by Mike Parks

At least 600 people attended the Picnic at SouthPark on Tuesday, May 8, at Symphony Park. The annual event, now in its 12th year, features food from a number of local restaurants, live music and a chance for local business leaders to mingle and make some connections. (Above) Melissa Halpin, the kitchen manager at BrickTop’s, 6401 Morrison Blvd., talks with a potential customer at Tuesday’s picnic. Mike Parks/SCW photo

Hundreds of people packed into the amphitheater at SouthPark Mall’s Symphony Park on Tuesday, May 8, for the 12th annual Picnic at SouthPark.

The event, sponsored by the SouthPark chapter of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, is meant to be the group’s signature event of the year and a means for local business leaders to come together and get to know each other. More than 20 businesses packed their booths under the awning at the park with the threat of rain overhead, with a number of restaurants represented and trying to get their name out there. Organizers said at least 600 people had come by as of about halfway through the event.

“We like this because it’s based in SouthPark and it supports businesses around here,” said Melissa Halpin, the kitchen manager at BrickTop’s, 6401 Morrison Blvd. She and another BrickTop’s employee handed out free samples of ribs to people on Tuesday, noting how valuable the event is to reminding people that BrickTop’s serves lunch in SouthPark.

BrickTop’s hands out some cards and fliers at the event to get people through their doors in the future, and Halpin said the restaurant has seen a jump in customers in the past right after the annual picnic. She hopes this year is no different.

While the event was a chance for restaurants to win over new customers, it also gave a number of other groups in the SouthPark area a chance to reach people. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department handed out information on crime and safety while talking with residents, and the chamber was even able to use it as a chance to gain new members.

“It’s a huge opportunity … for the SouthPark area,” said Natalie Dick, with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. “It’s one of the biggest networking opportunities of the year. … It’s also an opportunity for some of the key corporate sponsors in the SouthPark area (like Carolinas Medical Center and Belk) to be able to meet and network with the smaller businesses.”

Charlotte Catholic principal Jerry Healy is excited about the prospect of enjoying many more athletic celebrations. Aaron Garcia/SCW photo

Charlotte Catholic High School sports fans can exhale now – the school gets to permanently keep its longtime home in the state’s largest athletic association.

On May 3, Charlotte Catholic officials learned that a motion to oust the state’s three non-boarding parochial schools from the N.C. High School Athletic Association failed at the organization’s annual board meeting in Chapel Hill.

Charlotte Catholic supporters had become concerned about their sports future in recent weeks after six Rowan County schools proposed an amendment to the organization’s constitution that allows parochial schools Charlotte Catholic, Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons and Kernersville Bishop McGuiness to compete against public schools.

The Rowan schools argued that the Catholic schools’ lack of geographic boundaries gave them an unfair advantage over their public counterparts.

In order to amend the constitution, 75 percent of the NCHSAA’s 390 member schools – or a total of 293 votes – were needed to remove the three schools. In all, 285 votes were tallied, with 234 (or 82 percent) voting against allowing the Catholic schools to stay, while 105 votes were not submitted.

Charlotte Catholic has been a member of the ­NCHSAA since 1962. It faced a similar vote in 1986, but received 54 percent of the vote to maintain its position.

Principal Jerry Healy, who attended last week’s ­NCHSAA meeting with Charlotte Catholic athletics director Kevin Christmas, said he was relieved by the outcome but acknowledged the high number of votes in favor of removing the parochial schools took him by surprise.

“Somebody else asked me what I thought of the outcome, and I said, ‘Well, an ugly win is still a win,’” said Healy. “I am a little bit surprised. I thought the vote would’ve been a little closer. Thank God for the non-votes, to be honest with you, because I don’t know what would’ve happened if it went the other way.

“We’re happy, and we’re ready to move on.”

While the boundary argument might have been settled with the vote, the financial aid the Catholic schools award to qualifying students also came into question during the process. As a result, the Catholic schools were asked to detail how they award their financial aid in order to show that funds were not being used for athletic scholarships.

Healy explained that all Charlotte Catholic financial aid is awarded by a third party, based on need, and the process is confidential, which ensures the schools do not use the funds to recruit athletes.

“(The NCHSAA executive board members) said they were comfortable as a board that all of that was being handled the right way by an outside agency, and the schools were not involved with it,” Healy said.

While nothing in the NCHSAA’s constitution guarantees that a similar effort won’t be brought to a vote, Executive Director Davis Whitfield said the organization is looking at different ways to keep the same situation from arising in the future.

“We’re looking to see if there’s a way to insert some type of language, or what the process would be to insert some type of language, to make sure this process is vetted, maybe through our board of directors or some other channel before it simply goes out to a vote of the membership,” Whitfield said.

