The Cap Eight conference tournament is set to start first-round games Monday and Tuesday. First round games will be played at the higher seed, while the semifinal games on Wednesday and Thursday, along with Friday’s finals, will all be played at Broughton’s Holiday Gym.

MONDAY (times 7 p.m.)

Girls first-round games:
No. 8 Leesville Road at No. 1 Millbrook
No. 5 Enloe at No. 4 Sanderson
No. 7 Heritage at No. 2 Broughton
No. 6 Wake Forest-Rolesvillle at No. 3 Wakefield

TUESDAY (times 7 p.m.)

Boys first-round games
No. 8 Heritage at No. 1 Millbrook
No. 5 Sanderson at No. 4 Wake Forest-Rolesville
No. 7 Enloe at No. 2 Broughton
No. 6 Leesville Road at No. 3 Wakefield

Green Hope and Panther Creek made requests to the N.C. High School Athletic Associaton on Tuesday to place the schools in a league with other current Tri-Nine 4A schools.

Broughton linebacker Drew Davis switched his college commitment from the University of Minnesota to hometown N.C. State on Tuesday.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound linebacker received a scholarship offer from State on Friday and made his decision today.

"I took some time to talk about the decision with my family and to pray," Davis said. "I have the utmost respect for the staff at Minnesota and I know they are all great coaches."

The Cap Eigth 4-A conference season resumed this week after a number of teams participated, and performed well, in holiday tournaments. As we begin the new year, here are my power rankings for the boys side:

Millbrook (10-4): The Wildcats have played the toughest schedule of anyone in the Cap Eight. That should led Millbrook to succeeding in the conference season where the Wildcats will be the team everyone is gunning for. Shi’Chee Moore (pictured left) has proved to be the best point guard in the conference. If the Wildcats can continue to turn teams over, they’ll win a lot of games.

Wake Forest-Rolesville (10-2): Give a lot of credit to first-year coach Mickey Bissette. He has the Cougars believing in his system and themselves. The Cougars gave Garner its first loss – and this is the same Trojan team that won the premier Holiday Invitational tournament. The Cougars rolled off eight straight wins after a 66-61 win over Wakefield. Will Perry and Jordan Ayscue are making WF-R a real contender.

The Cap Eigth 4-A conference season resumed this week after a number of teams participated, and performed well, in holiday tournaments. As we begin the new year, here are my power rankings for the girls side:

Millbrook (13-1): Coach Chris East said his entire team cried last week when the Wildcats fell to Charlotte Myers Park in the championship game of the Holiday Invitational. That’s a good sign. Millbrook had dominated every team it faced before that game, and now East shouldn’t have to worry about his Wildcats getting complacent. Briana Day played well in the tournament, but Millbrook should play better with Ryan Flowers and Katelyn Mitchell returning from suspensions.

Sanderson (9-3): The Spartans are near the bottom of the standings, but no one should overlook this team. Derricka Lewis (center of photo) is averaging 13 points a game and has improved her play from last year. Bria Gibson has also being solid with 10 points a game. Sanderson defeated Athens Drive for the third time this year to win the Athens Drive Invitational Tournament.

It only seems to be a matter of time and not a question of if the Wake County school board will renew the district's contract to use Blue Diamond through the end of the school year.

The item was pulled from Tuesday's school board meeting agenda to give staff more time to get the backup information needed for the vote. The contract will likely come back before the board in January.

The contract was discussed previously by the board in closed session for legal reasons. School board members and administrators aren't saying why it was discussed behind closed doors but that usually means someone threatened legal action.

Millbrook guard Karon Blount knows the Wildcats are a different team from a year ago. As a senior though, Blount is surrounded by many of the same teammates. He still has the same point guard in senior Shi’Chee Moore (pictured left) and veteran coach in Scott McInnes.

Yet Blount feels the Wildcats, who host Wakefield (5-0, 1-0 Cap Eight 4-A) tonight at home, are more mature and better prepared to have a successful season from start to finish.

“We are different,” Blount said. “We play much harder on defense.”

On Friday night against Broughton, the Wildcats (6-1, 1-0) looked like a team that learned its lesson from the previous year.

Last season, the Wildcats reached the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A state championship game mainly because of their defense. But Millbrook had to mature over the course of that season. After all, the Wildcats started the year with a 2-6 record.

That’s not the case this season.

Cap Eight 4-A all-conference football team

Players of the year: Austin Berrios, Leesville Road; Connor Mitch, Wakefield

While much of the attention was focused on the combative Wake County school board elections, an equally hot fight was going on at Enloe High School over whether to move to a block schedule.

An Enloe faculty group had proposed switching to a block schedule as a way to help the low-performing students. But a vocal group of Enloe parents, students and teachers opposed the switch.

Last month, 65 percent of the faculty that voted rejected making the switch to the block so the issue appears to be dead for the 2012-13 school year. But it generated a lot of controversy along the way at the magnet school.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR LINK TO PDF OF PRESENTATION THAT STAFF MADE TO PARENTS

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Karelov Sasha, Leesville Road

COACH OF THE YEAR
Taine Mergenthaler, Leesville Road