Over the years Bladen County high school athletes have set records for football, basketball and baseball.
Since the 2018-19 school season is winding down we thought that we would review some of these records.
One of the most remarkable records is the one owned by the 1961 Elizabethtown High School football team when they went 10-0 and held their opponents scoreless. The highest scoring tie in a regulation football game was on October 9, 1998 when Tar Heel and Red Springs played to a 44-44 tie.
In football, Malcolm Vaught gained the most receiving yards, 357, in West Bladen’s game against Terry Sanford of Fayetteville on October 26, 2012.
Ferrell Murchison of East Bladen had 37 rushing TD’s in the 2014 season to place 28th on the all time list of rushing TD’s scored. That same year Murchison gained 2,491 yards to place 68th overall in total yardage gained.
The fewest points scored (9) in a basketball game was when East Bladen defeated East Columbus 5-4 on February 16, 2000.
In basketball, Courtney Melvin of East Bladen placed second with 64 points in a game on January 4, 2008 against West Columbus. She placed 15th in career points with 2,502 in the 2007-2011 seasons.
Melvin placed 12th in career rebounds (1,353) and most rebounds (31) in a single game against Midway on Feb. 11, 2014. East Bladen’s Ann Hancock scored 2,276 points in the 1985-88 to be in 22nd place in most career points.
Bladenboro High School’s Thomas Mitchell was in the record book quite a few times. Mitchell was fourth in all time career pitching wins with 40 during 1997-2000. He had an ERA of 0.62 in 1999 and 0.37 in 2000. He struck out 199 batters in 2000 and had career strikeout of 535 from 1997-2000. In 2000, Mitchell had 48 hits and had 142 hits from 1997-2000. His batting average was .578 in 2000.
Brian Mazur of East Bladen threw consecutive no hitters in 1995 against South Robeson and St Pauls.
Bladen has had two North Carolina High School Players of the Year. Courtney Melvin in 2010-11 and three-sports star Tyrell Godwin of East Bladen in 1996-97. Godwin went on to UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and later signed a professional baseball contract.
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