Whitfield also said that given the changing landscape of the current high school structure, the association will strive to be proactive in looking at circumstances surrounding “non-traditional high schools,” such as charter schools, magnet schools and virtual magnet schools, as well as the state’s non-boarding parochial schools.

“Bringing all of those groups together and sitting down and having a well-thought out, well-formulated discussion will be important moving forward,” said Whitfield. “We want to find solutions that make sense for everyone involved.

“Specifically for this committee, it will be looking at those four entities and trying to find ways we can continue to be one strong association and how to move forward with that.”

Healy said he was pleased with the idea.

“We’re going to be part of the dialogue finally,” Healy said. “That is important. Up to now, we haven’t been part of the dialogue.”

But more than anything, Healy said he was pleased that issue seems to have been put to rest for good.

“Right now, it’s over,” Healy said. “We certainly said we’d do everything we can to further assist (the NCHSAA) and further clarify things.

“(Whitfield) came out and said, ‘No one will go through this again. Nobody.’”

by Mike Parks

The race for Neil Cooksey’s SouthPark-area seat on the Mecklenburg County Commission will head to a runoff in July.

Neither Matthew Ridenhour nor Sarah Cherne could get the votes needed to win the party’s spot on the ballot Tuesday night, May 8, and will now start preparing for a runoff vote July 17. The two were separated by less than 300 votes in the primary, with Ridenhour getting 34.48 percent and Cherne 33 percent. Bill Griffin and Ken Lindholm trailed the two and won’t be in July’s runoff.

“We’re very, very confident of a victory in the runoff,” Ridenhour said Wednesday morning. “We have a large team that’s ready to roll and ready to get back to work.”

Ridenhour points to the network he’s established in Charlotte as why he’s sure of a win this summer, saying it’s just something Cherne can’t match. “My network in Charlotte … is unparalleled,” he said. “I’m a native Charlottean, I’ve been involved in the community for a long time. And we’re going to get it done in the runoff.”

Cherne says she’s ready for that challenge, and knows her team of dedicated volunteers will be behind her every step of the way.

“I feel very confident… I feel like all things are possible,” she said. “And I’m excited and my team is really excited. … Campaigning is not a sole sport; it is absolutely a team effort. I had more than 100 people (at my house) last night who are really on my team and are responsible for any success we have.”

Cherne received the endorsement of Cooksey, the current commissioner for SouthPark, prior to Tuesday’s election.

Ridenhour took 30 of District 5’s precincts to Cherne’s 18. Three precincts were considered a tie.

For the district’s Democrat primary, Paula Harvey easily beat out Lisa Rudisill with 54.17 percent of the vote. She’ll face the winner of the Republican runoff in November.

“I’m just very happy right now,” said Harvey, who spent Tuesday night after her victory cleaning up campaign signs. “Tired, but happy.”

Her parents are getting ready to move into the home beside her, meaning she’s about to gain two new voters and campaigners to help get to November.

“I was in the skirmish and now I’m in the battle,” she said Wednesday. “I’m going to sit down with my team and strategize how to do this.”

Harvey took 43 of the 51 precincts in the district.

Mecklenburg County Commission District 6

Republican incumbent Bill James dispatched his in-party challenger Tuesday night in the Ballantyne-area District 6 race.

James is running for his ninth term on the board, where he represents all of southern Mecklenburg County. He took nearly 52 percent of the vote Tuesday night, winning by nearly 700 votes.

“People know what they’re getting in me,” James said on Wednesday morning. “And what they really want is someone who stands up and defends them against the howling liberal horde in Uptown.”

James took 20 of the 29 precincts in the district, though Driggs took more of the south Charlotte precincts around Ballantyne. James’ wins came more in the Pineville, Mint Hill and Matthews areas.

“I just think that people want somebody who will defend them and I have tried to do that,” James said of his record. “I have tried to defend people in District 6 from the predation of government. … When you get right down to the nitty-gritty you’re left with the fact that in Mecklenburg County at this point in time the people of District 6 needs someone who is going to fight for them, protect them against Uptowners, the NAACP, low-income housing dropped in their backyard, attempts to bus their kids to some inner city location, and for me … that’s the reason I originally got elected and continue to get elected.”

James moves on to face Democrat Connie Green-Johnson.

U.S. House District 9 Republicans

Voters are going to get another shot in July at picking a Republican to face Democrat Jennifer Roberts and Libertarian Curtis Campbell.

Neither Jim Pendergraph nor Robert Pittenger could separate themselves from the crowded field well enough to outright take the Republican spot on the November ballot. Ten candidates on the Republican side were running for Rep. Sue Myrick’s seat in Congress, with Pittenger getting 32.46 percent of the vote and Pendergraph 25.32. The two will face each other in a runoff vote July 17.

