MaxPreps Basketball Tour of Champions celebrates Cox Mill High School

The 13th Annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the Army National Guard passed through North Carolina on Friday, May 4 to recognize Cox Mill (Concord, N.C.) High School and its boys basketball team for winning a state championship and earning a high national ranking.

After the Chargers blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, Cox Mill's Wendell Moore sank a pair of free throws, giving the Chargers a 65-63 nail-biting victory over Northside-Jacksonville in the NCHSAA Class 3A state championship contest. The narrow victory allowed the 29-3 Chargers to claim Cox Mill's second straight boys state basketball title in the school's ninth year of varsity basketball. The Chargers earned the No. 21 ranking in MaxPreps' National Rankings!

Once the student body had filed into the football stadium for the pep rally, Cox Mill High School kicked the celebration off by introducing all of its spring sports teams. Then, for the main event, MaxPreps representative Ray Dungee took the field to heap praise on the boys basketball team and remind Charger Nation of all of Cox Mill's basketball accomplishments. Dungee concluded his congratulatory message by informing the Pro-Charger crowd that their basketball team finished the season ranked No. 21 out of 22,000 basketball teams nationally. Dungee then introduced Staff Sergeant Jeffrey King of the North Carolina Army National Guard, who spoke briefly about the commitment to excellence the Charger coaching staff has instilled in its basketball program.

SSG King also talked about commitment, dedication, hard work and perseverance, all shared character traits of a state championship basketball team and the Army National Guard before presenting the highly coveted Army National Guard national ranking trophy to head coach Jody Barbee to the proud cheers of the rowdy crowd. Coach Barbee was thrilled and humbled by the national attention and thanked both the North Carolina Army National Guard and MaxPreps for recognizing his players on a national level. It was a great afternoon at Cox Mill High School. Congratulations to the boys basketball team for finishing No. 21 in the country and for winning a state championship for the second year in a row!

Click here to view the Cox Mill TOC photo gallery and for more information about the Basketball TOC, please visit the MaxPreps Tour of Champions site.