Church named All-State
From staff reports

Watauga catcher Adam Church was named to the 4-A All-State baseball team by the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.

Church, who was also the Northwestern 4-A Conference Player of the Year, hit .473 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. He also hit four doubles and had a slugging percentage of .811.

Church, who played for the Caldwell County American Legion team during the summer, will attend East Tennessee State in the fall. He joins former Watauga standout Trey Dunnigan, who also played for Caldwell during the summer.

Tyler Zupcic, Providence’s center fielder who will attend Appalachian State this fall, was also named to the team. Other future Mountaineers include Zach Joyce, an outfielder from North Davidson, Butler catcher Tyler Tewell and Ardrey Kell center fielder Ryan Stetson. Starmount pitcher Tyler Jackson made the 2-A team.

Ardrey Kell pitcher Alex Wood, who will attend Georgia, was the 4-A player of the year, while Providence coach Danny Hignight was the 4-A coach of the year. Hignight was a former assistant coach at Watauga.

New soccer coach named
The Watauga County Board of Education approved the hiring of Ewa Ehrlich to be the new soccer coach at Watauga High School Monday night.

Ehrlich was the girls’soccer coach at Wilkes Central before accepting the post at Watauga. He replaces Johnny Gailes, who was one-year replacement for Doug Kidd, who left for Swansboro at the end of the 2008 girls season.

Ehrlich will coach both the boys and girls programs at Watauga