North Carolina High School Sports Notebook

We are less than one week away from the official start of fall sports practices in North Carolina.

Regular season games/meets for football, volleyball, boys soccer, field hockey, girls tennis, girls golf and cross country will begin the week of August 14.

Here are a few notes from the high school sports scene in North Carolina as we head towards the beginning of a new sports year.

Adelaide Jernigan, a rising junior at Bishop McGuinness, has been invited to participate in the NCAA College Basketball Academy in Memphis, Tennessee July 28-31.

Jernigan, a 5-11 guard, has helped lead McGuinness to the last two NCHSAA 1-A state championships, was the Most Valuable Player in the 2023 title game and the Most Outstanding player as a freshman in the 2022 title game. 

She averaged 18.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 steals last season and has garnered major recruiting interest from several of the top women's programs in the country.

Jernigan participated in USA Basketball's 17U National Team Trials last summer.

Jernigan is also a standout tennis player for the Villains and was the 1-A state runner-up in 2022.

Staying with the Villains, Josh Thompson, the boys basketball coach at McGuinness, was selected as one of the coaches for the boys NCAA College Basketball Academy, and two of his players, brothers Nicholas and Patrick Graves, will also be participating.

Thompson is one of 93 coaches selected from throughout the United States for the event, which is being held July 24-27, also in Memphis.

Coy James, a rising junior at Davie County, received an invitation to attend USA Baseball's 16U/17U National Team Development Program this year.

The camp will be held from July 26-29 at USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

James, a second baseman/shortstop, was one of 72 players that were extended invitations.

James, who has committed to Mississippi, was the MVP of the 15U team that won the Baseball World Cup in Hermosillo, Mexico, in 2022.

Sam Cozart, a right-handed pitcher from High Point Weselyan, was the only other player from North Carolina invited to participate.