Ric Killian, one of south Charlotte’s representatives in the N.C. General Assembly, pulled in 10.48 percent of the vote, and Andy Dulin, the SouthPark-area Charlotte City Council member, got 4.9 percent.

Breaking it down further, Pittenger took the majority of the precincts in South Charlotte Weekly’s coverage area, with Pendergraph taking two and Killian taking one.

N.C. House 102 Republicans

Huntersville town council member Charles Jeter won the Republican primary for N.C. House 92, which runs from north Mecklenburg, along the western edge of the county and picks up Pineville and one or two south Charlotte neighborhoods. Jeter received 54.16 percent of the vote.

N.C. House 105 Republicans

Jacqueline Schaffer ran away with the Republican primary to fill Ric Killian’s chair in N.C. House 105, which covers Ballantyne and the city south of Pineville-Matthews Road.

Schaffer, a former Charlotte Christian student who lives in the Providence Crossing area, took 57.18 percent of the vote, winning 13 of the 17 precincts in the area against Ken Gjertsen. She works as general counsel for her family’s executive search firm, Schaffer Associates.

“At the end of the day, I’m really honored that the people voted … me in and feel confident that I’ll represent their interests in Raleigh,” Schaffer said Wednesday morning.

There is no Democrat running for House 105.

N.C. Senate 41 Republicans

Jeff Tarte and John Aneralla will face each other in a runoff election for the N.C. Senate 41 race. Neither received the required 40 percent to win the race outright, with Tarte getting 37.64 percent and Aneralla 36.25 percent. The district covers north Mecklenburg, then runs down the eastern edge of the county to include the Matthews and Mint Hill area and one or two south Charlotte neighborhoods.

by Mike Parks

Mecklenburg County prosecutors announced last week they would seek the death penalty against Mark Cox, the man police say stabbed a pregnant woman to death in the StoneCrest shopping center in January.

Bill Stetzer, an assistant district attorney in the county’s homicide team, said Monday, May 7, it was unclear exactly when Cox’s murder trial would start. Cox is charged with killing Danielle Watson, his co-worker and a manager at The Flying Biscuit Café, as the two closed the StoneCrest restaurant for the night Jan. 13. Police say Cox, a convicted felon prior to being hired at The Flying Biscuit Café, stabbed Watson before stealing money from the restaurant safe and fleeing to Fayetteville in Watson’s car. A sanitation worker found Watson’s body the next morning behind a trash bin near Chick-fil-A while authorities were nearby investigating the robbery, and police say they found Cox’s bloody work uniform and a large knife at the home of Chelsea Cox, his sister, later that day.

Along with being charged with Watson’s death, Cox faces an additional charge for the murder of her unborn child as part of North Carolina’s Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Prosecutors would not discuss what went into their decision to seek the death penalty.

On or off the field, Providence Day star has knack for seeing things through

Hours before playing in her final home game on April 27, Austin Brown made a vow: She absolutely was not going to cry.

The greatest player in the Providence Day girls lacrosse program’s history wasn’t going to shed a tear just because it was Senior Night and her parents would be there and it would be the final time she played in Overcash Stadium with her little sister, Cassie. No way, no how.

“I think I might get a little choked up, but I’m not one to cry over stuff like this,” said Brown, a senior midfielder who’s scored 300 career goals and led the Chargers program to new heights.

“This definitely will be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, playing the final game on my home field with my sister,” she added. “But, nah, I definitely won’t cry.”

And here’s what just about anyone who encounters Brown knows about her: When she vows do something – or not do something – she usually sticks to it.

That’s the way Brown has gone about her business since she was a 3-year-old who aspired to one day terrorize area baseball leagues with her big brother, Read. She did just that, eventually joining Read on coach-pitch and Little League teams coached by their dad, Stu, and excelling against many boys who went on to become college prospects.

But when Brown walked away from the baseball diamond for good at 11 years old, her dad knew it wasn’t because she felt she couldn’t play at a higher level; it simply was because her task was complete and she’d found a new passion.

“She’d been around baseball all her life,” Stu said, “and then it was as if she said, ‘OK, that’s enough. I’ve done what I need to do, and now it’s time to move on to more of a girls sport.’ And when she took up lacrosse, (the family wasn’t) surprised that she was good at that, too.

“She’s just a very driven young lady.”

That drive helped Brown develop as a lacrosse player much faster than most of her peers. As a seventh-grader, Brown was good enough to earn a spot on a travel team – a high school travel team called Team Charlotte. From the start, it seemed, she had tremendous field vision, which helped her score goals in bunches. She could anticipate things and shut down her opponents.

