For the last several
years area high school teams have shown the ability to play with, and
beat the best in the state. Perhaps the biggest success has been
made by the Rose High football team, which will attempt to win its 3rd
consecutive state title at the 4-A level this Saturday inside NC
State’s Carter Finley Stadium. However Rose isn’t the only school
making noise on the state’s biggest stage.
Baseball has long been a point of success for this area, but maybe
never more than it has been recently. Names like Catfish Hunter
and Gaylord Perry who both played professionally give this area a rich
baseball tradition. Of course the success of the ECU Pirates is
well documented. With seven consecutive trips to the NCAA
tournament and two trips to the super-regionals in the last 4 years,
it’s hard to ignore the Pirates success, even nationally.
Last year, greater Greenville area high-school baseball teams added to
the rich baseball tradition by winning the Class 4-A and 1-A state
championships, with D.H. Conley and Farmville Central winning those
titles respectively. Add to that the fact that the Rose Rampants
took home 3 out of 6 state baseball crowns from 99-04, including
back-to-back in 03-04.
For area schools perhaps the least success has come in
basketball. However, you only have to go back a few years to see
that Farmville Central and Ayden Grifton combined to dominate the 2-A
ranks for a period of 5 years. From 1989 to 1993 you couldn’t
stop these two programs. F.C. won back-to-back in 89-90 and then again
in 93, and A.G. took home back-to-back titles in 91-92. Also
Farmville Central’s Women’s basketball team has seen recent success,
making it to the state championship game in 2003. The Jaguars
will look for bigger and better things this year, as star guard and NC
State recruit Megan Zullo plays in her senior year.
It is hard to say that this success is unparalleled in other areas,
especially considering the fact that Charlotte Independence football
has racked up an amazing 5 straight state championships at the 4-AA
level. If Rose could win this Saturday however, it would mean
that Greenville teams have won the last three 4-A state championships
in both football and baseball. A pretty amazing feat indeed, now
if they could only get a shot at Independence!
