Cold hands (and heads), warm hearts

Northwood got an early start to its baseball season last week with a 14-1 win Thursday over Southwest Randolph in a scrimmage game at the Chargers’ Ronald Horton Baseball Complex.

The weather was, in a word, miserable. It was cold and damp, but that didn’t prevent the Chargers from going through with a promise of support for cancer victims.

Members of the Northwood baseball team had their heads shaved — à la a St. Baldric’s tradition — to fulfill their pledge to help raise funds for childhood cancer research through the VS. Cancer Foundation. As of Thursday night, more than $1,800 in pledges had been raised.

Post-season honors for Morgan

With all the hoopla surrounding last week’s Carolina-6 tournament final at Chapel Hill High School — won by the Tigers in with dramatic 47-42 victory over Oxford Webb — it would have been easy to overlook the honor paid to head coach Tod Morgan.

Morgan was named the Carolina-6 Boys Basketball Coach of the Year in a vote of his peers.

The Tigers (22-4 overall, 9-1 in Carolina-6 games) finished first in the conference standings for the third straight year and won the conference tournament for the second time in three years.

Including last week’s tournament final, the Tigers were 104-20 in four seasons under Morgan — including three straight seasons of 20-plus wins since his first year in Chapel Hill.

And more honors for Norris, Smith

The honors just keep rolling in for Chapel Hill’s Sherry Norris, who was named the Carolina-6 Girls Coach Basketball Coach of the Year last week.

Jamella Smith, a junior, was named the conference’s girls player of the year after helping the Tigers (25-1) repeat as Carolina-6 champions. Smith leads the team in scoring (11.8 points a game) and steals (3.3 a game), and is second in assists (3 per game) behind Tamia Eatmon.

Norris has been lauded, rightfully, several times in the last 12 months. Last spring, the N.C. High School Athletics Association honored her with its 2012 Toby Webb Coach of the Year Award in recognition of her 35 years of success.

Having led Chapel Hill to two state titles in volleyball and one in basketball, Norris topped 1,200 total wins last year and surpassed the 500-win in basketball earlier this season.

Wildcats named all-conference

Two basketball players from East Chapel Hill High School have won post-season honors by being named to the PAC-6’s all-conference team: Ali Cyr-Scully and Justen Best.

Best, a senior guard on the men’s team, led the Wildcats in scoring (13.2 points a game) and in steals (1.2 spg), and was second in assists (1.8 apg).

Cyr-Scully, a starting point guard as a ninth-grader, led the women’s team in points per game (12) and was second in assists (2.2) and steals (1.3) per game, and she was third among all 4A freshmen in the state in scoring.

Scenes

Former UNC athletics director and U.S. representative BILL COBEY sharing a quiet conversation with former UNC wrestling coach Bill Lam after a Bible study. … Merritt Store staffers handing out hot coffee on a cold Sunday morning in front of the Varsity Theater. … CHARLIE ADAMS, past executive director of the N.C. High School Athletics Association, and LEON TODD, former owner of Swenson’s Ice Cream parlor in University Square, visiting a friend. … The standing-room-only crowd at Chapel Hill High School for the Carolina-6 basketball finals singing the national anthem a cappella when the recorded track gave out over the PA system. … East Chapel Hill High School soccer coach AUSTIN COLLINS leading girls from the Wildcats’ spring soccer team through calisthenics in the school’s café commons.