Staff report
SPENCER — There were 112 teams involved in Friday’s third round of the NCHSAA state playoffs.
None of those 112 teams are from Rowan County.
None of them were all that close. West Rowan lost 49-14 in the second round. North Rowan lost 45-7 in the second round.
The other four Rowan schools made the playoffs, but they were gone after the first round, so Rowan was 2-6 in the playoffs.
That’s not great news, but now that all the official stats for the 2025 season are in, it’s obvious that the 2025 season had great moments and great individual accomplishments.
It’s a shame North Rowan junior QB Mike Alford was injured in last week’s game at Corvian Community School, as Alford might have topped 3,000 passing yards for the season. That’s only happened once before in Rowan County history. Samuel Wyrick passed for 3,301 yards in 2014 when East Rowan played 14 games.
Alford’s 2,865 passing yards put him third on the all-time list in Rowan County for a season. Mitch Ellis’ 1994 season — 2,945 passing yards — is still second.
Alford threw a school-record 28 touchdown passes.
Alford didn’t have a huge rushing season (264 yards), but those rushing yards gave him 3,129 yards of total offense for the season. That’s only the sixth time that the 3,000-yard milestone has been surpassed in a season in Rowan County. The others who achieved the feat were East’s Samuel Wyrick, West running back KP Parks and North QBs Alfonzo Miller, Daniel Griffith and Ellis.
North receivers accomplished something that never had happened before as two of them topped 1,000 yards in the same season.
A’son Best’s 1,201 receiving yards broke North’s school record for a season. That total is sixth on the all-time county list. East Rowan’s Seth Wyrick, who was catching passes thrown by his twin brother in 2014, set the bar in the county high for receiving yards in a season with 1,622. That’s 300 more than anyone else.
North Rowan junior Dyaon Norman-Jackson reached 1,000 receiving yards in the finale at Corvian Community. The junior finished with 1,002 yards, becoming the 18th player in county history to record a 1,000-yard season and becoming the fourth to do so at North. Amari McArthur, who plays for Catawba College now, had 1,191 receiving yards in 2021. Bryson Gaymon had 1,020 receiving yards in 2006.
Best had 61 catches. That’s tied for seventh in county history for a single season. Best is second in North Rowan history to Tony Walker, who made 68 catches in 2002.
Receptions in a season is another Seth Wyrick county record that will be hard to break. He had 102 catches in 2014. That’s 23 more than runner-up Jon Crucitti had for West Rowan in 2009.
1. Samuel Wyrick, East, 2014 3,301
2. Mitch Ellis, North, 1994 2,945
3. Daniel Griffith, North, 2006 2,810
4. Mitch Ellis, North, 1993 2,636
