Ragsdale you are confirming on how great a coach he is and with all of that said Ben is #UNBOTHERED #IGOTNEXT #RAGSDALE #LADYTIGERS #BEN4PRESIDENT

  8. The problem is not with Ben or even Ragsdale, what the few of you on here griping about is the fact that these young ladies have been given the honor to be coached by a GREAT COACH and yours are not. Ben is strictly by the book so if there was any issue regarding him coaching he would not be coaching. If you do your research there are many coaches in both middle and high school that are not teachers. Parents have the choice to live where they want and if they choose to move to Jamestown for whatever reason its their business. Are you mad because you cant afford to move? Obviously who ever is anonymously writing stories dont know Ben because he would never make idle threats about his child being removed if he dont coach her, thats ridiculous. Yes,Ben coaches the top girls in Guilford County on his AAU team thats no secret and each of them was watching and cheering him on last night whether they was from SW,NW and Northern. Its sad that people make up stories to try and hurt others. Ragsdale is going to be a great team in due time as evidence by what they did last night against a great team in Southeast which also has one of his AAU players on it. This would not be an issue if it was someone else. By you complaining and taking time out to respond about Ragsdale you are confirming on how great a coach he is and with all of that said Ben is #UNBOTHERED #IGOTNEXT #RAGSDALE #LADYTIGERS #BEN4PRESIDENT

  9. Ragsdale AD Brian Herndon runs a first-class operation and he in not going to anything to jepordize his school’s athletics program…

  10. Andy,

    This rule was implemented with Moe Green and Hebbard:

    Require principals and athletics directors consider school staff and school system staff first when hiring head coaches. Nonemployees can be hired for coaching jobs, but the principal and athletics director must show they looked internally first.

    Restricts any head coach or assistant coach from coaching children of the same age outside the school system or scouting for colleges or club teams or owning or working for a business that sells sports realted products.

    Any thoughts on these policies and are we heading in the right direction with our new leaders Mo Green and Leigh Hebbard?

  11. Mo Green stepped down/away from the head post at the Guilford County Schools earlier this year and now we have Superintendent Sharon L. Contreras…Leigh Hebbard is still in charge of athletics and if have a gripe, I would suggest sending it to him…

    I can’t possibly see any mishandling of this job search while Brian Herndon has been in charge at Ragsdale…

    As mentioned the job is placed among the job openings and if there are any capable candidates on staff they the first interviews for these jobs and I think that also goes on down to the Middle School level within the school program you are serving/teaching for and that would be Jamestown Middle for Ragsdale High School….

    I can’t see it with Brian Herndon in charge…From what I can tell he has always made doing things the right way and by the book, a priority…

    Now if a coach came to me and this is just me and he or she was highly qualified and they said I will coach for FREE, I would be forced to take a look at my yearly budget and say, can you start yesterday/last week…

    We don’t need to read to much into this situation and we need to let it play itself out and give it some time and let’s take time to sort out all of the details…

    I still can’t see why Kenny Carter isn’t coaching somewhere for the girls and maybe he is and I just don’t know about it…

    As I was just reading this morning, Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen…..

  12. Andy,

    It looks Shady at best. A Rule is a Rule. Also my wife is a GCS teacher/coach and this position was Never posted!

  13. HPC

    It was posted. People just slept on it. I saw the Northwest and Ragsdale girls HC basketball jobs on the NCHSAA website at the same time near the end of last school year.

  14. Louis B,

    Slept on it?? Interesting never posted on the GCS vacancy! This openings remain on this site forever…

  15. Why is the Ragsdale coaching job such an issue? This is the same coach that coached at Jamestown Middle School for the last 2 years before going over to the high school but that wasn’t an issue. He wasn’t a teacher then and NO ONE COMPLAINED..He turned Jamestown program around and maybe the Athletic Director decided he needed that same level of achievement at his high school. Their were several school employees interviewed. Andy said it best many are called and few are chosen. Well HPC just because your wife is a GCS teacher/coach that doesn’t make her qualified that makes her a teacher that coaches. Stop trying to find a reason to discredit Ragsdale program. When you become GCS AD or Superintendent then you can make the rules, but until then lets enjoy another great basketball season. Good luck with your team

  16. There are rules in place for a reason.. Do some research( including this site) how everyone was all over Northern. Many coaches were vocal and submitted appeals on this issue, including Ragsdale’s Shoemaker!
    The Rule is for High School head coaches.

  17. Hello NGHawks some of you are making a big deal out of nothing you have control over. It is what it is and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it. Everything was done in compliance and I’m extremely happy for Ragsdale program. NG is a great school with great talent but this is a totally different situation and perhaps the rules have changed. I’m still trying to figure out why some of you are MAD because thats what it sounds like. If its not affecting you dont worry about it because its really no ones business how and why he was chosen as the coach, just know that by posting about rules or whats fair or not fair isnt going to change the fact that he is there and will continue to be there.

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