With five public high schools and a Division-II college program in Robeson County, there’s always plenty of sports news throughout any given year. But through 2024, it seemed the big stories just kept coming.

Compiling this annual list of the county’s biggest sports stories of the year, there are stories near the bottom of this list which might normally be closer to the top — it was just that busy of a year.

Two themes emerge when reading this list, with nearly all of the entries fitting one or both: champions and change. Robeson’s teams were successful and saw triumph often in 2024, but off the field and court there has been lots of movement among key personnel, from retirements to new milestones to the death of a local legend.

So, with the end of 2024 just days away, here is a look back at the stories that defined the year on the local sports scene.

1. Lumberton wrestling state championships

It had been over 20 years since Lumberton wrestling had an individual state champion. On one magical Saturday afternoon inside the Greensboro Coliseum on Feb. 17, Lumberton claimed three individual titles and the Lady Pirates claimed the team championship.

Then-sophomore Travelian Hall won the 4A 106-pound title by forfeit win his to-be opponent failed to make weight. It became official when Hall went out on the mat and the official raised his hand in victory.

“It was beyond my expectations of what I can say — beautiful, to be honest,” Hall said. “There was a whole lot of spirit going right into me, and I just felt energetic; wonderful, even.”

Senior Jackson Buck finished 53-0 on the season by pinning Athens Drive’s Zaid Marjan in the first round of the 4A 190-pound championship match.

“I just went out there, and my goal was to dominate this entire season,” Buck said. “I did just that, went out there, scored my points, got him on his back, held him there and won the match.”

In the first officially-sanctioned girls state championship, Lumberton’s Wyntergale Oxendine won the 235-pound state championship. She finished 38-0 for her senior season, with pins in all 31 contested matches including three against state runner-up Nyema George of Havelock.

“It’s been amazing,” Oxendine said. “Very smooth for me. I hate it’s my last year, but I’ve made it my best year.”

The Pirates’ Teresa Canady reached the 114-pound championship match before losing to East Rowan’s Leah Edwards.

The tournament runs of Oxendine and Canady, combined with a third-place finish by Janya Rolland, who won five straight consolation-round matches after a first-round loss at 185, and a consolation-second-round run for Kylie Brigman at 120, led to the team championship for the Lumberton girls. The program also won the title in 2023 at the NCHSAA Women’s Invitational, the last year before girls wrestling was included in the main state championships.

“That’s a testament to all those girls that have been working — those three that have been working for three years and Janya (Rolland’s) work in effort in just the one year,” Lumberton coach James Bell said.

Lumberton’s boys finished second in the team standings, with Matthew Foil finishing third at 157 and James Ellison third at 175 in addition to the two state champions.

Purnell Swett’s Devon Connor finished second at states, falling to Mallard Creek’s Cameron Stinson in the 126-pound bout as Stinson completed a undefeated run through all four years of high school.

2. St. Pauls 4×400 relay state championship

The St. Pauls 4×400 relay team of Quintell McNeill, Theophilus Setzer, Markeon Fletcher and Charles Johnson came from behind in the last 400 meters to win the 2A state championship at the state meet May 17 in Greensboro.

The Bulldogs ran the relay in 3 minutes, 23.48 seconds, beating Salisbury by just 0.03 seconds for the title.

Fletcher handed the baton to Johnson with the Bulldogs about 10 feet behind Salisbury with one lap to go. Johnson, who had finished sixth in the 400-meters earlier that day, then reeled in the leader and in the final 50 meters made a move to the inside to make a pass, narrowly beating the Hornets back to the finish line.

“I knew if I got the baton close enough to him, I knew I could make it a good race,” the anchor-leg runner said. “They gave me the inside, so I took it, and I leaned him at the line — I won.”

“I don’t have words for (Johnson’s leg),” St. Pauls coach Charles Johnson said. “But it was calculated, because he calculated it down to a T. He left it all on the track — all of them did.”

The win was the 19th state championship in a track and field event in St. Pauls school history, the first since 2018 and the first outdoor title since 2015. It is the ninth Bulldogs relay team to win a state championship, but the first in the 4×400.

Fairmont’s Travelius Leach finished third in the 400-meters at the meet.

3. Robeson Community College starts athletic program

Robeson Community College announced on July 18 that it will begin an athletics program for the 2025-26 school year.