“I had a passion for lacrosse that I didn’t have for other sports,” she said. “I loved scoring, I loved playing lacrosse because my best friends played, so that made me want to stick with it and continue getting better. That’s all I ever wanted to do, and I got my heart set on playing in college.”

But as Brown entered her freshman season on the 2009 Providence Day squad, playing college lacrosse was an opportunity few girls in the Charlotte area were afforded. For one, lacrosse still was viewed by many as a “northern sport,” and college recruiters often looked to states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to build their rosters.  For Brown, the college-playing challenge was even more daunting because Providence Day’s girls program was struggling in just its third year of existence.

Brown, however, wasted little time making a name for herself and, consequently, her team.

As a ninth-grader, Brown tossed in 68 goals and added 35 assists while helping the Chargers to eight wins and a state playoff berth. The next year, Providence Day also won eight games with Brown totaling 69 goals and 25 assists. Last year, the Chargers battled through a 2-12 campaign, but Brown still managed to be spectacular, finishing with a whopping 79 goals and 18 assists.

This year, Providence Day has a 9-6 record, which is the best in program history, and Brown again has been the catalyst, leading the team with 71 goals, 31 assists, 60 groundballs and 48 takeaways. And in addition to reaching the 300-goal plateau, Brown recently registered the 400th point of her career. Those numbers, Chargers coach Lily Robinson said, would be impressive at any lacrosse program.

“I feel like she’s been everything to this program,” Robinson said. “I first came here in 2008 as an assistant, and we were so excited to have her as a freshman. She’s been a leader from Day 1. She’s been our top scorer and top five in scoring in the state every year. She’s gotten all-conference, all-state (and made) national tournament teams. But most of all, she’s just been excited about it, and she’s gotten other people excited about it.

She’s dedicated. She’s come to every practice, and she’s started in every game. I feel honored to be coaching her.

“Austin’s just a unique person.”

How unique? Brown probably is one of only a few girls in the Charlotte Independent Schools Athletic Association who’s shot and killed a deer.

That’s right: Brown and her sister, Cassie, are hunters – good ones.

Brown said she and her brother began going on hunting excursions with their father when she was about 5.

“I probably shot my first gun at 9 and my first deer at 10,” she said. “I loved that! We were out on a friend’s plantation, and when you kill your first dear, they do a big celebration for you. That was a lot of fun.

“At first, I think (people) are a little shocked when they hear that about me. But then they realize that that’s just what I like to do, and they’re cool with it.”

What’s the biggest deer she’s ever shot?

“An eight-point buck, and I have it hanging in my house right now,” she said proudly.

Brown’s family lives on a rural stretch of land in Fairview, a small town near Mint Hill and Indian Trail, and that “makes it easy to just go out the back door and shoot every once and a while,” her dad said.

“That’s why I never like to shoot with Austin or her younger sister because they’re better shots than me – they actually practice,” Stu Brown said with a laugh.

But for Brown, it’s not just about the thrill of the kill.

“The thing I enjoy most is spending time with my dad,” she said. “My mom (Lisa) takes me to all my lacrosse tournaments, so I get to spend a lot of time in the car and at tournaments with her. My dad coaches baseball in the summer, so going hunting is when he and I get to spend time with each other.”

Her coach said it’s yet another thing that makes Brown special.

“She comes from a really close, loving family, and they do everything together,” Robinson said. “Once, I asked her what she did over her Christmas break, and she said, ‘I chopped wood with my dad.’ Most students are not doing that type of thing, but that’s just the type of girl Austin is.”

Brown likely inherits her competitive spirit and athleticism from her dad, who played baseball at the University of Richmond with former major-leaguer and NFL player Brian Jordan in the 1980s. But her mother was an accomplished athlete, too, having played tennis at the University of Massachusetts. In addition, Brown’s brother is a sophomore catcher on the Palm Beach (Fla.) Atlantic University baseball team.

So it didn’t surprise others when Brown made being a college athlete one of her goals, too.

“And she’s one of those girls who, if she sets her mind to something, she’ll run through a wall to accomplish it,” Stu Brown said.

That’s one reason she’ll be playing at Coastal Carolina University soon.

Brown’s first three years of high school lacrosse were good enough to attract the interest of a number of college teams, including Jacksonville (Fla.) University, Rollins College (Fla.), Florida Southern and Belmont Abbey. Each school piqued her interest. Until, that is, she stopped in Conway, S.C., last summer as her family picked up a friend attending basketball camp at Coastal Carolina.

“I fell in love with the school,” she said. “I knew I wanted to go to college close to the beach somewhere – it didn’t really matter where at first. But I just got a feeling when I was at Coastal that that was where I wanted to go. ”

One problem, though: Coastal Carolina didn’t have a lacrosse coach to recruit Brown – because the school didn’t yet have a women’s lacrosse team.

