who's the favorites in the NW4A this year?

How has Watauga been playing this year. I know they lost some pitching but who has stepped up and been a key to their early season wins?

 

Pitching- Scottie Wilcox 1-1 with a 3-0 loss @ North Forsyth and a 3-1 win @ Mount Tabor. Jonathon Greene (all conference catcher) 1-0 with a 10-2 win against North Forsyth. Hitting: Solid 1-9 with potential "lead-off batters" hitting in the 1,2,and 5 spot, power hitting at 3 spot and a rbi hitter at 4 spot, the rest just finds ways to get on. Pitching staff a come a long way. Three solid righties, and two lefties will see the bulk of the pitching. They have a tough non-conference schedule with Home and away series' with South Meck, North Forsyth, Mount Tabor, and North Davidson, and a game @ Providence, also they have the tough easter tourny with Greenville Rose and Providence as well as a couple of other good eastern north carolina schools. Not to mention that the NW4A might be one of the toughest conferences this year.

 

I guess for me I have to go with Alexander Central to take the top spot. They have a lot of senoirs and are very experienced. Watauga is probably the front runner for the second spot and to challenge AC for the top spot. South Caldwell will be there along with McDowell, but only because of Taylor. If Alexander's pitching staff continues to hold up it could be a long season for the rest of the NW4A.

 

My heart is with SC but I think AC with all their senoirs and pitching will be hard to handle this year. SC is a little young this year and will get better and better as the year goes by and the future as always looks very bright here. Watagua scares me a little they are very well coached and will come to play every time out. Heres my picks.

Alexander
South Caldwell
Watagua
East Burke
Mcdowell
Freedom
AC Reynolds

 

who are the favorites on the jv level in the nw4a???

 

I must agree that ACHS will be the champions of the NW4A with maybe only suffering a loss to Watauga up in Boone. Seniors lead this team, and the coaching staff will pretty much just put a lineup card together and let the players win. They beat a solid Prividence team and will take on North Forsyth, but after that they always play in a very weak Easter Tourney. Unlike Watauga who plays East Coast teams and Mt. Tabor, ACHS always counts on easy non-conference wins against Bunker Hill and Newton-Conover. Watauga in my mind will get the 2nd spot, and the 3rd will go to East Burke or South Caldwell. ACHS, however, is the only team in this conference that can win in the state playoffs. Matt Payne (N.C. signee) leads the pitching staff, and a host of senior hitters fill out the reamaing lineup. I had heard before I moved that a junior phenom was coming in but can't verify that. ACHS may have a weak spot at the top/bottom of the lineup depending on what a couple of kids can do this year. Playme, is a "expert" on this conference so we need to find him and hear what he has to say. I believe he coached these boys before so he has a true inside knowledge on what these boys can do.

 

I agree with most.AC probably has the most talent of any team,but you have a coach there that tends to make stupid decisions in games.Seems like that at times he doesnt have a clue whats going on in the game therefore he comes up
with something stupid sometimes costing his team a game.With the talent that AC has they should win the conference and contend for the state.If Pete Hardee or Jeff Paraham had this team you could go ahead and give AC the state trophy.BUT THEY DONT!!!!!!!.Thats what will seperate Watauga,SC,and
AC,this year.You can bet that the coach at AC will find a way to cost his team a game in a critical situation. Good Luck to all of the teams in the NW4A.

 

Hardball, I have to agree with you on the part that if Hardee were ACHS' coach then you could go ahead and give them the state championship but I am not sold on Parhm. The current coach at ACHS 'appears" to know what is going on with the team. He did make a HUGE mistake last year in sending his runner to the plate in the "brawl game", but from watching that game from the stands I see where he wanted to make the thrower make the perfect throw to gun his guy down. He is surrounded with talent as I earlier stated, so it wont take much of a coach to lead this team to victories.

 

i would really like to say something here but i won't...

Coach Hardee is a tough coach and will have his team ready to play..look for a split with ACHS..and a tough tourney between these two..Watauga will go to play-oofs this year..

i am no expert on this conference however ACHS has not hit a lefty(Taylor or Nigro) in the last 2 years and i don't see them hitting Taylor this year either..

like ACHS Caldwell plays a weak non-conference schedule and i can't see freshmen and sophs getting them into the play-offs..Reid can only pitch so much and he hasn't beaten ACHS in 2 years.

E. Burke, Freedom, and Reynolds will upset some this year..

If ACHS doesn't win a state championship with the team they have,.. the coaching staff should be relieved and the coach from East Alex. should replace him.

By the way do you realize that ACHS could have hired Coach Hignight a few years back?
They could have hired Coach David Elder too...

ACHS must get politics and school board members out of their athletic programs if they are going to be successful..

golf....where's that cup of Starbucks?

 

From my observations I think that the ACHS coach is a competent one and knows what he is doing. I would hate to have his job this year though, as he almost has more talent than he knows what to do with. I take that back...you can never have enough talent...