Story by Nancy Caggia and photos by Kevin LaWall. Above, Green Hope Band Director Brian Meyers leading band onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Cary, NC- Several area high school marching bands traveled to Indianapolis over the long weekend to compete in what has become an annual rite of passage. Cary High School advanced this weekend to the finals.

Bands of America Championship

The marching bands of Green Hope and Cary High schools competed at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL Colts, on Friday 11/11/11 in the Bands of America Grand National Championships. Bands of America is recognized as the premier marching band event in the nation. More than 90 bands from across America participate, including some of the finest, most progressive bands in the activity today.

The 2011 field competition featured 92 bands in preliminary competition.  Green Hope and Cary High competed at 9:15 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

Cary High Advances to Saturday Morning

From the field of 92, thirty-six advance to play again on Saturday morning. Cary High was among them.

From these thirty-six, only twelve advance to play AGAIN on Saturday evening in the finals. None of our area high schools made it to this stage. Stiff competition from  Midwestern bands Broken Arrow High School in Oklahoma and Avon High School from Indianapolis placed these two 1st and 2nd.

Final results are posted on the Grand Nationals website

Our own Suzie Wolf was there and filed these pictures for Wide World of Cary Sports.

Other Friday Football Results

Also last Friday, Green Hope (2-2-0)  fell to Athens Drive (2-2-0) by a score of 52-19.

Across town, Panther Creek (3-1-0) punished Holly Springs (1-3-0), 42-21.

CHS Imps vs Apex Cougars Pictures

Cary High is leading the Tri-9 conference. And, they’re the only undefeated team in NCHSAA Division 4A.

These and more game photos are available from Suzie Wolf.

CHS vs Apex

The match was played on August 23, 2011 in Apex. The Cougars carried the day, defeating the Imps 3-0 according to MaxPreps.

CHS Volleyball Pictures

If you like a copy of any of these pictures, please contact Tom Mousseau.

All photos ©2011 Tom Mousseau, used by permission.

Photos by Chris Adamczyk and Suzie Wolf. Story from staff reports. Above, Nicklas Lidstrom outside RBC Center.

Cary, NC – It was another epic weekend of sports in Cary. We have pictures for you of girls and boys basketball and from the NHL All-Star game.

Girls Basketball

Last week saw Green Hope (18-1-0) vanquish the girls of Cary High (12-6-0) by a score of 79-58. The Falcon girls also dispatched Athens Drive 67-36 and demolished Panther Creek 87-53 in the week just past. Kristen Gaffney  poured in 46 points in the contest with PCHS.

More Pictures: Green Hope vs Cary High (Girls) by Suzie Wolf
More Pictures: Panther Creek vs Green Hope (Girls) by Chris Adamczyk

Boys Basketball

Panther Creek (11-5-0) was stunned at home, losing to the Green Hope (7-11-0) boys by a score of 51-60. Chris Adamczyk filed these pictures.

More Pictures: Panther Creek vs GHHS (Boys) by Chris Adamczyk

NHL All-Star Game

Talk about epic – NHL All-Star weekend proved worth the hype, worth the effort, a grand time for all and a great showcase for the Triangle.

Chris Adamczyk has been covering the Hurricanes for CaryCitizen. She focused on the events and fans of All-Star Weekend.

More All-Star weekend pictures by Chris.

Cary, NC- It’s almost the end of the regular NCHSAA Division basketball season and the Green Hope Women remain undefeated, with a remarkable 20-0 record.

Tuesday night vs Cary High, marked the third straight game where the team beat their opponent by more than 20 points. At the final buzzer the score topped out at 91-40. Coach Mike Robinson is  very proud of his team who posted some great stats. Sophomore star Kristin Gaffney scored 31 points, Freshman Caitlyn Ranson had 21, and both Ashley Williams and Camille Forbes had double digits.

The previous week’s game vs Lee County  Kristen, Caitlyn and Camille again were in double digits  with a final score of 97-32.

In the previous home game Green Hope beat opponent Middle Creek 89-60. The team had gone into this match-up a bit nervous as they had played Middle Creek previously to a narrow one point win. But the Mustangs never got any traction as the Falcon offence rolled over them. Kristen Gaffney had 28 points and 3 others were in double digits with Ashley Wiliam scoring 14, Caitlyn Ranson 12, and Alyssa Paul grabbing 11.