“I started doing research and found out they were going to be starting a team in the fall (of 2012), and they were going to be announcing their coach a few weeks after I had visited the campus,” Brown said. “I kept track of it, and I e-mailed (coach Jaime Sellers) the day her hiring was announced. I told her that I was very interested in playing there and that (the college) was close enough to home that I could come home if I wanted to but far enough away that my parents couldn’t come every weekend. I kept e-mailing her, calling her, going down for visits, and she liked that.

“I like being the one who pushes for things to be done. I was going to do whatever I had to do to go play there.”

Brown is excited heading into the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association playoffs, which begin on Saturday, May 12. The 2012 season, as a whole, already has been special, partly because of the Providence Day resurgence but especially because Brown’s been able to play with her sister, a talented freshman who ranks third on the team with 19 goals. In fact, Brown’s 400th-career point came on an assist to Cassie.

“It means so much to have my sister on the team,” Brown said. “I think she can do everything I can do, and even more, so that pushes me to work even harder. I’m really going to miss her.”

So as the time for that final Senior Night game neared on April 27, the question arose: Would rugged, dear-hunting, hard-throwing Austin Brown cry as she took the field with her family?

“She did not cry,” her father said. “I think she giggled through most of it. I think her mother and I might’ve shed a tear, but she did not.

“She’s a trouper.”

by Mike Parks

County Manager Harry Jones is working on ways homeowners can take part in the review of the 2011 property tax revaluation at the request of south Mecklenburg’s commissioner.

Commissioner Bill James asked Jones to bring in some of the citizens who have been the most vocal fighting their property tax revaluation and researching the process. At least 16 people signed up and spoke at a recent county meeting on revaluation, with many begging commissioners to “fix” a revaluation they saw as seriously flawed.

“I think that it will help improve the audit of revaluation if we have citizens that were hip-deep in the subject matter involved in working with the auditor,” James said in an email Monday, May 7.

In an email to county leaders, Jones says he’ll put the options on an upcoming county commission agenda for commissioners to vote on. Jones did not respond to South Charlotte Weekly’s request to describe what those options might be prior to press deadline.

“Although my recommendation was to rely on the appeals process as the built-in audit of the revaluation, my responsibility is to implement the decision of the board to conduct this review,” Jones wrote in an email to the board. “Given that the board is interested in assuring public confidence in the reappraisal process and having a credible review process, additional citizen involvement in the review process makes sense.”

Commissioners voted May 1 to review the revaluation that has caused outrage from residents across the county. Most of the charge to review the process has come from north Mecklenburg homeowners around Lake Norman, and the area’s county commissioner, Karen Bentley. Bentley tried to pass a proposal at the meeting calling for an outside audit of the revaluation and for the county to schedule a new revaluation for 2014, something James supported. The majority of commissioners balked at going that far in their vote, with SouthPark’s representative on the commission, Neil Cooksey, helping lead a vote to review the revaluation and look into the costs and efforts in doing a revaluation down the road, but not scheduling a 2014 revaluation.

The commission should discuss the finer points of getting an outside review of the revaluation process at their June 19 meeting.

Delaney Forrest, a sophomore at Providence High School, installed a butterfly garden at McKee Road Elementary Saturday May 5, for her Girl Scouts Gold Award, the most prestigious award in the program. Morgan Smith/SCW photo

For one local Girl Scout, selling cookies and earning badges is just a fun memory as her time with the Scouts quickly approaches the end. But before it’s all said and done, she’s making a change in her community, and it’s a change only few Girl Scouts will ever achieve.

Delaney Forrest, a sophomore at Providence High School, is working to gain the Girl Scout Gold Award. Only 5 percent of all Girl Scouts achieve the honor, which is the most prestigious award in the program. Compared to the Eagle Scout ranking in Boy Scouts of America, the Gold Award is far from easy, Delaney said, especially when balancing school, internships and sports all at the same time.

But Delaney said her project will be well worth it in the end, especially because students at McKee Road Elementary School will benefit.

To achieve the Gold Award, “you basically have to come up with a problem that you see in the community and figure out a way to help assist in solving that problem,” Delaney said. “My problem that I saw was that kids know about recycling, but they don’t know why they need to recycle or what happens to their recycling.”

So Delaney called Demetri Pharr, site coordinator at McKee Road Elementary School, to set up a plan.

“I went to McKee Road in kindergarten,” Delaney said. “This school is kind of where it all started so I thought it was only fitting to give back.”

Working with the after-school program at the school, Delaney taught the students two lessons on recycling and composting and why conservation is important. She also had the students bring in milk cartons to show how they can recycle and to let the students plant their own seeds. They will eventually transport and plant their seeds in a butterfly garden outside of the school, which is the main piece of Delaney’s project.

