JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST. Aliyah Farmer playing for Mars Hill against Catawba, December, 2016.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Aliyah Farmer holds an impressive and responsible job title in the banking industry — due diligence consultant for Wells Fargo — but she’s still a baller at heart.
Love for hoops has led Farmer, a 2016 North Rowan graduate and 2020 UNC Pembroke graduate, to make time for coaching the varsity girls basketball team at North Hills Christian School.
“Never thought I would be a coach,” Farmer said with a laugh. “But I do love it. I think I’ve got a calling for it.”
The folks at North Hills agree with that. The team went 8-0 in the conference this season and is 12-8 overall.
There haven’t been any additions to the banner in the North Hills gym honoring girls basketball championships since 2014, so these are good times for the program. Farmer said a victory against Concord’s Covenant Classical School marked the turning point for a successful season.
“We’re really young,” Farmer said. “Most of these girls are all-round athletes who have played basketball only during basketball season, and it’s not easy to compete with the best teams we play, like Charlotte’s Victory Christian, because they are built around year-round basketball players. But some of our girls are planning to play AAU ball after this season. We’ll keep getting better.”
The Eagles recently beat Statesville Christian, their biggest rival, 43-33, to finish their unblemished conference season.
North Hills plays in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association — the NCISAA. The Eagles compete in 1A, the smallest division.
The North Hills roster looks different than the ones at Rowan’s public schools because middle-school age girls are eligible to play for the varsity Eagles if they are good enough.
North Hills has a seventh-grader (Gracie Drechsler) and an eighth-grader (Abby Vriesma), who already are key players. Freshmen Emry McLaughlin and Ellison Dendy are standouts. McLaughlin scored 14 points in the win over Statesville Christian, while Dendy had 13.
The team has a 6-foot-3 senior, Lydia Vriesma, who usually leads the Eagles in rebounds and blocks.
“We’ll miss Lydia, but we’re hoping to add more good players next season,” Farmer said. “We’ve got a big, new gym under construction, and that should help us build the program.”
This is Farmer’s second season at North Hills. She has a lot to offer as a coach because she was never out-worked or out-hustled in her playing days.
She played on strong North Rowan teams coached by Brian Lytton. North had a good chance to win a state championship Farmer’s sophomore year (2013-14) before post player Brielle Blaire suffered a knee injury.
Farmer may be the best player in North history who didn’t score 1,000 points. She played so hard she lost five games to concussions and various injuries and came up just short. She finished her career with 994 points.
As a high school senior, Farmer was a 3.4 student and averaged better than 16 points and 12 rebounds per game, but recruiting interest wasn’t overwhelming for a 5-foot-8 power forward. Mars Hill took a chance on her and she made the South Atlantic Conference All-Freshman team in her only year in the mountains. She had 17 rebounds one night against Limestone.
Then Farmer transferred to UNC Pembroke for the rest of her college career. She usually came off the bench for the Braves, but there’s always a place for a girl who is willing to rebound and defend. She proved you can play forward in Division II at 5-foot-8. She scored 20 points in 21 minutes one night.
Most important, Farmer earned a degree in criminal justice. Now there’s no shortage of the life lessons she can teach that will stay with her girls long after basketball.
Farmerm, a fan of the Boston Celtics, is looking forward to the NCISAA playoffs. North Hills is seeded fourth and got a first-round bye. The likely second-round opponent on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the North Hills gym will be rival Statesville Christian, the 5 seed.
The powerful Victory Christian squad is seeded No. 1.
