The Western Foothills Conference Volleyball Tournament will get underway this Monday evening. The tournament games will all be played at the home of the higher seeded team.

Unbeaten North Iredell (24-0, 14-0 in the conference) will host Statesville (2-18, 0-14 in the league); Fred T. Foard, the second-place finisher in regular se8-13, ason play (16-6, 11-3) will host North Lincoln (8-13, 3-11). #3 East Lincoln (11-7, 8-6) will host Hickory (10-12, 6-8). #4 West Iredell (14-7, 8-6) will host St. Stephens (13-9, 6-8).

The Catawba Valley Conference also begins its Conference Tournament this Monday. Maiden and Bandys finished at 13-1 in the league and a tie for first place. Bandys will host West Caldwell Monday; Maien will host Newton-Conover. East Burke will host West Lincoln and Lincolnton will host Bunker Hill.

The Western Foothills Conference Tennis Tournament wrapped up Thursday. In singles play Emma Carver North Lincoln was #1; Karsyn Sink of East Lincoln #2; Caitlin Simcox of North #3; and Sophie Meyers of East #4. In doubles, Elle Holtzman & Berkeley Geyer of Hickory were tops, followed by Elliegh Williams & Sydney Templeton of North Iredell, Lulu King & Natalie Gore of North Lincoln, and Molly McGuirk & Katie Brown of East Lincoln.

The Catawba Valley Conference Cross Country meet will be held Tuesday at Southside Park in Newton. Girls will run at 4:30 with boys to follow.

In soccer on Monday, East Lincoln will visit Fred T. Foard; North Lincoln will play at St. Stephens; Lincolnton visits West Caldwell; Lincoln Charter hosts Community School of Davidson; West Lincoln plays at Newton-Conover; Maiden hosts Bandys; and Cherryville hosts Shelby.

Because of the pandemic, the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas was cancelled the past two years. The game pits some of the best seniors from the state of North Carolina against some of the best seniors from the state of South Carolina. Three area football players were named as selections for the Shrine Bowl: East Lincoln linebacker Ben Cutter, Maiden receiver Chris Culliver, and North Lincoln's Bryson Esser have been invited to play in the 86th NC-SC Shrine Bowl December 17th at Spartanburg. Also selected were Shelby's Ja'Keith Hamilton, South Point's Sullivan Absher and Burns linebacker Cahari Haynes.

The two quarterbacks chosen for the North Carolina team are Jaylen Alexander-Raynor of East Forsyth and Joshua Jones of Westover High School in Fayetteville. Some area fans were puzzled why neither of two outstanding quarterbacks from this area were chosen.

Not including Friday's games, Alexander-Raynor had thrown 23 touchdown passes for his team, completed 65% of his passes for 1715 yards. He had also run for 834 yards and 14 touchdowns. Jones had tossed 11 TD passes, completed almost 65% of his passes and accounted for 1196 yards passing.

By comparison, Maiden's Wesley Thompson had completed over 65% of his passes, accounted for 1716 yards passing, and thrown for 21 TDs before his team's win over Bunker Hill on Friday. East Lincoln's Tyler Mizell has completed 65% of his passes, thrown 23 TD passes (three in Friday's win over St. Stephens), and accounted for 1516 yards passing.

Ben Mauney of Burns is a junior, so maybe he'll be chosen next year. Mauney has completed almost 73% of his passes for 1656 yards and 21 touchdowns. On Friday, he threw three TD passes and ran for another in the Bulldogs' easy win over East Gaston.

Cutter, by the way, plans to attend West Virginia University next Fall. Culliver is going to UNC in Chapel Hill.

The game of the week last Friday was Maiden's back-and-forth struggle with Bunker Hill. The Blue Devils handed the Bears their first loss thanks to a last minute touchdown. This week, Lincolnton at Maiden is the game of the week. The Wolves still have a chance at a share of the conference title, but they'll need a win at Maiden and at home against West Lincoln the following Friday--neither an easy task.

East Lincoln is still undefeated, and largely unchallenged. The Mustangs have scored 35 or more in six of their eight wins and 50 or more in four of them. They play at North Iredell Friday before hosting North Lincoln next week. The Knights visit West Iredell this week.

West Lincoln will play at home against East Burke on Friday.

Other games have unbeaten Kings Mountain hosting Ashbrook, Cherryville at Burns, Hickory at Fred T. Foard, Newton-Conover at Bunker Hill, East Gaston at Shelby, North Gaston at Stuart Cramer, Crest at Hunter Huss, Forestview at South Point, Thomas Jefferson at Highland Tech and
Winston-Salem Carver at Mtn. Island Charter.