But before a garden could be installed, Delaney had to get the supplies and funding. She reached out to local hardware stores such as Home Depot, Lowes and Renfrow Hardware in Matthews.

“They all donated plants or like gift cards so I could buy things I needed,” Delaney said.

So Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5, Delaney, with the help of her mom Megan and 10 volunteers from the Providence High School Kiwanis Club, built two garden boxes, planted butterfly-oriented plants such as lantana, butterfly bushes, bee balm and parsley, painted benches and reinstalled a fallen birdfeeder at the school.

Now Pharr, the site coordinator, and her after-school students will have their chance to contribute to the garden Thursday, May 10, when they get to transport their own milk carton plants into the garden.

“It all ties in because it shows the kids if you recycle and keep the soil healthy and you keep the whole Earth healthy then you can grow an entire garden,” Delaney said.

Pharr said she’s thankful her 45 to 50 students have the opportunity to learn about the Earth.

“It’s a significant opportunity for (the students) just to understand about us giving back and taking care of the Earth,” Pharr said, “and really do what we need to do to keep it going.”

Once Delaney’s project is complete, Pharr and her students will maintain the garden. Pharr said the best part about the project is the children feel like they are contributing to something, and can feel proud of their product as they keep the garden going.

Megan Forrest, Delaney’s mom, said she couldn’t be more proud of Delaney’s achievement in Girl Scouts.

“I honestly didn’t think she would go this far when she first started,” Forrest said. “She’s the kind of kid that is very organized – it doesn’t take much prodding to make things happen. She’s really organized, a really good student and just a really great kid.”

And for Delaney, although it’s the end of her run at Girl Scouts, she’s just excited to move on and do bigger things, first focusing on her studies and playing volleyball.

“It was a very long road, but once you get there, it’s so exciting and so relieving and I’m just so happy that it’s almost done,” she said.

Charlotte Catholic’s baseball team has been led by (from left) Michael Crowley, Chris Clare, Jacob Bonen-Clark, Jordan Accetta, Eddie Hull and Jack Brodowicz. Aaron Garcia/SCW photo

As Randy Belk trudged toward the team bus on April 4, beaten down by his Charlotte Catholic baseball squad’s latest loss, the current state of the Cougars seemed like an improbability. At that point, Belk couldn’t see past his team’s relative ineptitude. And who could blame him?

The Cougars had just suffered the latest in a string of will-crushing losses, this time in East Mecklenburg’s Spring Break Showcase tournament to North Meck, over whom the Cougars had held a 6-0 lead before falling apart in the late innings to lose, 8-6. The night before, the Cougars fell to Independence, 5-2 after holding a 2-0 lead. The night before that? A 9-4 loss to East Meck after racing to a 4-0 lead after six innings.

To make matters worse, the tournament came on the heels of perhaps the Cougars’ worst loss all season, a 14-2 thrashing from Olympic in late March that dropped Catholic to second place in the ME-GA 7 3A/4A conference standings.

“After that game (against North Meck), I kind of looked at them and said, ‘Go on spring break,’” recalled Belk, who’s in his 32nd year coaching the Cougars. “I didn’t have anything to say. I went straight to the bus. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, I didn’t want to see anybody.

“I was as frustrated at coaching as I’ve been in a long, long, long time.”

Fast-forward roughly a month, and Charlotte Catholic has sewn up its fourth consecutive regular-season league title and blanked Olympic, 8-0 in the ME-GA 7 3A/4A tournament championship game on May 4 to improve to 15-7 on the season and 11-1 in conference play.

The key to the Cougars regaining their spot atop the ME-GA 7 standings and entering the Class 3A state playoffs with momentum yet again this season?

Time, said Belk.

Entering this season, the Cougars were faced with replacing eight of last year’s starters who led the team to a 19-5 record and a fourth-round playoff appearance. Gone was the majority of the pitching staff and position players. Even the one remaining starter, Eddie Hull, was in an unfamiliar position; before the season, Belk moved the senior to second base from his previous home at third in an effort to shore up the middle of the infield.

To compound things, Belk scheduled one of the toughest slates in recent memory for the Cougars. After the North Meck loss, the Cougars were 8-6 overall with losses to not only their three East Meck tournament opponents but south Charlotte stalwarts South Mecklenburg and Charlotte Christian. A late date with Ardrey Kell on April 26 (a 4-0 loss) meant the Cougars were scheduled to play nearly every good team from the vaunted Southwestern 4A conference aside from Providence and Butler.

It was a tall order for a roster full of varsity neophytes, Belk acknowledged.

“It was scary at first,” Belk said. “I knew they were talented. The funny thing is I knew they would hit – I just didn’t know how well they’d play defense because they all hit (while they were on) the JV team.”

