Maiden, Hickory expect to name football coaches on same night

If their respective school boards OK their choices, Hickory and Maiden will each have a new head football coach on Feb. 27.

Maiden Principal Dwayne Finger said Thursday he still expects to give the Catawba County Schools a recommendation for hire on Feb. 27, a Monday.

Public information officer Beverly Snowden of the Hickory Public Schools says a candidate’s name for the Hickory job should also be before HPS board members on Feb. 27.

A four-man selection committee at Maiden finished 12 interviews over about a three-week period, and Finger said he’s working on some final details for the opening at Maiden.

Snowden said Hickory had more than 50 applicants and finished its first round of interviews on Tuesday. She said 11 were schedule and two candidates withdrew.

“They interviewed somewhere between seven and nine candidates,” Snowden said. She said the field is down to three and second interviews are scheduled next week.

Maiden seeks a replacement for Brian Brown, who resigned and plans to remain a teacher at Maiden. He picked up a career win on Wednesday with a forfeit from Hickory (inadvertent use of an ineligible player), going into the books with a 30-20 record in four seasons at Maiden.

Hickory is replacing John Worley, who is retiring after 28 years at the school and nine as the head coach. With nine forfeits for 2011 – eight wins plus a tie with Statesville – Worley leaves with a career record of 64-48-0.

Go figure: It may just be a matter of player matchups, but the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A girls’ basketball race between Bandys and Newton-Conover has also had an odd twist.

Heading into Friday night’s regular season finales – Bandys at Bunker Hill and Newton-Conover at West Caldwell – the Trojans and Red Devils are 12-1 in the league, and they’ll probably go 13-1 and share the conference title.

The odd twist has been who has been most competitive against Bandys and  Newton-Conover.

Bandys’ closest league games have been wins by seven at West Caldwell and by four at home against South Iredell.

Other than losing by eight at Bandys, the Red Devils have had only one game – 51-46 over East Burke at Newton-Conover – decided by 10 or fewer points.

Bandys beat East Burke by 34 points and by 18 points. Newton-Conover beat West Caldwell by 50 and South Iredell by 28 and 32.

Barring a world’s-coming-to-an-end upset by winless Bunker Hill over Bandys, the Trojans are going to share the CVAC 2A title. … and the Red Devils are heavily favored to also beat West Caldwell on Friday night.

Don’t be surprised to see a third Trojans-Red Devils game in the CVAC 2A tournament title game, and it would determine who gets the No. 1 seed into the state 2A playoffs.

And with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s new seeding system, teams from the same conference can meet at any point in the playoffs, so a fourth battle between Bandys and Newton-Conover would be somewhere in the postseason.

Most likely, it would be in Greensboro in the West 2A Regional. With the rule changes, it could be in the first round. In the past two years, when both Bandys and Newton-Conover made the regional, they (by rule) had to be paired away from each other in the opening round.

Those pesky conference tiebreakers: The conference basketball tournament pairings will be settled in meetings on Saturday, where seeding ties will be broken.

Here’s a stab at the first-round pairings with, if possible, the potential ties already broken, with an asterisk beside seeds that aren’t going to change no matter what happens Friday night (but wait until the official pairings are out before making your plans).

All first-round games in the CVAC 2A and Northwestern 3A-4A games are Monday, 6:30 p.m. tip if one game at a site and 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. if two games at one site.

The other rounds for the CVAC 2A are Wednesday through Friday at Catawba Valley Community College and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for the Northwestern 3A-4A at Hickory.

CVAC 2A GIRLS

No. 8 Bunker Hill* at No. 1 Bandys or Newton-Conover

No. 7 Maiden* at No. 2 Bandys or Newton-Conover

No. 6 Draughn* at No. 3 E. Burke, S. Iredell or W. Caldwell

No. 4 at No. 5, TBD

Potential ties: Bandys-N-C will have to be broken by a draw. …If two-way tie between EB and SI for third, SI is No. 3, EB is No. 4 (SI sweep of EB) and WC is No. 5. … If three-way tie between EB, SI and WC for third, EB is No. 3, WC is No. 4 and SI is No. 5 (EB and WC swept sixth-place Draughn and SI split with Draughn). … SI and WC for fourth, SI is No. 4, WC is No. 5 (SI 1-1 vs. third-place EB, WC 0-2 vs. EB).

CVAC 2A BOYS

No. 8 Bandys* at No. 1 W. Caldwell*

No. 5 Bunker Hill or Maiden at No. 4 Draughn*

No. 7 S. Iredell* at No. 2 E. Burke or Newton-Conover

No. 6 Bunker Hill or Maiden at No. 3 Newton-Conover or E. Burke

Potential ties: N-C and EB at 11-3 for second, EB No. 2 and N-C No. 3 (EB swept fourth-place Draughn and N-C 1-1 vs. Draughn). … N-C and EB for second at 10-4, EB is No. 2 and N-C is No. 3 (EB beat first-place WC; N-C 0-2 vs. WC). … Maiden and BH for fifth, BH is No. 5 and Maiden No. 6 (BH swept Maiden).

NORTHWESTERN 34A-4A GIRLS

No. 1, Hickory bye*

No. 5 Watauga* at No. 4 Foard*

No. 7 St. Stephens* at No. 2 Alexander Central*

No. 6 Hibriten* at No. 3 S. Caldwell*

Potential ties: AC and SC for second, AC is No. 2 and SC is No. 3 (AC 2-1 vs. SC).

NORTHWESTERN 3A-4A BOYS

No. 1 Alexander Central or Hickory, bye

No. 5 S. Caldwell* at No. 4 St. Stephens or Watauga (Friday winner is No. 3, loser is No. 4)

No. 7 Hibriten* at No. 2 Alexander Central or Hickory

No. 6 Fred T. Foard* at No. 3 St. Stephens or Watauga (Friday winner is No. 3, loser is No. 4).

Potential ties: AC and Hickory for first, Hickory is No. 1, AC is No. 2 (HHS 2-1 vs. AC; both No. 1 seed into state playoffs, HHS in 3A, AC in 4A). … SC and FTF for fifth, SC is No. 5, FTF is No. 6 (SC swept FTF). … Hibriten and FTF for sixth, FTF is No. 6, Hibriten is No. 7 (FTF swept Hibriten).

Thumbs down on pod system: Meeting in Greensboro last weekend, the North Carolina Football Coaches Association (NCFCA) voted to send its vote about the football playoff pod system and playing 11 games in 11 weeks to the NCHSAA.

The vote was a firm no on both fronts.

The coaching group didn’t enjoy the changes last season of not having 12 weeks in which to play 11 games and in having eight-team groupings, based heavily on geography, in the playoff brackets.

The pod system led to first-round repeat games of conference foes like Hibriten against Hickory and Watauga against Alexander Central.

-- Former Maiden head coach Tom Brown was among those coaches honored in Greensboro by the NCFCA with lifetime memberships.

Record Sports Editor Chris Hobbs is in his 36th consecutive season reporting on sports in the Greater Hickory area. Reach him at chobbs@hickoryrecord.com or share your thoughts on the Hobbs’ Huddle blog by commenting on it on Facebook. Comments will show up on HDR Online and Facebook.