CHAMPIONSHIP SPORTS TRADITION

By Patrick Mason

In the summer of 2018, after a humid and sweaty football practice, Melik Ward stated a long-term goal for his team.

“We want to win another state championship,” said Ward, a lineman for the Tarboro Vikings. “This is a hungry group and we won’t settle for anything less than a championship.”

Plenty of teams and players dream of making the postseason and going all the way, yet few teams actually pull it off. Tarboro is one of those teams.

A billboard positioned a few miles west of the town boasts about the success of the Vikings football program. Underneath the purple-jersey wearing players is the numeral ‘5’ which denoted the number of state titles the Vikings have accumulated when the sign went up.

It took the Vikings just one season to outgrow the billboard and make Ward a successful future predictor. Now, the billboard has a slash through the ‘5’ and a ‘6’ is written underneath. The Vikings won the second of their back-to-back Class 1-AA state championships with a convincing 50-10 win over East Surry.

With six championships, including a three-peat in the mid-2000s, the smallschool football program has long been the benchmark of success for fellow area teams.

A number of NFL players can claim Tarboro as their alma mater, including running back Shaun Draughn, who had a six-year career. Current NFL star and All-Pro L.A. Rams running back Todd Gurley is another, who

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guided the Vikings to a trio of state titles, while Indianapolis Colts defensive lineman Tyquan Lewis also won state championships with the Vikings.

In the NBA, Tarboro native Montrezl Harrell plays for the Clippers and is entering his fifth season in the league. Harrell, whose Clippers made the playoffs and tested the defendingchampion Golden State Warriors, has a chance to compete for a title of his own this upcoming season with the addition of superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

And while Tarboro gets plenty of attention and adoration as a top-notch, the area sports scene is strong elsewhere as athletics in Rocky Mount have flourished.

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Brian Goodwin graduated from Rocky Mount High, and took his high school teams to deep postseason runs. And recently, the Gryphons got over the hump with to back-to-back state football championship appearances with one win in 2015.

Elsewhere, this past high school baseball season featured an all-Rocky Mount championship series between Rocky Mount Academy and Faith Christian in the NCISAA 2-A division. Faith Christian was going for its third consecutive title, which wasn’t realized as Rocky Mount Academy won the best-of-three series for its first championship.

RMA, meanwhile, secured its first-ever girls state tennis championship in the fall of 2018.

In the spring, Rocky Mount Prep athlete Terence Booth Jr. brought home the Jaguars’ first track title by winning the 110-meter hurdles.

If swimming is more your speed, then stop by the Rocky Mount YMCA, the home pool of a number of state champions. University of Utah swimming recruit and Rocky Mount Academy grad Kayla Miller won her third consecutive 100-yard freestyle title this season, while Nash Central freshman Lance Norris won the 200yard freestyle.

Two years ago, SouthWest Edgecombe swimmer Jack Coltrane won the 100-yard freestyle.

It’s impossible to talk about the local sports scene without mentioning the Rocky Mount High-Northern Nash basketball rivalry where at least twice every year the admissions line snakes out of the home team’s gymnasium and into the parking lot.

Seasoned veterans of these rivalry games know to arrive plenty early to get a seat, making the JV games well-attended as well.

“There’s so many options for good athletics around here,” Northern Nash golfer Chance Puckett said. “Our basketball team was so fun to watch and our football is bouncing back. Baseball has a little ways to go, but there’s nothing easy out here.”