Added Hull: “Coming into it, we had some young talent, but we didn’t really know how we were going to fare.”

The gains came slowly, a fact that justified Belk’s frustrated trek to the team bus following the North Meck loss.

“I spent a week thinking, ‘All right, what do you do?’” said Belk. “But at the same time I kept thinking, ‘We just played three really good teams and probably saw (each team’s) No. 1 pitcher.’ We were in all of those games, and I was thinking, ‘All right, they were three good teams, and we were in (the games).’”

As it turned out, the week off was just what the doctor ordered for the Cougars’ ailing bats. Belk took the team to a two-game tournament in Roanoke, Va., the following week, and the Cougars exploded for 25 hits, winning their two games by a combined score of 30-4. Finally the offense was showing the potential Belk knew was there.

“It was contagious,” Belk said. “One guy starts hitting, and the other guys hit.”

Since then, the Cougars have settled into their roles both at the plate and in the field. First-year starting third baseman Tyler Jensen is hitting .390 and leads the team with 20 RBIs and seven doubles. Belk said Hull has thrived at his new position, and his offensive numbers suggest a high comfort level, as the Wingate University commit leads the team with a .475 average and 28 hits. Chris Clare, another new starter at first base, is hitting .349 with 19 RBIs. Jack Brodowicz is perhaps the league’s best defensive center fielder, and Michael Crowley, formerly an infielder, has filled in as the team’s catcher and done a solid job.

The Cougars haven’t just outscored teams, however. Perhaps Belk’s tallest obstacle came in replacing a pitching staff that combined for a 1.85 ERA and eight shutouts in 2011. After a brief adjustment period, first-year starting juniors Jacob Bonen-Clark (7-2 record) and Jordan Accetta (7-3) have settled into their roles and currently lead a staff with a 2.64 ERA that hasn’t surrendered a home run all season.

The season, which basically equaled a baptism by fire, said Bonen-Clark, has paid off, and should continue to do so.

“It’s good now because we’ve gotten that experience and gotten it out of the way so now, going into the playoffs, we’re ready for the tough teams that we’re going to face.”

The Cougars begin their postseason run on Friday, May 11. And while the team’s inexperience worries Belk, he said coaching this young group has him feeling rejuvenated.

“It does keep you on your toes a little bit,” said Belk. “I’ve had as much fun this year coaching this bunch as I’ve had in a long time.”

And while the improvement has reenergized their coach, it has also helped the Cougars realize just how far they’ve come, and how far they want to keep going.

“We’re starting to roll right now,” said Crowley. “We’re playing real well together and everything is falling into place.”

Added Bonen-Clark: “We feel really confident right now, especially after that win against Olympic (in the conference tournament championship game). We feel ready for whatever anyone else can throw at us.”

by Alan Hodge

Mecklenburg County native Matthew Sanchez (above) will lead a boys-only break dancing class June 11 to 14 at The Crews Center in Matthews. Photo courtesy of Matthew Sanchez

Boys who think dance lessons are less than manly haven’t seen 19-year-old Matthew Sanchez in action.

A Mecklenburg County native, Sanchez is enrolled at the American Music Dramatic Academy in New York City where he’s studying singing, acting and dance. But his specialty is break dancing.

The Ardrey Kell High graduate will lead a Bboy break dancing workshop for boys ages 8 and older June 11 to 14 at The Crews Center, 1201 Crews Road in Matthews. Cost is $45 for Matthews residents and $50 for non-residents.

Sanchez said he’ll be teaching a blend of break dancing and martial arts.

“I want people to understand that break dancing is not just rolling around on the floor,” Sanchez said. “It’s really structured and just as difficult and serious as ballet or jazz.”

Amanda Sheppard, director of dance at the Matthews Community Center, is the organizer of the Bboy classes. She met Sanchez last year when she was choreographer for the Ardrey Kell High production of “Footloose.”

“I saw Matthew’s talent for dancing,” she said. “In talking to him, I became aware that break dancing was his thing.”

In addition to dancing, Sanchez also played football, ran track and field, taught himself how to play guitar and piano, is a master of the yo-yo, a whiz at solving Rubik’s Cube puzzles and practices martial arts.

Sanchez also founded the Charlotte-based dance troupe “Antix” and has performed at the Matthews Alive! festival. He said he became interested in break dancing by chance.

“One day I was bored and saw break dancing on YouTube,” Sanchez said. “I knew right then I wanted to do it.”

According to Sanchez, some of his favorite break dance floor moves were spawned in the gym.

“I like to incorporate flips and martial arts moves into my break dancing,” he said.

Sheppard came up with the idea to bring the Bboy dance classes to Matthews.

