Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - The weekly Cherryville Ironmen athletic teams recap ran the full gamut from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. Three teams were idle this week; however, that does not mean it was not a busy week for these student athletes. The past several years have seen an expansion in the array of competitive sports opportunities offered for student athletes at Cherryville High School. These young ladies and gentlemen train and practice for many long hours over a season, and many choose to participate on teams throughout all seasons throughout the school year. The classroom is the most important part of the education process, yet athletic competition is also an integral part. Student athletes can learn many valuable life skills through competition and teamwork. Let's see how the teams fared this week.
These are two of the team members who were idle this week. Idle in the sense of no meets scheduled. They were still busy training for the last several meets of the season and the upcoming regional meet. The teams will travel to Hunter Huss High School in Gastonia, NC, for a meet on September 30th. The following week, on October 7th, they will participate in the Gaston County Championship hosted by Forestview High School in Gastonia, NC. After a week of rest, the teams will next go to the host site of the Southern Piedmont 2a/3a/4a/ in Shelby, NC, which takes place on October 14th.
The regional meet will be held on October 25th, 2025, at a site yet to be determined. Once the qualifiers for this meet have been confirmed, we will follow them as far as their journey takes them. Coaches Antonio Griggs and Callie Cooke have done an amazing job bringing out the best in some very talented runners. They are very proud of their team members' accomplishments through hard work and dedication.
The boys' soccer team has been fighting hard in every match this season. These guys play hard from start to finish. This is a team that has been playing with a tremendous amount of pride and heart. This week, their two matches did not turn out how they had hoped. On September 22nd, they dropped a match to a county and conference rival, Bessemer City, at home. The match at home on September 24th against West Lincoln was played in adverse weather conditions. Shortly after the match had begun, a steady rain settled in, turning into a downpour just before the half. The weather became a little more friendly after play resumed. Unfortunately, the Ironmen came up short in this contest. Junior Striker, Cole Kelly, leads the team in scoring with 3 goals. * Statistics are from MaxPreps and might have been updated since this article was published. The month of October is going to be very busy as the season winds down. The next opportunities to see the team in action begin on September 29th in a conference match at Lincolnton, followed by two home matches, the first will be on October 1st, hosting East Gaston, and the other a non-conference matchup with Anson the next day on October 2nd.
There were no Friday Night Lights this week; however, the team was hard at work preparing for the second half of the season that begins next Friday, October 3rd, at 7:30 pm, as the Ironmen will host the Rebels of West Lincoln. At the halfway point of the regular season, the much-improved Ironmen are 3-2 overall, and their 1-2 conference record ranks them at 6th in the Southern Piedmont 2a/3a/4a conference. The fact that Cherryville is playing in one of the state's multi-classification conferences means there is a battle within a battle regarding the conference's postseason implications. Playoff seeding will be determined by the conference's classification, which will be further explained closer to playoff time.
One of the players who has been nursing injuries is Jackson Heavner. Despite missing two games, he is the leading rusher with 430 yards and 5 touchdowns, and second with 460 all-purpose yards. His absence has been felt. Javarius "JJ" McElhaney has become the offensive workhorse in Heavner's absence. Already a tremendous force at wide receiver, scoring 3 touchdowns and gaining 180 yards, Coach Bowman has used him more in a wildcat formation. This has propelled him to lead the team in all-purpose yards as he has amassed 565 yards. JJ has scored 6 rushing touchdowns and rushed for 335 yards. Remember, many of these players are playing offense and defense and still performing optimally.
Jayden Adams is one of those two-way players. Playing both quarterback and free safety. At the QB position, he has a rating of 93.4%, while passing for 4 touchdowns. On defense, he has made a major impact as well with 4 interceptions, one returned for a pick-six early in the season. He also has 150 all-purpose yards. Enijahe Whitworth is another two-way player making his presence felt on both sides of the ball. Offensively, he has accumulated 151 all-purpose yards; his longest reception of the season is 41 yards, and he has scored a touchdown. Defensively, he has 9 solo tackles and 11 total. The three leading tacklers on the team are Landry Pruitt with 23, Elijah Proctor with 22, and Justin Harris with 20.
Coach Brandon Shull has his girls playing well as they are currently 5th in the conference with a record of 2-3 and 4-6 overall. They are playing against several 3a and 4a schools, so the record might be a little deceiving. Over the last three matches, they picked up a victory over Shelby on September 18th and then fell to West Lincoln on September 23rd and East Gaston on September 30th. Singles winners at Shelby were Maddie Avery with sets of 6-3 and 6-0. Bailey Bryant 6-3 in both sets. Ava Freeman and Laney Jones each won 6-0 in two sets. The winning doubles teams were Maddie Avery and Ava Freeman, as they took their set 8-0. Winning their set 8-1 was the combination of Baily Bryant and Laney Jones. Top Season performers in singles have been Laney Jones 6-1 and Ava Freeman 5-5. Leading the way in doubles are the teams of Baily Bryant and Laney Jones at 3-1, and the team of Ava Freeman and Grace Wells is 2-0. Next up on the schedule is a trip to Burns on September 30th and back home on October 2nd to play host to Stuart W. Cramer.
There are two weeks left to play until the conference tournament. Currently, the Lady Ironmen are 10-6 overall and 5th in the conference with a 6-6 record. "Our hope for the last two weeks is to push for one of the state playoffs first-round byes, or at least a first-round game in Cherryville." Coach Leigh Kiser said, speaking on the team's goals for the remainder of the regular season. Three conference matches are on tap for this week. September 30th at home, 6 pm hosting Highland Tech, another home match on October 1st as Stuart W. Cramer comes to Nixon Gym at 6 pm, and then a road trip to face Burns at 6 pm on October 2nd. Coach Kiser pointed to the East Gaston match, which we covered in an earlier article, as by far the best offensive showing of the season. This was the extremely competitive 5-set match that Cherryville fell just a little short in.
Some additional statistics from that match include Emily Allen with 45 assists and Camryn Shirley's 19 defensive digs. Kennedy Weathers led the way in kills with 15, Kate Mulvey had 14, and there were 10 each by Jenna Anthony and Raklei Gidney. Also, defensively, Kate Bookout had 10 digs, and Jenna Anthony had 6 blocks. Coach Kiser added this comment, "We played really hard and with a lot of energy early. We lost a lot of points at the service line, which we'd like to have. There is still a lot of the season left, and we hope this experience will help us later in the season."
Another busy week of Ironmen athletics is ahead with all six teams in the five Fall sports in action, some multiple times. Plenty of action is in store for each. The month of October is going to offer plenty of opportunities to support the Ironmen teams as the regular seasons conclude and postseason action begins. Please come out and support your local teams. We at Wise News Network will keep you in the loop for all the Ironmen athletic competitions. Be sure to check out all the coverage in the WNN Sports Section at wisenewsnetwork.com.
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