By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Some scholars prefer more complicated translations of Proverbs 27:17 from the Old Testament, but that’s basically it.

You see it as an inspirational message on the walls of football locker rooms now and then.

Ryan Dextraze has been part of the ultra-competitive world of Cup Series and Xfinity Series racing for the last 19 years as a shop mechanic, travel mechanic, under-car mechanic and gas man, so there’s been a lot of iron sharpening iron over the years. He embraced each day and every race as a chance to get better. Fellow crew members made him better. Drivers made him better. So did opponents.

Proverbs 27:17 became the most meaningful Bible verse for Dextraze, who will be part of Jimmie Johnson’s team in the upcoming season.

Dextraze passed his hard-earned lessons along to his children.

The message was that there were going to be times when they weren’t going to be the best one on the field or the court. When those times came, it would be important not to be discouraged, not to be jealous and not to pout. Those would be the times to compete and get better because iron sharpens iron.

Ryan Dextraze has a daughter named Kynlee, a 5-foot-10 South Rowan junior who has made an early commitment to Lenoir-Rhyne softball.

Father and daughter both answer to “Dex” because Dextraze is a mouthful.

Kynlee makes all A’s, likes doing crafts and is on the shy and quiet side, but she competes like crazy when the time comes. She’s virtually a year-round athlete for the Raiders. She contributes in volleyball and she’s the team’s leading scorer and rebounder in basketball, but mostly she plays softball.

“There’s quite a few of us that migrate from one sport to the next,” Dextraze said with a laugh. “Back in middle school (Corriher-Lipe), we were undefeated in volleyball and basketball. There have been a few years where I didn’t play volleyball, but I played for Coach (Jenna) Horne in middle school and I made a comeback last fall to help out the team and to be with my friends.”

Outside of South athletics, Dextraze competes in travel softball for the Carolina Cobras. While she has scored more than 500 points for South basketball as a rugged and consistent post player who is always good for 10 and 10, softball definitely is her thing. She’s solid with a glove on her hand and she’s a masher at the plate.

“I started Tee-ball at 4 or 5,”Detraze said. “By middle school, I knew that softball was my favorite sport. It’s the sport where everything felt right.”

In the summer of 2019, Dextraze was part of a special group of girls who played for Rowan Little League. They won district and state championships and then won the World Series when it was still being played in Portland, Oregon. Dextraze played shortstop and was one of the key hitters. In Rowan Little League’s first two World Series games, Dextraze went 6-for-6.

“I still look at the Little League World Series as one of the best experiences of my life,” Dextraze said. “I made friends with girls from Italy when I was 12. How many people get to experience something like that? And we were on TV. When you’re 12, nothing is more exciting than being on TV.”

It’s hard to top being on TV and going 6-for-6 on a world-wide stage, but Dextraze has continued to excel in softball in high school.

She started at shortstop for the Raiders as a freshman, batted .364 with two homers and eight doubles and drove in 21 runs.

“We’d be in our uniforms and stop to get something to eat and people would ask me what position I played,” Dextraze said. “I’d tell them I was the shortstop and they would say, ‘Oh, wow, you’re a tall shortstop!’ I’d get that a lot.”

Her sophomore season, she moved to third base.

She prefers shortstop, but she did what coach Dean Mullinax felt was best for the team and gave it everything she had at a new position.

She performed well at the hot corner, spearing line drives, making strong throws and adding to her versatility. It worked out well for the Raiders. South continued to make progress in a competitive 3A softball league. Central Cabarrus, West Rowan, Carson and East Rowan all have stout South Piedmont Conference programs.

The Raiders were 12-12 (6-8 SPC) Dextraze’s freshman year and 13-10 (7-7 SPC) her sophomore year.

The team highlight of her sophomore season was an eight-inning win at East Rowan that included Dextraze making the tag at third base to complete a remarkable, game-ending 7-2-5 triple play.

Pitchers made adjustments to Dextraze in her second high school season. Her batting average slipped to .312, but she had 20 RBIs, five doubles and a team-high five homers and was second on the team in on-base percentage.

“I remember getting off to such a hot start my freshman year, but it got harder,” Dextraze said. “I’ve had some struggles, some ups and downs, but I’ll keep working.”

Iron sharpens iron.

Dextraze has displayed serious right-handed power in her first two years of high school and can hit the ball out of the park to any field. When she gets hold of one, it can travel to a different area code. A pitch over the outer part of the plate by a Northwest Cabarrus pitcher was turned into a screaming missile headed over the right-field fence by Dextraze.

Dextraze has attended numerous college camps, but Lenoir-Rhyne and the L-R coaching staff made the biggest impact on her.

“My first impression when I went to Lenoir-Rhyne was the campus was beautiful and I loved the school,” Dextraze said. “Then they took me on a tour and one of the places we went to was the film room. They had these really cool vinyl wraps on the wall, and I walked over to look at one of them more closely, and that’s when I saw it.”

Right there it was on top of the wall mural — “Proverbs 27:17. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

That ended the recruiting process. Dextraze was ready to be a Bear.

“I kind of took that as a sign that Lenoir-Rhyne was the right place for me,” she said.