“I was looking for a way to reach out to boys,” she said. “And to let boys be boys and still learn to dance.”

Sheppard said Sanchez is a natural to lead the classes since he has taught break dancing at schools in Matthews, Charlotte, Davidson, New York City and New Jersey.

“I know Matthew is very gifted in the area of teaching and I think he will be an inspiration to the students,” she said.

According to Sanchez, his plan for the Bboy classes is for the guys to get together and kick up their heels.

“Everyone who takes part can have some fun and express themselves,” he said. “Maybe they can find themselves and find out what they want to do.” Bboy students will dance to appropriate music for young students. The final class will end with a break dance contest where the winner will receive a trophy.

Want to break dance?

The Bboy dance workshop will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 11 to 14 at The Crews Center, 1201 Crews Road, in Matthews. Cost is $45 for Matthews residents and $50 for non-residents.

To register, visit www.matthewsfun.org and click “Summer Camps 2012.”

It wouldn’t be high school baseball postseason time without south Charlotte teams peppering the state playoff brackets. And, as has become customary, several local teams have excellent shots at bringing home hardware when the dust settles. Here’s a breakdown of area teams entering the Class 4A playoffs on Friday, May 11.

Providence

The Panthers sewed up their third consecutive Southwestern 4A conference tournament with a 4-0 win over Ardrey Kell on May 7. The win improved their record to 25-2, 13-1 in the league.

Providence will host Winston-Salem Mount Tabor in the state playoffs on Friday, May 11.

Before their April 30 loss to Ardrey Kell, the Panthers had won 13 consecutive contests, dating back to March 14, when they were edged by Weddington, 7-6. Coach Danny Hignight’s team has scored an average of 6.6 runs per game while only allowing two.

The Panthers seem to have it all. The pitching staff, headlined by starters Ty Buttrey (9-1 record) and Mike Herbert (7-0), has been downright dominant at times, while the potent offense features five players with at least two home runs on the season (Jackson Campana, Andrew MacLatchie, Herbert, Buttrey and Xander Maddox). But will it be enough to propel the Panthers to the finals for the first time since 1997?

Ardrey Kell

The Knights fell in the conference tournament finals after sharing the regular-season title with the Panthers. At 23-4, the Knights should be one of the top teams in the state not to earn a No. 1 seed.

Ardrey Kell will host Pfafftown Reagan on Friday.

Coach Hal Bagwell described his team as “blue-collar.” The Knights won their previous 13 games before dropping the title game and have won 20 of their last 22 games.

“It’s been coming from different people every day,” Bagwell marveled. “We’ve had several people step up when we needed it, and we’re continuing to get it from other people. That’s the sign of a good team.”

Bagwell said lead-off hitter Preston Tiller has set the tone for a grinding offense. The senior has complemented his .355 batting average with an on-base percentage of .579 and 11 stolen bases. Fellow senior Myles Garner, who hits in the No. 2 spot, leads the team with a .356 batting average and 17 stolen bases, a point which further illustrates the Knights’ ability to manufacture runs.

The Knights’ calling card all season, however, has been pitching and defense, exhibited by their team-wide 1.35 ERA. Trent Thornton, the Knights’ top starter and a University of North Carolina commit, is 8-1 as a starter with two saves, a 1.05 ERA, 111 strikeouts and 13 walks in 66 2/3 innings pitched. The No. 2, Brad Stone, is 6-2 with a 1.73 ERA and 85 strikeouts. The Knights’ closer, Justin French, leads the team with six saves and a 0.36 ERA (32 strikeouts, two walks). Bagwell added that Brian Hummel and Logan Beechler have been solid in support.

“I feel very confident,” said Bagwell of his team’s playoff chances. “We’ve put together a pretty good string of wins and our four losses have come against real good competition, and that has battle-tested us.

“I feel good about where we’re at, from my club (as a whole) to our arms to the way we’re playing defense to the way we’re creating runs. I feel really good about it.”

South Mecklenburg

John Tuscan’s squad earned the conference’s third seed after finishing the regular season with a 16-9 record, which included a 9-5 mark in league play. The Sabres have received strong pitching performances all season from Earl Oliver (7-2), Tyler Aiello (4-1) and closer Andrew Maulden. The Sabres also feature a formidable lineup behind hitters Adam Nix, Tyler Braxton, Oliver, Brooks Kennedy and Logan Koch.

The Sabres visit West Forsyth on Friday.

Independence (13-10, 7-7) and Butler (14-11, 6-8) earned the league’s fourth and fifth seeds, respectively. East Mecklenburg (10-13, 5-9) finished outside of the postseason in sixth place, followed by Myers Park, led by first-year coach Matt Burnett. The Mustangs were 7-17 overall and 3-11 in league play.