The initial announcement was that the school would start programs in baseball and women’s soccer; the school has since changed course on which female sport it will offer, with softball on the slate for the spring of 2026 alongside the baseball program. Both teams will play the Dr. Raymond B. Pennington Athletic Complex in Lumberton.

“This has probably been the No.1 question that I have received from constituents since I began serving as president – when will RCC add a sports team — and I’m thankful to finally be able to say that historic day has now come,” stated RCC President Melissa Singler. “Soon, RCC will have its very own athletics program and it is going to be a great addition to our campus.”

The school hired Jake “Jiggy” Jones in November to be its first baseball coach and athletic director. Player commitments have been pouring in since, with the number now in double digits.

“It’s going to be fun, bringing your own guys in here,” Jones said. “I’ve got a little bit of personality about me, I know it, so I’m kind of getting guys like me, and most of the guys we’ve already got committed right now, they’re going to be very likeable in the community.”

RCC plans to announce its team nickname/mascot sometime in early 2025, and also hopes to hire a softball coach in the coming weeks.

4. John Haskins goes out on top

After a 43-year coaching career, including 35 years at UNC Pembroke, John Haskins retired from leading the Braves women’s basketball program at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season.

Haskins, 65, led the UNCP men’s basketball from 1992-2002, the men’s golf team from 2002-05 and coached the women’s basketball team for 20 seasons. He was also previously a men’s basketball assistant and coached men’s tennis; he has been at the school in some capacity since 1989, and coached over 800 combined games as the men’s and women’s head coach. His 262 wins leading the Lady Braves are more than twice as many as any other coach.

Haskins told his team of his decision to retire following a win over Barton on Jan. 17, his 250th with the Lady Braves; the school announced the news a day later.

“If it was just out there coaching my team and going to practice and games, yeah, I’m good, I’d be all in, but there’s so much more required at the college level that it felt like was getting more and more difficult for me to have the desire to do,” Haskins said.

After winning the Conference Carolinas Tournament in 2023 to earn Haskins’ first NCAA Tournament appearance, the Lady Braves sent the coach out with a pair of conference titles, first winning the regular-season title before repeating as conference tournament champions.

UNCP beat Barton 63-56 in the tournament semifinals before a 72-51 win over Belmont Abbey in the championship game, sparked by a program-record 15 made 3-pointers.

“For our seniors, it’s our last time, so we’re trying to go as long as we can go,” said Kalaya Hall, who was named tournament MVP for the second-straight year. “And coach, it’s his last time, so we’re trying to win for him. And it’s just exciting — it’s March, so you just get the adrenaline pumping.”

UNCP lost 58-48 at top-seeded Catawba in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

5. River Ryan makes MLB debut

Former UNCP baseball standout River Ryan became a major-leaguer when the Los Angeles Dodgers promoted him from AAA on July 22, and was strong in four starts for the Dodgers before injury ended his 2024 season.

Ryan was 1-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 20 1/3 innings with 18 strikeouts. This included 4 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run in his major-league debut against the San Francisco Giants.

“It was great,” Ryan told the media after his debut. “There was definitely a lot of emotions, up and downs all day, but I spent some time with the Lord earlier today, definitely prayed when I got on the mound, and that helped me calm my nerves. But yeah, it was an experience for sure.”

Ryan left an Aug. 10 star against the Pittsburgh Pirates with tightness in his throwing arm, was diagnosed with a torn UCL and underwent Tommy John surgery, ending his season and likely keeping him sidelined through most or all of 2025.

Ryan became UNCP’s first MLB player since Ben Callahan, who made four pitching appearances for the Oakland Athletics in 1983.

Ryan’s fellow former UNCP players Darren Bowen and Trent Harris also continued pitching in the minor leagues in 2024. Bowen was traded from the Seattle Mariners to the Minnesota Twins in January, and went 2-10 with a 6.07 ERA in 18 appearances at high-A Cedar Rapids, while Harris, in the Giants’ organization, was 9-3 with a 1.81 ERA in 36 total relief appearances across low-A, high-A and AA ball.

6. Michael Baker retires

Michael Baker retired as Fairmont High School’s athletic director at the conclusion of the 2023-24 school year after a career at the school spanning over four decades.

