Not just about academics: NCSSM-Morganton senior student-athletes relish school’s recent state titles
NCSSM-Morganton senior student-athletes (from left) Riya Reddy, Gina Byon, Nicole Taylor, and Stella Friedman display the conference, regional, and state hardware won by Lady Dragons’ teams this fall.
NCSSM-Morganton is generally known more for its academics than its athletics.
Likewise, Burke County high schools are more known for their basketball than their tennis or cross country.
But this fall, a group of five extraordinary senior female Dragons’ student-athletes — along with the aid of some large, skilled junior classes — helped change both of those stereotypes.
The NCSSM-Morganton girls cross country team claimed the school’s first team state title at the NCHSAA 1A championship meet on Oct. 31 at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, following up both their West Regional title (from Oct. 25 in Tryon) and Catawba River 1A/2A/3A Conference title (Oct. 8 in Mount Holly) in grand fashion.
And just one day later, some 40 miles to the east, the NCSSM-Morganton girls tennis team on Nov. 1 finished an unbeaten, dream season as it won the NCHSAA 1A dual-team state championship at the Burlington Tennis Center.
Cross country full of ‘driven, determined’ athletes
The Lady Dragons’ cross country catalyst is Stella Friedman, a Shelby native who claimed a second consecutive individual conference title before also winning individually at regionals this fall.
Friedman said she first became aware of NCSSM-M in middle school, then had a chance to speak with cross country coach and biology teacher Chris Collins at a meet that Friedman attended while she was a freshman at her previous school, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy.
“It sounded like a great opportunity, and I had some friends that came here,” she said.
Friedman became interested in the school as it offered certain STEM fields that weren’t available at her first high school.
At the state meet, Friedman placed second individually as NCSSM-Morganton runners claimed four of the top seven spots — with juniors Amelia Fleury and Alexandra Hexemer finishing in third and sixth, respectively, and classmate Nicole Taylor in seventh — to win by a whopping 71 points. That margin ranks in the top 10 in cross country state championship meet history spanning all classifications and both genders.
“It was cool to go from last year barely fighting our way into the state championship (as a team) and finishing sixth to this year winning by such a big margin,” said Friedman, who also swims and participates in indoor and outdoor track and field at NCSSM-M.
“And it was so cool to have my last meet be a state championship (victory) because that’s something I’ve been working for the entirety of high school. It was a great way to go out. A lot of that was made possible by the juniors who came in. We had some great dedication, and that sense of community is what helped us when the workouts got hard or the races got stressful. We all trusted each other.”
Collins has been at NCSSM-M since day one and is also in his fourth year coaching the boys cross country team, which also won conference for a second straight year and advanced to state as a team.
“I really can’t say enough good things about Stella and Max (Vaughan, a senior who won the boys conference title and finished sixth at state) and their leadership,” Collins said. “It’s like having two additional members of the coaching staff.
“In all the years that I’ve coached, I’ve never seen that many talented, driven, determined athletes in one place at one time. … I knew we had something building last year, but the explosive talent that this year’s junior class brought to the table made the impossible possible. We’re already talking about next year, and hopefully, gonna bring more hardware back.”
Tennis celebrates on back-to-back weekends
The Lady Dragons’ tennis state title party wasn’t confined to Nov. 1. Members of the team had competed at the individual state championships the weekend before, on Oct. 24-25 at Cary Tennis Park, where NCSSM-M sported one-fourth of the entire field in both the singles and doubles draws with two entries apiece.
In fact, both NCSSM-M doubles teams advanced with both quarterfinal and semifinal wins to result in an All-NCSSM state title match pitting the teams of senior Riya Reddy and junior Leah Gibson versus the team of seniors Gina Byon and Kirsten Boyd, who had qualified for state in doubles for a second straight year.
The most recent school to produce all four players in a doubles state title match was Hendersonville (2A) in 2021.
“Our coach was super proud because he knew he had already won,” said Reddy, whose team won the doubles championship one weekend after also doing so at regionals.
