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.

RALEIGH – Both Sanderson and Wakefield have used defense to win games this season. So it came as no surprise that their first meeting of the season went down to the final minutes as visiting Wakefield escaped with a 47-44 victory.

Leading 44-37 with less than two minutes remaining, Wakefield seemed to have the game wrapped up.

The lead quickly closed as Sanderson’s Parker Fennema scored five quick points to cut Wakefield’s lead to just one.

Wakefield (5-0, 1-0 Cap Eight 4-A) though hit two of four free-throws in the final minute to create the three-point margin. Sanderson inbounded the ball with six seconds remaining, but the Spartans were unable to get off the 3-pointer they needed as Wakefield’s defense smothered Gloire Biongo.

High school football teams will have their first official practices tomorrow morning. Most schools in the area have already had mini camps, but tomorrow coaches will start to get an idea of the number of players they will have with incoming freshman allowed to participate.

Since it’s the first day of practice, players will dress in helmets, shorts and football shoes. There can be no body-to-body contact. The News & Observer will be at many of the practices tomorrow morning to provide news updates and photos – especially for schools in the Cap Eight 4-A conference.

After Deran Coe, athletic director at Wake Forest-Rolesville, confirmed this morning that he had hired Mickey Bissette as his new basketball coach, we broke the story for you online here. At the time we were unable to reach Bissette for comment since he was attending the N.C. Coaches Association clinic in Greensboro.

Later today we did get Bissette on the phone discuss his decision to leave Green Hope and return to coaching at WF-R. Below are a few of Bissette’s answers to questions for a story that will appear in tomorrow’s News & Observer and online at newobserver.com:

What led you back to coaching?

Leesville Road, a school that won state championships in boys golf and girls soccer a few months ago, has added lacrosse as a varsity spring sport.

Jack Rogers, Leesville Road’s athletic director, has seen the recent impact lacrosse has had on other schools in the area, especially in the Cap Eight 4-A conference. Rogers said he and Principal Scott Lyons made the decision a few weeks ago to offer the sport next year.

“I think it’s exciting for not only our students, but for everybody,” said Rogers, who expects the lacrosse programs to add points to the schools’ Wachovia Cup standings next year. “It’s exciting for us as an athletic department to add a new sport. I think we’ll be competitive.”

Carter Jenkins of Leesville Road won the Rex Hospital Open junior invitation on Sunday by shooting two rounds of 2-under par 69. Jenkins total score of 138 was three strokes better than his Pride teammate Grayson Murray, who won the event last year by having a 5-under-par 66 in his second round.

CARY -- This season was always about pushing forward for Leesville Road’s girls soccer team. The Pride did it again and again. The season-ending injuries to Kelsey Reeves and Kelsey Weiss. Coach Paul Dinkenor playing inexperienced freshman Zaria Maynard in goal. Even the tough, demanding victories in overtime of these playoffs.

The Pride just kept pushing.

By playing with poise and structure in the midfield, the Pride pushed past previously unbeate Charlotte Ardrey Kell – for the third time in four years – to take a 3-0 victory for the NCHSAA 4-A state title.

RALEIGH There was no denying Anna Dulaney’s impact on Sanderson’s 2-0 win over Millbrook on Wednesday night. It was written all over her walk.

After struggling to score goals the last two weeks, Sanderson (4-3-1, 4-3-0 Cap Eight 4-A) needed more out of its offense against Millbrook (4-4-0, 3-3-0). It needed to more opportunities. It needed someone to scrap. That’s what Dulaney did.

She put herself in the middle of the action against Millbrook, forcing the defense to match her intensity. Sometimes it resulted in offense for herself – taking a Savannah Parrish pass and putting it in the upper-left corner in the 54th minute – and other times it set up her teammates as she drew a foul in the penalty box Olivia Costello’s penalty kick in the 70th minute.

Officially, Holly Potts finished Sanderson’s 4-1 win over Enloe on Monday night with no goals and no assists. Spartans coach Todd Worley knows that stats don’t mean everything.

With Sanderson leading 2-1 early in the second half, Potts took a free kick from 25 yards and sent a bullet into the high-right corner. But Enloe goalkeeper Hunter Kenny dove for the shot, knocking it down to Sanderson midfielder Ryan Davis who tapped in the rebound for the goal.

Davis was credited for the score – her first of two goals on the night – but Worley knows the Spartans don’t get on the scoreboard without Potts’ perfectly placed ball.

“We’ve been struggling on set pieces. So I just told her to rip it and she did,” Worley said. “It was a nice little angle and we had someone to follow it up with Ryan.”

RALEIGH – The reasons behind Broughton’s 46-41 victory over Millbrook in the semifinals of the Cap Eight 4-A Tournament on Thursday night were obvious to Caps coach Jeff Ferrell.

The Caps didn’t hesitate, nor did they get pushed around by the Wildcats. Ferrell’s team did the exact opposite.

In a game that was tied at 37-37 with two minutes remaining, the Caps forced Millbrook into mistakes that led to points in transition. Then when Millbrook needed to foul late, Broughton made its free throws to close the game. The Caps will now play top-seeded Wakefield at 7 p.m. Friday in the championship game.  

“Millbrook just pressures you every time,” Ferrell said. “We didn’t give up and we trusted ourselves.”