Six Gryphons to hit mat at NCHSAA state tournament
February 17, 2009 Rocky Mount High School
By Nick Phillips
iHigh.com Correspondent
WINTERVILLE - Rocky Mount head wrestling coach Jermaine Jones was intense all last weekend while his wrestlers were on the mat competing in the NCHSAA 3-A East Regional individual tournament at South Central High School.
You could hear his booming voice shouting instructions to his guys even while sitting in the upper reaches of the bleachers. He argued calls, questioned scoring, tended to wounds and plugged bloody noses.
He studied the bracket sheets between his team's matches. He studied wrestlers his guys would be going up against in the next round. At one time Friday night, he was coaching one wrestler in the main gym while two more of his wrestlers waited on their mats in the auxiliary gym. Finish coaching one winning wrestler, and on to the next.
After two days of all that intensity, Jones had enough energy to smile. A big, wide smile of satisfaction. He had coached nine members of his team into qualifying status for this regional. Six of those wrestlers came out two days later as state qualifiers.
Ahmir Scott (112), Francisco Alfaro (130), Chandler Phillips (135), J.K. Williamson (160), Dedrick Silver (171) and Guy Williamson (215) will all be heading to Winston-Salem this weekend.
Alfaro will be making his third trip to compete at Joel Coliseum, while Silver will be competing for the second time. Williamson is thought to be the first Rocky Mount wrestler to qualify as a freshman.
RMHS will lead a contingent of 15 NEW 6 Conference wrestlers to compete at the state tournament - 13 of which are from Nash County. Northern Nash qualified four wrestlers, Nash Central three, while SouthWest Edgecombe and Fike qualified one each.
There is a pool of 22 teams within the East Region. The Gryphons placed sixth in team points, tops among NEW 6 schools. They finished just two points behind White Oak for fifth place. Northern Nash (seventh) and Nash Central (ninth) both finished in the top 10. Havelock placed first, followed by host South Central, Currituck and Washington.
Below is a list of NEW 6 Conference wrestlers who will be in Winston-Salem Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20 and 21. Nash County's wrestlers are in bold:
103 - Cory Johnson, Northern Nash
112 - Vincent Webb, Wilson Fike; Ahmir Scott, Rocky Mount; Landon Lucas, SW Edgecombe
119 - Donald Battle, Northern Nash
125 - Jacob Robinson, Nash Central
130 - Francisco Alfaro, Rocky Mount
135 - Chandler Phillips, Rocky Mount
140 - Tavis Richardson, Northern Nash
145 - Steven Luper, Nash Central
160 - J.K. Williamson, Rocky Mount
171 - Dedrick Silver, Rocky Mount; Donnie Wecenske, Nash Central
215 - Guy Williamson, Rocky Mount; Joe Young, Northern Nash
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