Staff report

LANDIS — South Rowan co-athletic director Chris Krieg introduced Justin Pauley to South Rowan players and parents on Saturday.

Pauley is taking over as the interim head boys basketball coach, effective immediately, and will guide South Rowan in its next game — Friday against East Rowan.

Daniel Blevins wrapped up his coaching tenure at South with the Christmas tournament.

Pauley, who had size and could play inside or outside, competed with distinction for the Raiders in 1996-97 and 1997-98, averaging 14.6 points for a 13-13 team as a freshman and 12.1 points as a sophomore for an 11-14 squad. Those South teams were competing in the 4A Central Piedmont Conference, and while they struggled to get wins in the CPC, they were prevailing in most of their non-conference games. Pauley scored 681 points in two seasons and was on track to become the school’s all-time scoring leader, but his family moved out of state after his sophomore year.

Pauley played college ball for the Houghton Highlanders in New York (2000-04) and scored 1,136 career points.

Since returning to Rowan County, he’s become well known as a middle school coach. He had quite a bit of success at Knox — he coached girls such as Kyla Bryant, Mary Morgan and Jamecia Huntley who would go on to win state titles in high school. More recently, he’s been the coach at Corriher-Lipe Middle in Landis.

Krieg said he’s been watching Pauley for a while and he’s liked what he’s seen.

“When Justin finished speaking there was a lot of applause,” Krieg said. “Our players and parents really need something positive to happen in boys basketball. We saw what a difference that a competitive football team can make at our school. It gave everyone a sense of pride to be part of South Rowan.”

South’s Chris Walsh went 5-6 in 2024 in his fourth season as head football coach, a miracle on the same level as turning water into wine based on the Raiders’ previous 14 seasons.

Whether something similar can happen in boys basketball over the next four years or so remains to be seen.

South has been enduring a period of losing boys basketball games that is unprecedented not only in school history, but in Rowan County history.

After going 0-2 in the recent San Moir Christmas Classic, South has lost 56 straight games. South lost its last 22 games of the 2022-23 season after winning on opening night against West Iredell. South lost all 23 games in 2023-24 and is 0-11 this season. South’s closest game this season was a 67-52 loss to West Rowan.

It gets worse. South was 0-22 in 2021-22, so the program has experienced one boys basketball win in its last 79 games.

South lost 47 consecutive games during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. That was the previous school and county record before the current struggle. South lost all 24 games in 2015-16 and the first 23 in 2016-17 before stopping the skid in the final game of that season with a 64-60 victory against East Rowan in two overtimes.

Blevins debuted at South with a 4-10 record in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. There were a couple of helpful factors. South still was playing in the 2A Central Carolina Conference and South’s baseball players — including special athletes who won the 2022 3A baseball state championship — helped out the basketball team.

Blevins’ career record will be 5-88 at South.

He indicated he’ll be taking a break from basketball coaching, but there’s a plan in place for the next step in his journey, and he is qualified to coach other sports. It won’t become official until Jan. 6, so there can be no announcement yet, but he and his wife will be getting back closer to their roots and their parents. He still will be teaching and coaching.

A story on Blevins and what’s next for him will be published after Jan. 6.