“You did something that you loved doing for so many years, but all good things come to an end,” Baker said. “I enjoyed it; when I got to 30 years, I just didn’t feel like retiring, I felt like I had more to give, more to offer. But it’s time for me to ride into the sunset.”

Baker began as a science teacher and coach at Fairmont in 1981. He was the school’s athletic director from 1993-2024, and was the head boys basketball coach from 1983-2004 and 2009-14. He also coached volleyball over multiple stints dating from 1986 to 2024, and had stints coaching tennis and track during his career. Fairmont’s gym is named in his honor.

A pair of Baker’s former players stepped into the roles he had held at Fairmont: Marcus Thompson became athletic director, while Kaitlyn Hunt is now the volleyball coach.

7. Michael Dudley wins powerlifting world championship

Lumberton native Michael Dudley won the 105-kilogram (231-pound) weight classification at the International Powerlifing Federation World Championships on May 26 in Austin, Texas.

Dudley bench pressed 242.5 kilograms (535 pounds), 10 pounds more than any other competitor in his class was able to lift, to win the title.

“All of the training, preparation, all of the people who believed in me, everything rushed to my head at one time and it was a very emotional moment for me,” Dudley said.

Dudley overcame injuries suffered in a car accident in January, just days after qualifying for worlds with his performance at nationals, requiring his training to be adapted in the leadup to worlds.

Dudley made his second world-championships appearance after previously competing in 2019. The former Lumberton High School wrestler currently resides in Virginia Beach but hopes to relocate back to Robeson County in the near future.

8. UNCP conference championships

As the top seed at the Conference Carolinas Tournament for the third straight season, the UNCP men’s basketball team finally broke through for a tournament title as the Braves beat Emmanuel 82-81 in a championship-game overtime thriller on March 10 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

“It’s just another really good college basketball game and I feel lucky that we came out on top,” UNCP men’s basketball coach Drew Richards said. “It was another back-and-forth, back-and-forth (game); at no point did you feel like anybody had an advantage; everybody kind of made their runs. But I was proud of how we gutted it out.”

Nygell Verdier made a go-ahead layup for UNCP with 14 seconds left in overtime before the Braves got a defensive stop and rebound to seal the title.

Elijah Cobb, who was the tournament’s MVP, made a game-tying layup with 40 seconds left in regulation and blocked a potential go-ahead shot attempt of All-American K.J. Jones with 10 seconds left.

The Braves played 90 minutes of basketball in a 26-hour span, with a 79-73 overtime win over Barton in the semifinals preceding the win over Emmanuel in the final.

The Braves played another overtime game — their fourth straight — in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, losing 98-94 to Catawba.

UNCP’s baseball team also won a conference tournament title on May 6 in Gastonia, beating Belmont Abbey 10-0 in the championship game to complete a 4-0 run through the tournament.

“It’s great for them to see their dream, or their goal, to come true,” UNCP baseball coach Paul O’Neil said. “They obtained their goal, and that’s really special any time you can set a goal for yourself and obtain it; it validates all your hard work that you’ve put into it.”

In the calendar year of 2024, UNCP also won conference championships in men’s cross country and swimming and a division championship in wrestling.

9. Corey Thompson becomes head coach at Winston-Salem State

After serving as St. Pauls boys basketball coach for eight years, Corey Thompson returned to his alma mater by taking a college coaching job at Winston-Salem State. He was introduced as the head coach on July 9.

Thompson, a Lumberton High School alumnus, played for the Rams from 1998-2002, and replaced Cleo Hill Jr. as the program’s head coach.

“It’s been a whirlwind, but like I’ve been telling everybody, I’m living the dream,” Thompson said. “Just having the opportunity to go back to my alma mater and coach there, it’s been a dream for me. It’s been busy, as you can imagine, but I’m still taking it all in stride, taking it one day at a time, and doing everything we can to put a successful product on the court.”

Thompson’s son, Tyson Thompson, who was the 2023-24 Robeson County Defensive Player of the Year, subsequently transferred from St. Pauls to Winston-Salem Christian.

Corey Thompson’s departure made way for another of the year’s biggest coaching stories locally, as Ted Gaskins was hired to coach the St. Pauls boys basketball team.

