Coaching friend delivers prophetic statement that hasn't lost its meaning

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 25, 2014 11:22 PM

• Print
• Email

Years ago, while working at the then-Daily Citizen-News in Dalton, Ga., the wrestling coach at Murray County High School told me that "a team is only as good as the sum of its parts."

While I don't remember his name, shame on me, his statement couldn't be more prophetic. It certainly sums up the individual and team performances turned in during the 2013 fall sports season.

There were stellar individuals, who engineered some good teams. And there were some good teams who utilized their talent to the best of their ability.

Here are the 2013 News-Argus Fall Athletes-of-the-Year:

* Men's cross country: One athlete, Connor Jones, earned his third consecutive N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 1-A men's cross country championship. He's the lone athlete to accomplish the feat in Wayne Christian School history.

* Women's golf: Rosewood's Lindsey Burton showed a calm, cool demeanor every time she stepped onto the golf course. Burton earned medalist honors in numerous meets and finished runner-up in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Classes 1-A/2-A East Regional contested at Walnut Creek Country Club.

* Volleyball: Princeton's Savanna Massengill turned in a phenomenal senior season on the volleyball court. She cranked out 296 kills, recorded an eye-popping .574 hitting percentage and posted 100 blocks.

Massengill helped lead the Dogs to their second straight appearance in the NCHSAA eastern 1-A championship game.

Right down Pikeville-Princeton Highway, another senior kept her team in many matches during the season.

Travel-ball standout Madison Martin averaged 26 digs a match for the Golden Falcons, who faced a challenging conference schedule and advanced to the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.

* Men's soccer: Undoubtedly one of the county's most-talented soccer players, Otto Binar helped lead Spring Creek to a 13-3-1 record and third-round appearance in the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.

Binar, a junior, emerged the area's leading scorer with 72 points (29 goals, 14 assists). He has 50 goals and 22 assists for his career.

* Women's cross country: Rosewood senior Ashley Duran captured both the Carolina 1-A Conference and Bill Kemp Invitational individual championships. Duran advanced to the NCHSAA 1-A state cross country championship meet for the second time in her career.

* Women's tennis (team co-champs): Long a tradition-rich community in tennis, one team continued its mastery of Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference opponents this season, while another one dethroned a perennial powerhouse in dramatic fashion.

Eastern Wayne's starting six -- Faith Sutton, Savannah Sutton, McKenna Dove, Cameron Dove, Debbie Mitchell and Brennan Dove -- defeated all 12 opponents in ECC play. The group posted a combined record of 88-14 in singles play, and 39-5 in doubles play.

The Warriors concluded the season 16-1 overall.

One of the area's top-10 stories from 2013, the Wayne Country Day girls' tennis team completed an improbable comeback against perennial powerhouse Statesville Christian.

Down 4-2 in the dual-team championship match, the Chargers earned three consecutive singles points -- all third-set tiebreakers -- to claim the program's first state tennis crown since 1997 and seventh overall in school history.