Here's a recap of the interviews of Tom Benton and Don Mial for the District 1 vacancy on the Wake County school board.

Benton was the most direct and explicit of all the applicants so far on his views on diversity, student assignment and magnet schools. His familiarity with those issues from having spent most of his 32 years in education in Wake showed.

Benton said he supported using student assignment to promote diverse schools and also supports the magnet school program. But at the same time he said they need to balance the concerns from parents about reassignment, including low-income students who are being moved.

Don Mial's application for the District 1 vacancy on the Wake County school board should look familiar, especially if you live in state House District 39.

A lot of Mial's application letter matches what's on his campaign website from his unsuccessful run last year in the Democratic primary for House 39. His school board application includes a few wording changes, but whole sentences are the same as the website, including references about expanding pre-kindergarten programs and addressing the achievement gap.

What's new in the application is Mial, 62, talking about what it was like being a minority student in Raleigh as the school system slowly began to integrate.

Lance Benson scrawled "No legs, no problem" across the front scrap of his wrestling helment when he was a high school senior at East Wake High in 1991.

He still uses the same slogan, because, he said, it sums up his life very well.

"I have no legs, but that's not a problem," Benson said this week.

The East Wake High School of Health Science will need a new principal

The Wilmington Star-News is reporting that the Pender County school board voted today to hire Craig Baker as principal of Pender High School. Baker had been the principal of the School of Health Science and the campus manager of the four small schools that comprise East Wake High School in Wendell.

Baker had been principal of the School of Heath Science since 2005. Before then, he was an assistant principal at East Wake High from 2002 to 2005. He's a former teacher and athletic trainer at the high school.

Coincidentally or not, former Wake County Chief of Staff Terri Cobb is the superintendent of Pender County schools. Cobb had also been a principal at Lockhart Elementary School in Knightdale.

UPDATE

Click here for the Pender County school system press release on Baker's hiring.

Click here for the Eastern Wake News online article about Baker saying why he chose to leave Wake.

Seventy-two high school girls soccer games are on tap in late March for The Brittany Willis Memorial Scholarship Showcase, held at the J. Burt Gillette Soccer Complex in Wilson.

Among the area teams competing are: Broughton, Millbrook, Wakefield, East Wake, Clayton, North Johnston, East Chapel Hill, Cardinal Gibbons and Franklinton.

The full schedule is below:

Garner's boys and Southeast Raleigh's girls made a statement by backing up their Greater Neuse River 4A Conference regular-season basketball championships with conference tournament titles.

But Garner's didn't come easy, needing a buzzer-beater to defeat Clayton. Read the story on both games by clicking here.

Photo gallery from boys title game between Garner and Clayton

Photo gallery from girls title game between Southeast Raleigh and East Wake

*Updated thru Thursday's games*

The girls golfer of the year in the Greater Neuse River Conference is Smithfield-Selma's Brittany Talton.

East Wake puts seven players on Greater Neuse all-conference soccer team.

Southeast Raleigh quarterback David Washington is named the Greater Neuse 4A Conference football player of the year.

It's the third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association boys soccer playoffs, meaning each classification is down to just 16 teams total -- 8 in the East brackets.