The junior varsity football game between Cedar Ridge and Cardinal Gibbons, which was scheduled originally for Hillsborough, will be played instead at the Raleigh school's campus. Kickoff is now set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cardinal Gibbons field.

Cedar Ridge High School is renovating its track, making use of the Red Wolves' field impractical.

The fifth annual Clash of the Carolinas all-star soccer games will be played this Saturday on Daniels Island, near Charleston, S.C., and once again the matches will have some Chapel Hill flavor.

UNC's Farrell Sweeney, an all-state midfielder when she was at East Chapel Hill, will play on the N.C. girls team. UNC Asheville goalie Dan Jackson (East Chapel Hill '11) and UNC Wilmington midfielder Jamie Dell (Chapel Hill '11) will be on the N.C. boys team.

The Clash of the Carolinas, organized by the North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association and the South Carolina High School Soccer Coaches Association, is the nation's only interstate all-star soccer match, pairing teams from each of the Carolinas.

Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 1 p.m. with the girls’ contest, where the North Carolina team holds a 3-1-0 series lead. The boys’ contest starts at 3:30 p.m. North Carolina is seeking its first win in the boys' series, where South Carolina holds a 1-0-3 advantage.

James Madison University golfer Rich Leeper of Chapel Hill will be among the 152 entrants teeing off Thursday in the 51st North Carolina Amateur Championship in Greensboro.

Leeper was a four-time all-conference selection and team MVP at Carrboro High School. He'll be heading into his junior year at James Madison next season.

The N.C. Junior Amateur runs through Sunday at The Farm Course of the Greensboro Country Club. Leeper tees off at 12:54 p.m. Thursday for the opening round.

Greensboro favorite son Ryan Heisey, a 2010 graduate of UNCG, won the title a year ago at Wilson Country Club with an all-time tournament record score of 11-under-par 269. That included a last-round 64.

Heisey and 2010 runnerup Sherrill Britt of West End, a former Carolinas PGA professional, are expected back this year, as are 2009 winner Mark McMillen of Smithfield and 2008 winner Jack Fields of Southern Pines, who lettered in golf at Carolina.

A total of 472 golfers with handicap indexes of 5.4 or less submitted entries for this year's Amateur. Leeper, like most in the field, qualified at one of the six one-day tournaments held around the state in late May and early June. The field will be cut to the low 60 scorers and ties after 36 holes.

The N.C. Amateur's 72-hole, stroke play competition was last played on Greensboro CC's Farm Course in 1982. Originally designed by Ellis Maples, the course underwent a dramatic transformation when Scottish architect Donald Steel completed a $6 million reconstruction in 2010, notes the CGA. Steel built five entirely new holes and did significant work on the remaining 13, including changes in routing and elevation. The old greens were replaced and now sport A1/A4 bentgrass, while the fairways and tees are now composed of zoysia grass instead of the customary Bermuda grass.

Steel's work produced a couple of honors in 2010. The course was named Best New Course in the state by members of the North Carolina Golf Panel and was named "Renovation of the Year" by Golf Magazine.

 The par-72 layout will play at approximately 7,223 yards for the N.C. Amateur.

Last night's torrential rain storm has left area fields sodden and unplayable, so East Chapel Hill High School is calling off this afternoon's baseball game with Leesville Road.

Instead, the Wildcats will host Leesville Road's varsity at 5 p.m. Thursday. The JV game with Cardinal Gibbons, originally planned for today, will not be rescheduled.

East Chapel Hill returns to conference play on Friday, when  it hosts Hillside at 4:30 p.m.

The Fila Deep South Classic, which includes 216 girls basketball teams, will be played this weekend in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Teams from 33 states will participate in the three-day event.

In Chapel Hill, games will be played at the University of North Carolina's Smith Center and Fetzer Gym. In Raleigh, they'll play at N.C. State's Reynolds Coliseum and Carmichael Gym (not to be confused with UNC's Carmichael Auditorium.)

Play begins this morning and the finals are Sunday.

Extensive rains in midweek have caused a complete revision of the Hilltop Invitational Tournament’s schedule.

The HIT still features 16 teams in two divisions, but play has been condensed into two days and spread over four campuses on Saturday. Each team will play three games, but in a round-robin format, not a playoff.

See the revised schedule here.

After the completion of a successful winter sports season, Jordan High School has taken over the lead in the Piedmont Athletic 4-A standings for the annual Wachovia Conference Cup.
Jordan won the Piedmont Athletic 4-A Conference championship in men’s basketball and delivered second-place performances in men’s and women’s swimming to earn 60 points. Second-place East Chapel Hill (55.5), the leader in fall sports, swept the PAC-6 swimming championships.
Northern Durham (50.5) moved into third after finishing first in wrestling and women’s basketball. Riverside (49) is fourth, followed by Roxboro Person (29.5), Southern Durham (25) and Hillside (23.5).
The Wachovia Cup award recognizes the high schools that achieve the best overall interscholastic athletic performance within each of the state’s four competitive classifications. Wachovia has sponsored the conference awards program since 1980.
The Wachovia Conference Cup is a companion to the Wachovia Cup. The Conference Cup is awarded to schools with the best overall interscholastic athletic performance in each individual conference. Points are awarded based upon final standings for each sport in each conference.
In the Carolina 1/2-A, Carrboro High School holds a top spot in the Wachovia Conference Cup standings after the NCHSAA’s winter season. After a championship in men’s swimming and a runner-up finish in women’s swimming, Carrboro has 84.5 points, followed closely behind by Cedar Ridge.
Cedar Ridge finished second in men’s basketball and third in wrestling, and now has 81.5 points. Men’s basketball conference champion Northwood is in third with 77 points. The N.C. School of Science and Math (73.5) and Durham School of the Arts (63) round out the Carolina 1/2-A's top five, followed by Raleigh Charter (56), South Granville (44), Granville Central (41.5), River Mill (27), Roxboro Community (10).

The Chapel Hill High School basketball teams both won their semifinal games this week to earn spots in the Carolina-Six Conference tournament finals on Friday.
Because the NCHSAA 3-A wrestling regionals were scheduled in advance for the CHHS gyms, the basketball tournament will conclude Friday at Carrboro High School.
The CHHS girls edged Orange, 45-42, Wednesday night in Hillsborough. They’ll play No. 1 seed Cardinal Gibbons at 6 p.m. in Carrboro.
The Chapel Hill boys blew by Northern Vance, 70-58, in Wednesday’s semifinals and will play Southern Vance on Friday. The boys’ final will tip-off at 7:30 p.m., or approximately 20 minutes after the girls’ final finishes.

Grayson Murray, one of the state's most outstanding young golfers, on Monday won a sectional qualifying tournament and advanced to the 156-player field for the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Murray, a Leesville Road High School golfer who last month won the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A championship, shot a second-round 66 on Monday at Bradford Creek Golf Course in Greenville for a 134 total and a one-stroke victory Jonathan Diianni of Kernersville.

The last two Chapel Hill-area golfers playing in the CGA’s N.C. Junior Championships have bowed out of the match-play competition.
Cedar Ridge junior Casey Ward defeated Kayla Sciupider of Etowah, the medalist of stroke play, 2 & 1, in Thursday morning’s Round of 16. But Ward then fell to Madison Kennedy of Salisbury, by the same 2 & 1 score, in the afternoon's quarterfinals.
Kennedy reached the quarterfinals by defeating Northwood junior Emily Brooks, 3 & 2, in the Round of 16.