Charlotte Latin volleyball coach to retire

Charlotte Latin volleyball coach and assistant athletic director Suzie Pignetti will retire in June, the school announced last week.

Ardrey Kell volleyball coach Zoe Bell will succeed Pignetti as head of the Latin varsity team and volleyball program.

Pignetti has been the head coach at Charlotte Latin since 2001. Under Pignetti, the Hawks have won 11 consecutive conference championships and nine straight state championships. In her 35-year coaching career at Latin, Butler and Charlotte Country Day, she compiled at 745-150 record.

Overall, she’s won 29 conference championships and 15 state championships. She was the American Volleyball Coaches Association 2012 National High School Coach of the Year.

Pignetti, a breast cancer survivor, also founded the Serve for the Cure volleyball tournament at Charlotte Latin, which has raised more than $300,000 for breast cancer research and education since it started 11 years ago.

Bell, who will take over the program July 1, comes to Latin after winning her first state championship at Ardrey Kell in 2012.

In her career as coach at Ardrey Kell and Providence High, Bell has led her teams to 13 Southwestern 4A conference championships and five N.C. High School Athletic Association state titles.

Conference realignment

N.C. High School Athletic Association schools will realign into new conferences next school year. Now those conferences have names.

The Southwestern 4A will keep its name and five current members – Butler, East Mecklenburg, Independence, Myers Park and Rocky River – and add Garinger and Porter Ridge.

Three former league schools – Ardrey Kell, Providence High and South Mecklenburg – join Berry Academy, Charlotte Catholic, Harding University, Olympic and West Mecklenburg in a new conference. Instead of a generic name, like Queen City in the past, the conference will be called the SoMeck 8, though three of the schools are tucked in the western part of the county.

Schools in the northern part of the county will join two Cabarrus County schools to form the MECKA 4A. That conference will include: A.L. Brown, Hopewell, Hough, Mallard Creek, North Mecklenburg, Jay M. Robinson, West Charlotte and Vance.

Queen’s Grant joins the Yadkin Valley 1A conference.

The NCHSAA realigns conferences every four years. This plan is for the 2013-2017 school years.

NFHCA Academic Squad

All nine seniors on Charlotte Latin’s varsity field hockey team were named to the 2012 National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad.

Kavitha Eechambadi, Becca Jones, Ellie Sheild, Lynn Lewis-Bevan, Rory Keeley, Catie Morris, Mary Lewis, Barbara Anne Thomas and Katie Mayopoulos made the team, which recognizes seniors who hold a cumulative, unweighted GPA of 3.5 or higher through the first quarter of the school year.

Charlotte Country Day’s Caroline Albert and Lauren McFayden, and Providence Day’s Mackenzie Busby and Natalie Swimmer also made the team.

Fast Charger freshman

Providence Day freshman hurdler Anna Cockrell won the 55-meter hurdle indoor race at the JDL Fast Track Invitational Meet in Winston-Salem Jan. 26.

Her time of 8.10 seconds is the fastest in the state this year and the No. 4 performance in the nation. It ranks ninth in all-time state indoor performances, according to NCRunners.

National Signing Day

Many south Charlotte athletes signed National Letters of Intent on National Signing Day Feb. 6. For a full list of area college signees, visit www.bit.ly/CLTSigningDay.