Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - With the final days of the summer season returning Gaston County students to schools, the full return of fall sports is soon to happen. Practices and scrimmages have already begun for many of Cherryville’s young athletes. On August 5, 2026, Cherryville High School hosted its own sports media day in the Nixon Gym's former weight room to hear from these players. As the programs start their first games, more in-depth articles will be published, so keep an eye out for your favorite fall sports!
The majority of CHS’s athletes feel like they have noticed a positive change in the atmosphere around sports at the school. While some students spoke directly to this, every team reported a strong sense of camaraderie with their peers. With many students participating in multiple sports, this trend spreads, leading to renewed support from the student body for all programs. With this higher interest, more students want to join, resulting in larger teams, and many programs have needed to achieve greater success. This will help relieve players who had previously been staying in entire games, and the teams hope this will allow them to tackle bigger challenges.
Each group carried a message of uplifting these new players and making them feel like part of the team.
“Really, the main thing we just got to get them to believe. I mean, we go into the season, all the young guys don't believe, like, our second string. Who? Anybody that comes in after all of us. If they don't believe, then we can't.” - Landry Pruitt, Football LB & RB
This is accomplished not just through actions and support but also through time spent together. With ongoing summer workouts and practice for those who can attend, many players have had months together. Outside of this, these students still find close friends within the teams and find time outside of school events to continue fostering these strong bonds. Overall the entirety of Cherryville Ironmen Athletics believes this year will show even more growth, even with many individual powerhouses graduating with last year's senior class.
With the retirement of former coaches such as Volleyball Coach Leigh Kiser and Football Coach Timothy Pruitt, many new coaches have begun their careers at CHS. Others who are not so new have transferred to other programs. The players feel these changes are also leading to growth. In the case of the volleyball team, Athletic Director Matt Powers has taken the role of head coach for now. Coach Brandon Shull, who previously directed tennis, has taken over soccer. This gap has led Bella Anderson to take the lead on this program. Now in his third year, Coach Patrick Bowman and his players feel the program continues to show results. All coaches aim not only to fill the spots left behind but also to improve these teams' performance.
As with many schools, the teams enjoy their home turf. Tennis players mentioned they prefer the courts in Cherryville and dislike the surfaces used elsewhere, such as clay courts. They do, however, wish they had more courts to host more matches. Volleyball is played in Nixon Gym, which is not air-conditioned. After conditioning to this over the summer, they feel it gives them the edge over other teams. The football players also prefer their natural-grass field to the turf at other schools, but will play more matches on it than in previous years. Cross Country hopes to see a course built within the next year to improve practices and begin hosting conference meets.
While not every sport uses it heavily, the high school was also recently refitted with an updated weight room. The football players said this included new dumbbells, repainting older equipment, and wooden floors under the racks that they enjoy working out on. They feel this update will help them keep up with some of the larger players at other schools. Overall the sports program is growing, and both the players and coaches look forward to seeing the results.
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