Two players who committed to North Carolina in the past few days will help shore up the Tar Heels' linebacking corps beginning in 2012.

Durham Jordan's Phillip Williamson and Holy Spirit High (Absecon, N.J.) defender Dan Mastromatteo have decided to join the Tar Heels.

Williamson plays strong safety at Jordan but has grown to 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds and is likely to help the Tar Heels at outside linebacker, according to Jordan coach Mike Briggs. Williamson had scholarship offers from North Carolina and Duke, and had several other schools showing interest.

The first day new N.C. State basketball coach Mark Gottfried was allowed to talk to recruits, he called Torian Graham.

The timing of the call in early April made a big impression on Graham, one of the top recruits in the country who made a verbal commitment to the Wolfpack on Monday.

"He told me I was their top priority," Graham said. "That meant a lot to me."

Rodney Purvis is no longer committed to Louisville

Wakefield's Madison Shaw and Leesville Road's Caroline Gentry (photos by Greg Mintel).

No. 1-ranked Leesville Road’s 2-1 overtime victory over eleventh-ranked Wakefield on Monday featured two players who will soon be teammates in college. Pride forward Caroline Gentry and Wolverines goalkeeper Madison Shaw have both committed to play for North Carolina State.

The two juniors have known each other by being teammates on their CASL 93 Spartan Elite Black team.

“It’s always really interesting when we play each other because I’m always around her throughout the season,” Gentry said of her relationship with Shaw. “It’s always a challenge.”

In the match on Monday, both Gentry and Shaw showed their athletic ability.

Cary's football team held eight opponents to 10 or fewer points this season, and seniors Phillip Ochieng and Raphael Bernard (#92 above) were big reasons why.

Millbrook sophomore twin sisters Briana (right, #50) and Bria Day (left, #55) have committed to UNC-Chapel Hill. Hoopgurlz, a website powered by ESPN.com, reported the committment earlier today and Briana confirmed that news later tonight.

The Tar Heels were recruiting the lanky forwards as early as the girls GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational in late December.

As noted in today's high school notebook, four Athens Drive football players have made commitments recently.

Green Hope junior girls basketball player Kristen Gaffney has re-opened her recruitment.

The area's leading scorer with 31 points per game this season was committed to Virginia Tech. But former VT coach Beth Dunkenberger resigned following her team's last-place finish in the ACC and was replaced by director of basketball operations Dennis Wolff.

Football season is on the back burner with basketball playoffs wrapping up and spring sports beginning, but two Middle Creek gridiron players can't help but look ahead.

Defensive lineman Josh Banks and wide receiver Kevin Jones received scholarship offers from ACC schools in the same week.

Athens Drive will have at least four players signing this fall with their college of choice. Three of them, Cooper Vandermaas-Peeler, Tyler Draovitch and Andrew Joyce, played on the 4-A East semifinalist boys soccer team. Vandermaas-Peeler, heading to UNC-Chapel Hill was a member of the U18 men's national team that competed in Israel in December, even scoring a goal.