Congratulations to South Lenoir’s Kaleb Wessell, who signed to play college baseball at N.C. Wesleyan this afternoon. Wessell was 6-2 with a 2.01 ERA this season for the Blue Devils.
Congratulations to a great young man who comes from an excellent family. I’ll have a story later and the link to it here.
Just left Kinston High School, where Termaine “Twin” Miller has signed to play basketball for Bobby Dawson and the LCC Lancers. He’ll be joining former KHS star Miguel Starkey, who started for LCC this year.
But that’s not the only Kinston connection at LCC — Curtis “Nootsie” Hines is transferring from Louisburg College, where he red-shirted last year. Nootsie has both years of eligibility remaining.
Should be some fun nights at LCC in the 2008-09 season.
Congratulations to one of my favorite athletes — North Lenoir’s Matt Quinn, who signed his national letter of intent to play football at N.C. Wesleyan today. Quinn has overcome a devastating shoulder injury and a relative lack of size to play for the Battling Bishops.
Congratulations!
Kinston senior guard Akeem Sutton has signed to play basketball at Pitt Community College under former Arendell Parrott Academy coach Chad Reynolds, who is heading up the revived PCC program. “A.K.” will be one of the cornerstones of the new Bulldogs team that will play for the first time since 1993.
Congratulations to A.K. and his family.
Two Kinston High School players — Reggie Bullock and Demarcus Quinerly — will play on Saturday in Cary at Dave Telep’s second annual Carolina Challenge. Check out his blog about the Challenge here.
Telep, who I wrote about in this article from Fort Myers, Fla., at the City of Palms Classic, invites the top 80 freshmen, sophomores and juniors from across North Carolina to Cary Academy for a day of scrimmages and instruction.
Admission to the event is free, which makes it even better. Get up there if you have the opportunity.
UPDATE AT NOON: Quinton announced his decision about 45 minutes ago. He chose UNC over FSU and Tennessee.
“It’s always been Carolina,” he said. “It’s always been my dream to go to Carolina. I just wanted to go through the process to make sure this was the right decision for me.”
He said he made the decision on Monday, but didn’t tell anyone about it until moments before it was announced in a formal ceremony at Hargrave. His mother, Gail, didn’t know of his decision until it was announced.
“It was very hard to keep it a secret, because everyone has been asking me,” he said. “I kept telling everyone to wait until Wednesday.”
I’ll have a complete story in Thursday’s Free Press, which I’ll link here on the blog.
Now — I have to haul, errr, butt back to Lenoir County for Thomas Dove’s signing at 4 p.m. at South Lenoir High School. Tell the troopers to stay away from me!
EARLIER POST: It’s 9 a.m., about two hours from when former Kinston star and current Hargrave Military Academy defensive end Quinton Coples will announce his decision of which school (North Carolina, N.C. State, Florida State or Tennessee) he will play college football for. I’ll post his decision here as soon as possible after his announcement.
I’ll also have pictures (and hopefully, video) from the announcement. I talked to his coach (Robert Prunty) and he said 20 of his players are going to sign with Division I programs today. ESPN is going to be on hand for today’s announcements at Hargrave, which also includes some of the top players in America.
We have two area athletes who will be signing their national letters of intent to play college football tomorrow. Former Kinston defensive end QUINTON COPLES, who is at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., will decide between North Carolina, N.C. State, Florida State and Tennessee.
South Lenoir free safety THOMAS DOVE has already decided to play at UNC Pembroke.
I will be at both of those signings and I’ll have updates and pictures here on the ol’ blog and in Thursday’s Free Press.
Additionally, I know that 2007 Free Press MVP, Greene Central’s WILLIAM BROWN, has decided to play at Dean College in Massachusetts, along with teammate and Free Press Defensive Player of the Year DANNY MOYE.
Know of any others? Let me know.
Here are some leftover quotes from my story about Reggie Bullock’s verbal commitment to UNC —
Kinston coach Wells Gulledge:
“Honestly, I think it’s a good choice for him and I think it’s going to be a great fit,” Gulledge said. “They’re getting a Carolina player, one who is very humble and very appreciative of everything in this world.”
“Coach Williams said (Bullock) reminds him of Brad Daugherty, because everything is ‘Yes, sir; no sir,’ ” Gulledge said. “Those things go a long way.”
“It was almost like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders,” Gulledge said. “It was something he was strongly convicted about but didn’t really show it until the offer came.”
“With this verbal commitment comes an increased responsibility in the classroom and in the community,” Gulledge said. “He has to earn that national letter of intent after his junior year.”
Reggie Bullock:
“I know I just have to keep working,” Bullock said. “I’m going to step up my aggressiveness to help my team out.”
My take on his decision: It’s a good one. He obviously wanted to go to Carolina and was waiting to decide on a college, dependent on whether Ol’ Roy offered him. When the offer came, he knew what he wanted.
There have also been a lot of rumors about whether Reggie will stay around for four years at Kinston. Now, why wouldn’t he stay? He doesn’t have to impress any coaches to get the “better” offer since he’s got one from one of the best programs in America. And Reggie’s academic standing is immaculate, meaning he doesn’t need to transfer to concentrate on that.
I think that means we have Reggie for four years here, which is good for Kinston and Lenoir County.
Trying to catch up with my 250 e-mails and messages that have piled up since I left, but some quick hits in this post before I go in-depth later today/tomorrow:
Thanks for all the kind e-mails and messages I received while I was gone. I’m going to try to do my best to respond to every one of them. You will probably be overwhelmed with blog entries over the next couple of days.
Kinston sophomore Reggie Bullock has picked up his second Division I scholarship offer in the past three weeks. Bullock, who was offered by Indiana three weeks ago, was offered by Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio on Tuesday morning, according to KHS coach Wells Gulledge.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, too. There are some other prestigious names recruiting Bullock, including North Carolina (who hasn’t offered yet). It should be a fun year at Viking Gym for Bullock and Kinston this year.
Also, East Carolina has offered senior Bo Ingram again, this time last week. He hasn’t committed to a program yet, but has expressed a lot of interest in N.C. State through the years, although the Wolfpack haven’t offered him yet.
Blogging with Bryan C. Hanks 