TARBORO — Jeff Craddock figured it would be difficult to find a Week 1 opponent.

The Tarboro head coach said the Vikings planned to play Nash Central in the opening week, but the matchup got scratched last December. It only took a month to fill thanks to a surprise phone call from Plymouth.…

North Edgecombe Warriors (0-0) at Nash Central Bulldogs (0-0)

The matchup: Nash Central opens its season at home against a North Edgecombe team that advanced to the third round of the NCHSAA Class 1-A playoffs last season. The Warriors bring back a 1,000-yard rusher from that season in Devonte…

Telegram sports writers Ethan Joyce and Patrick Mason started their new podcast this week. For episode one, the two talk about the games they will cover on Friday and the paper’s new prep football magazine, the Telegram Football Insider, which comes out on Friday.…

With a new season, a new group of football players has to step into starting positions left vacant by last year’s seniors. Once teams get past Week One, it’s not even a big deal anymore. Who’s on the roster is who’s on the roster, and no one that left is coming back.

But…

Rocky Mount coach Jason Battle recognized football was headed in a direction. The Gryphons coach wanted Shyheim Battle to be part of it.

Shyheim Battle, a junior defensive back, was guided into the cornerback position well before the start of last season. He had just finished a season playing…

With the high school football season kicking off Friday, devoted fans of Twin Counties programs know where they are going to be. Rocky Mount High faithful will be traveling to Apex. The Firebirds of Southern Nash are going to Cary. The legions of Northern Nash, Nash Central and Tarboro will nestle…

In these times when so much divides Americans, the targeting penalty brings college football fans together.

Just about all of them hate it.

The targeting foul turns 10 this season, though the real rage against it did not start until 2013 when player ejections became part of the penalty. The rule…

Alabama and the Southeastern Conference are trying to climb back atop the college football mountain.

The SEC was toppled— at least temporarily — from that summit by the Atlantic Coast Conference last season. A powerhouse Crimson Tide team has a much shorter climb back after a down-to-…

RALEIGH (AP) — Kentavius Street knows what awaits for North Carolina State’s defensive line.

Stacked with experience and headlined by an NFL first-round prospect in Bradley Chubb, the Wolfpack’s front four could be the best symbol of the program’s steady maturation under…

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Connie Carberg was incredibly antsy, barely able to contain her excitement a few moments before picking up the phone and making one of the most important calls in New York Jets history.

The team was on the clock in the second round of the 1979 NFL draft, and she had just…

CARSON, California — Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett plans to sit during the national anthem this season to protest social injustice — and expects a backlash over an issue that is “bigger than a sport.”

He sat on the visiting bench during “The Star-…

CHARLOTTE — Justin Thomas emerged from the shadow of a longtime friend and won the PGA Championship to take his place among the young elite in golf.

With two big breaks to start the back nine, a chip-in for birdie to seize control and a timely 7-iron that soared over the water to a peninsula…