Gaskins returns to the sidelines after a 35-year coaching career, largely in Robeson County, from 1979-2014, including a stop at West Robeson/Purnell Swett and nearly two decades at Lumberton.

Other notable coaching changes in 2024 locally include: Jeff Lamb being fired as Purnell Swett baseball coach, replaced by Edmund Locklear; Mackie Register stepping down as Lumberton softball coach; Taurius Baker replacing Dennis McFatten as Lumberton football coach; and Jeremy Carthen mutually parting ways with the Fairmont football program.

10. Death of Donnell Thompson

Donnell Thompson, who starred on the football field at Lumberton High School before going on to a successful career at the University of North Carolina and an 11-year stint in the NFL, died on Sept. 17 at age 65.

“Great kid, hard worker, heck of a leader,” said Tommy Thompson, who was Donnell Thompson’s high school position coach at Lumberton. “You knew he was going to be a success because of his personality and his drive, his want to. … He was going to do the proper thing to do to be successful. And he could overcome anything. He was just a great personality, great leader, everybody loved him; he was just top of the line.

Thompson played defensive line for the Colts, first in Baltimore then in Indianapolis after the team relocated, from 1981-91, recording 41 sacks, eight fumble recoveries and one touchdown.

He was a Shrine Bowl selection as a senior at Lumberton, playing both defensive end and fullback in high school, before earning third-team All-America honors in 1980 as part of an ACC championship team at UNC.

Thompson was Robeson County’s selection for the North State Journal’s “100 in 100” profiling each North Carolina county’s best athlete in 2020.

Following his football career, Thompson had a successful career as a hotel and restaurant franchisee.

11. St. Pauls cheerleading wins third straight state championship

For the third straight year, the St. Pauls cheerleading won a state championship at the NCHSAA Cheerleading Invitational on Dec. 7 in Raleigh.

The Bulldogs won the Game Day Non-Tumbling Coed Division II championship, beating out runner-up Owen and third-place Heide Trask for the title.

“Once you get to No. 3 it starts to become harder,” St. Pauls cheerleading coach Tashira Patterson said. “People think it becomes easier, but it becomes harder, because you have to get more and more creative every time you step onto the floor, with every routine.”

The team was mostly comprised of newcomers who were not part of the first two state championships in the program’s run.

St. Pauls begins 2025 in preparation for a trip to the National High School Cheerleading Championships in Orlando in February.

12. Fairmont boys, St. Pauls girls basketball reach 4th round of playoffs

Both the Fairmont boys and St. Pauls girls basketball teams reached the fourth round of the 2A state playoffs, the deepest runs for any Robeson team since the Lady Bulldogs reached the 2A East Regional final in 2022.

Fairmont (22-6) beat Granville Central 60-47 in the first round before the 14th-seeded Golden Tornadoes hit the road for the rest of their run.

Fairmont beat No. 3 West Bladen 59-38 in the second round after the teams had split their two regular-season meetings. The Golden Tornadoes then beat No. 6 Heide Trask 82-65 in the third round before dropping a tight fourth-round game at No. 2 Goldsboro 63-56 in the regional semifinals.

“I’m very proud of what this team has accomplished,” Fairmont coach Montrell McNair said. “They’ve been getting beat the whole time I’ve had them; Tyrek (Thompson) and Gabe (Washington), those guys have been playing since they were sophomores, Landon (Cummings) since he’s a sophomore; he’s a junior and he’s got another year. But those guys have never won this many games before.”

The St. Pauls girls (20-6) advanced to the round of 16 for the fifth-straight season, then got a round further. Like the Fairmont boys, the 15th-seeded Lady Bulldogs won a first-round game at home before hitting the road, with a 73-72 win over No. 18 SouthWest Edgecombe to start the run.

St. Pauls then won 65-54 in the second round at previously undefeated No. 2 Southwest Onslow and overcame the long trip to No. 7 Northeastern with a 51-48 win in the third round. No. 3 Seaforth ended the Bulldogs’ run with a 66-48 decision in the fourth round.

“They put the work in and they started believing in what I was telling them, and you hate for it to end the way it did, but them road trips we took, it was something special,” St. Pauls coach Jaymar Thompson said. “They started believing in me, believing in each other and understanding their roles. … They really became a sisterhood; it was beautiful to watch from the inside.”