Positive people and places: Any uplifting Faces among the Crowd?

Here’s sort of a new one for you. Are you seeing some good things going on out there in the local sports land or do you have a national story that caught your eye?

We have room for all the positive news that you can send us too. The negative stuff seems to draw the most attention, but we can work on raising the bar and bringing home the good news too.

Send something our way and we can print it today and we can leave this box out on the limb for a few days so everyone can enjoy!

Here’s an uplifting piece that was sent my way just last week about a kid that was here and now he is there and headed further up the road toward success next season…..

from the Triad Sports Weekly:

April 30, 2009: A chance meeting with Coach Billy Martin was enough to convince Will Carpenter that R.J. Reynolds was the place for him to complete his basketball career.

Carpenter was a little rough around the edges prior to his sophomore year when he first visited Reynols. But after signing a Letter-of-Intent to play at Lenoir-Rhyne next season, Carpenter is a well-groomed player who expects to see playing time right away on the collegiate level.

Carpenter, a 6’6” forward, said he owes a lot of it to Martin and his staff at Reynolds, as well as several other coaches who played a part in his tutelage.

“I want to thank the coaching staff at Reynolds for all they did to help me,” sald Carpenter. “There were some other people who also helped me. Delaney Rudd and Team Phoenix were a big part of my success, as well as Sam Warren, Marcus Luck, and Bill Chambers.”

Like most basketball players today, Carpenter started out very young playing basketball. Acutally, it was an early choice between soccer and basketball that shaped his career. He started off playing basketball at a local YMCA at age seven. He also started playing soccer about the same time. He was good enough as soccer to earn a place on a challenge league team.

His father, Ron Carpenter, said he finally asked his son to make a choice when one weekend when he had tournaments in both AAU basketball and soccer, each in a different city. Basketball won out and he dropped soccer, where he played goalkeeper.

Carpenter trained and played AAU under the watchful eye of Delaney Rudd and Team Phoenix for more than five years. He continued his career playing with the Charlotte Royals.

As a larger than average middle-schooler, Carpenter later tried his hand at football. Growing up in Greensboro, the middle schools there offered football to middle schoolers. Carpenter played defensive end, where he led the league in sacks as an eighth grader

But again, when he got to high school at Greensboro Day School, he decided to concentrate on basketball. His career at Greensboro Day lasted only one year, however. He played on the Greensboro Day JV along with Mt. Tabor’s Josh Hicks, .As a result of an injury, it was not a fun experience. He wanted to move back to a public high school. At the suggestion of a close friend of his dad’s, he visited with Coach Martin.

“He suggested that I come and watch Reynolds work out,” Carpenter said. My dad’s friend had played in college (UNC-Wilmington) with both Coach Martin and (Reynold’s principal) Dr. Paschal. I came over, was impressed by the school’s academics, the team, and their basketball tradition, and decided to transfer for the next school year”

The Carpenter’s filed the appropriate paperwork and tranferred to Reynolds at the beginning of Will’s sophomore year.

The rest is history. Carpenter helped the Demons to a conference and tournament championship as a sophomore, where averaged 10 points and five rebounds a game. He improved upon those numbers as a junior (17ppg, 7apg) when earned All Northwest NC honors. As a senior (15ppg, 6apg, he earned All Conference and All Northwest NC honors and received a McDonald’s All American nomination this season.

7 thoughts on “Positive people and places: Any uplifting Faces among the Crowd?

  1. I’d like to make some positive comments about two local track athletes that compete for the Charlotte 49ers. Both had outstanding school years in competition in the Atlanitc 10 Conference.
    Jason Roberts- sophomore from Southwest Guilford
    A10 Indoor Championships
    5th place in shot put 49’3″
    6th place in 35lb weight throw
    Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships
    5th place in hammer throw
    2nd place in discus in 164’7″
    Conference Champion in shot put in 53’8″(note the improvement since indoor in this event)
    A10 Men’s Outstanding Field Performer
    Has an older sister, Tiffany who competed in sprints at the University of Virginia
    The Charlotte men won both the A10 Indoor and Outdoor Team Titles.

    Liana Blue-senior from Northeast Guilford 2005
    Placed 28th in the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championships and was the #5 Charlotte runner.
    Named to the Atlantic 10 ACADEMIC ALL CONFERENCE TEAM for Cross Country. The team placed 2nd be hind Richmond.
    Placed 8th in the A10 Indoor 5000 meters in 18:01 and also ran 10:22 in the 3000 meters.
    Placed 4th in the A10 Outdoor 10,000 meters in 37:25.7. This time ranks her 4th all time on Charlotte’s top 10 list. This place was also the highest a Charlotte woman has acquired in the Atlantic 10 meet in the 10,000 meter run.
    She also graduated on time with a 3.84 gpa in chemistry.
    The Charlotte women also won both the Atlantic 10 Indoor and Outdoor track Championships. This was the 4th straight year the Charlotte women have won.

    I hope these accomplishments by two former Guilford County high school track athletes will shed some degree of positive on this site. Both of these kids have done well in academics and have been part of Championship teams as well as their individual accomplishments.

  2. Congratulations to Tony Ferrante of Wesleyan Christian Academy for being selected All-State in baseball. Tony batted well over .400.

  3. I did some looking on the Charlotte website. Both Roberts and Blue are well represented on both the indoor and outdoor top 10 lists.
    Roberts: Indoor 3rd All Time in both the shot put and 35 lb weight throw
    Outdoor: School record holder in the discus @ 166’2″
    2nd All Time for Charloote in both the hammer and shot put

    Blue: Indoor 7th All Time for Charlotte in the 5000
    Outdoor: 6th All Time in the 3000 steeplechase

    Guilford County has both a male thrower and a female distance runner competing well on the division 1 level.

  4. I was in attendance of Dudleys Basketball banquet and learned that Trey Godette number 33 or 32 I believe for the boys basketball team is attending Winston Salem State on the Chancellors Scholarship, I believe that his academic worth ethic along with his athletics payed off in the end, and kids should know that not just a jumpshot can get you into college…

  5. I have to agree with you on Trey. He is one of the best. Great attitude and he is well grounded and will do well in the field of education. I wish he could have ended up at East Carolina, but no matter what he will help any school system when he gets out of college and goes on to become a teacher. Very solid family, the Godettes.

  6. Great to see Liana Blue getting some recognition in her home town. She was a great teammate and friend.

  7. She won the Guilford County Cross Country Championships one year, right?

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