Charlotte area’s best high school girls basketball team? The Sweet 16 champion is ...

Vance High girls basketball coach Donnell Rhyne was in Publix buying groceries Thursday when one of his players called. She wanted to know if there was any way the Cougars would get to play their state championship game against Southeast Raleigh.

That N.C. 4A state final, scheduled for March 14, was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker hasn’t given up the hope of playing the game, but Rhyne told his player that hope is fading.

“I told her, ‘I don’t see it coming,’ ” Rhyne said. “She was like, ‘Man, I really wanted to play.’ I feel bad for the players. I was upset about it for a long time, but I kind of accepted it. But they are not happy about it at all. I feel like a father who can’t help his daughter. All I can do is say, ‘Y’all played a great season and we did some great things.’ ”

The Charlotte Observer began the Sweet 16 poll during the 1984-85 school year, and for the first time since the award began, the championship will be awarded before an NCHSAA state champion has been named.

Rhyne and Vance reached the N.C. 4A state finals for the first time in 17 years. They hoped to beat Southeast Raleigh and win the school’s first state championship, but the Cougars will win at least one title: They are the 2019-20 Sweet 16 champions.

That marks them as the top team in the newspaper’s coverage zone of more than 140 teams in 15 counties.

Vance is at 26-5 after beating rival Mallard Creek, 72-42, in the N.C. 4A Western Regional championship game March 7. After the pandemic ends, Vance will receive a large banner for winning the 35th annual poll championship.

And Rhyne hopes that his girls still get a chance to play for a ring.

“I’ve played that game in my mind thousands of times,” he said. “I still watch (Southeast Raleigh) on film, trying to stay sharp on some things we would do. I still watch the Mallard Creek game and see weaknesses in our game that we need to correct. It’s just frustrating, man, but the one thing I can say is that my team make me feel better, just talking to them.

“They say, ‘Coach, it’s OK, it’s all right. We want to play but you did good. Thanks for everything you’ve done.’ The worst thing,” he said, “is I can’t do anything for them.”

Whenever the season officially ends, Rhyne’s team will lose two seniors, Megan Jackson and Kyanna Morgan. Morgan was on the team as a freshman when Vance was 7-17. But with four starters back and the bulk of his roster, Rhyne thinks next season will be special.

But this season, he said, will always end with a question mark.

“They all say, ‘We know how to get there now,’ ” Rhyne said of his players. “I can say this: This is the best thing, the best team, I’ve ever been a part of and I’ve been coaching a long time.”

Final girls Sweet 16 poll

*-denotes state champion

Dropped out: Ashbrook (3A, 21-5); Central Cabarrus (3A, 23-6); Myers Park (4A, 19-9). Also receiving consideration: Cannon School (IND, 17-9); North Mecklenburg (4A, 20-8); Independence (4A, 21-8); Hickory (3A, 21-7).

Langston Wertz Jr.

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5133

Langston Wertz Jr. is an award-winning sports journalist who has worked at the Observer since 1988. He’s covered everything from Final Fours and NFL to video games and Britney Spears. Wertz -- a West Charlotte High and UNC grad -- is the rare person who can answer “Charlotte,” when you ask, “What city are you from.” Support my work with a digital subscription