Before Christmas break the wins were much narrower. But in January, no school has come close to actually giving this team a run for their money. And the college scouts are taking notice of the Lady Falcons.

Friday’s games were all pushed up to Thursday night, and again the Lady Falcons swept past their opponents, beating Panther Creek 80- 48. With this young team, Green Hope High School women can be an exciting program for years to come.

Photo via CoachingMark.

The short story is that CHS didn’t have a physical manifestation of the Imp – no costume, to be exact. But through some clever and creative fund-raising, the new Imp appeared on December 17.

Cool picture of the new mascot in action, too.  Read the whole story.

Cary High School. Staff photo by Hal Goodtree.

Cary, NC – US News just released their third annual survey of American high schools. Both Cary High and Green Hope made the list.

In America’s Best High Schools, US News used Standard & Poor’s education research to determine school rankings. Here’s some info about their methodology:

“We analyzed 21,786 public high schools in 48 states plus the District of Columbia. This is the total number of public high schools that had 12th-grade enrollment and sufficient data, primarily from the 2007-2008 school year, to analyze.

A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.”

More about how the survey was conducted.

Of the 21,786 schools surveyed, 1,750 were recognized for considerably outperforming their state’s education standards. Of that group, 561 schools, including Cary High and GHHS,  were honored for doing an excellent job of preparing students for college-level coursework. Neither school cracked into the Top 100.

The top high school in the nation, according to the report, is Thomas Jefferson in Alexandria, VA. Their coursework includes DNA science, neurobiology, and quantum physics. In North Carolina, only two schools ranked in the top 100: The Early College at Guilford (#18) in Greensboro and the Raleigh Charter High School (#24).

How do they compete?  Each team creates an original 2-1/2 minute routine that must include a pyramid, tumble sequence, a 1 minute cheer, and a dance all set to an original mix of music.  These routines are then scored with deductions for falls and imperfect tumbling, with points added for originality and synchronicity.

In Small Varsity (under 15 athletes) Athens Drive finished 2nd.  Competing against 18 other teams, Cary High ( Medium Varsity, 15-17 team members)  finished 6th with a great routine scoring 240 points and a bid to Nationals.  Leesville Road knocked it out of the park with their first place finish in that category.

Holly Springs High competed in Large Varsity (18-19 athletes) and scored 255 to earn a second place behind Weddington High from Mathews, NC.

Madison Keesling flies high for Green Hope Falcons

Green Hope almost scratched after key flyer Cristen Harden sprained her ankle Friday night during practice.  Coach Nicole Reed called an early Saturday morning practice to rework the routine and the team managed to come out in 5th with 237.5 points in Super Varsity (20-21 athletes).  Cardinal Gibbons was edged out and surprised by Broughton High who won with a perfect routine.

Many of these teams will meet again at the Tri-9 competition on Thursday, December 3rd at Holly Springs High School and again in the spring for the Wake County Cheer competition.  Time enough for them to work out any kinks hopefully recover from injuries.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association held its cross-country championships on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at Tanglewood Park in Winston-Salem. Cary High and Green Hope were there to represent for our town. So was photographer Michael McLoone.

Photos ©2009 Michael McLoone. Reprints available from Shutterfly.

Photo by Chris Adamczyk

The air was mild and dry for Green Hope Homecoming 09. The Navy SEALs parachuted into Falcon Stadium, Danny’s Barbeque served up dinner, the band played, the cheerleaders, dance team and twirlers all contributed to the spirit, and yes, there was a football game.

In its best offensive showing of the season, Green Hope put 25 points on the board, but it wasn’t enough to stop crosstown rival Cary High from walking away with a win, 25-40.

Still, it was a great night. GHHS quarterback Willl Nassif connected with Blake Scott for a couple of TDs. The band was sharp, the spirit was high, the Seals found the turf and the ‘que was outstanding.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that somebody painted the Green Hope rock.

Photos by Chris Adamczyk. Story edited by Hal Goodtree.