“The doubles individual tournament was fun for me as a coach,” added third-year coach Jody Deacon, who coaches the tennis team alongside Wayne Giese. “I said jokingly that it was nice to sit in the stands and think, ‘Well, I don’t really have to do anything, do I?’ I’d just kinda go down between games and whisper through the fence ‘How you doing? You need any water?’
“I think for both teams, the emotions went back and forth. ‘This is grand that we’ve got both teams in here,’ and then, ‘Wait a minute, we’re in the competitive mindset here.’ And I thought they balanced camaraderie and competition beautifully.”
Reddy previously attended Waxhaw’s Marvin Ridge High School and said she was drawn to NCSSM-M because she felt her old high school “missed an aspect of research and independent projects.”
Reddy — who says she enjoys underwater robotics at NCSSM-M and also has played volleyball and soccer for the Dragons — was hesitant to change schools, though, because she didn’t know how it would affect her tennis.
“I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3 years old,” she said. “My brother played, my parents played. It was very much part of my life at home, and I was worried that it wouldn’t transfer. But that was proven wrong thankfully.
“When I saw our team this year — the talent and commitment from the juniors, everyone trying their best — I was very confident that we would go far, and that really excited me.”
NCSSM-M’s tennis success was nothing new as the girls team last lost a regular-season match in September 2023. In three full seasons in the sport, the Dragons have claimed three team conference titles, all six singles and doubles individual league titles, sent six entries to individual state semifinal round or beyond, and won two regional team titles and three regional individual titles.
But this season topped anything before it, Byon said, noting the differences in the commitment level and depth of the teams from 2025 versus 2024.
“And we were more united,” said Byon, a Greensboro native who also swims at NCSSM-M. “That was a big part of our season this year. State was one of the funnest experiences I’ve had. Going to state two straight weekends to end your senior season was definitely something special.”
Balancing act between school work and athletics
Collins said that while achieving the kind of success that Dragons’ female fall athletes did is noteworthy anywhere, it means even more at a school that’s as challenging academically as NCSSM-M is.
“I think that’s the unsung part of their victory is that they did all that while also maintaining phenomenal grades at a very vigorous, challenging school,” he said. “That, to me, is what makes it most impressive. I drop them off after a cross country meet at 9 p.m. and before I’m pulling out of the parking lot, I can already see them in the library studying.”
Boyd
Boyd is a Winston-Salem native originally whose family now lives in Stanley in Gaston County. She said that a friend of her older sister’s put NCSSM-M on her radar and that she now enjoys all the opportunities that the school provides as she is part of the mentorship program.
“Practice is a good time,” said Boyd, who also plans to play soccer in the spring and plays lacrosse outside of school. “It’s a good break from the academics, especially with mentorship, which takes up a fair amount of my time right now.”
Reddy agreed that adding athletics to a busy academic schedule feels like less work, not more work.
“Tennis is the best break in my day. It keeps me from going crazy,” she said. “It’s a lot to balance, but just having an outdoor sport, getting that fresh air, being forced to take a break from whatever I’m doing and go to the courts, being with my teammates, it’s great for my mental health.
“Our coaches are really understanding with our schedule when we have clubs, forums, if we just need a day to study with big tests coming up, whatever it is.”
Friedman described what a typical day for an NCSSM-M senior looks like. She starts the day with morning classes, then lunch, then afternoon classes with no free periods. Then it’s time for research, cross country practice, club meetings until around 9 p.m., and finally, homework.
“It’s definitely packed days, but I enjoy having a set schedule,” she said. “Being in the research program, you get out of it what you put into it. And sometimes it is challenging to step away from that and work toward something that’s not academic. But running is also one of those things where you get out of it what you put into it. So really, it’s just about finding the time to do both.”
Her teammate, Taylor, is a Highlands native who said she first heard about NCSSM-M via a representative that came to her middle school.
“I really like biology and STEM, so I thought, might as well take a shot and apply,” said Taylor, who placed fifth in conference and sixth at regionals prior to state and who also plays soccer for NCSSM-M.
“Sports are a really good mental break. Homework can be mentally exhausting, but if I’m anxious that day, it actually relaxes you to shift your focus entirely onto something else for a brief period of time.”
Paul Schenkel can be reached at 828-445-8595 or paul@thepaper.media.
