Lauren Arnold, 3A championship game MVP.

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

M)UNT ULLA—  Away from the basketball court, West Rowan senior Lauren Arnold was a tall, slim, elegant girl who hit the books and the library.

But at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, Arnold shed the warmups and seemed to instantly gain 15 pounds of muscle and 10 pounds of attitude. She was a rugged competitor, a tiger on the glass, and she was a driving force in an incredible era for West girls basketball that included back-to-back 3A state titles.

“One of the best players I’ve coached and one of the best all-round kids I’ve coached,” West head coach Ashley Poole said. “We’re talking about a girl who has a work ethic that is unreal.”

It was another fantastic season for Rowan girls basketball, with one state champ, two conference champs and three teams that combined for 76 wins. Salisbury’s MaKayla Noble and North Rowan’s tag team of Bailee Goodlett and Brittany Ellis also had Player of the Year worthy seasons, but Arnold is the Rowan County Player of the Year. She received the Shayla Fields Award as the pick of a three-man committee of former Rowan athletes — Tristan Rankin, Reggie Dean McConneaughey Jr. and Dr. Darren Ramsey.

A lawyer could make a strong case for any of the four girls, but Arnold is a fine choice. She was one of the most consistent players in county history, as well as the owner of two 3A state championship game MVP awards.

She never scored 30 points in a game for West, but all those 16s and 18s, week after week, month after month, year after year, added up. There were nights when she was under the weather, but she played in 101 consecutive games for the Falcons. West was 89-12 during her career, including 62-1 the last two seasons. She totaled 1,593 points for the ladies in light blue, the fifth-highest total in program history.

A 5-foot-11 forward, Arnold owns a stack of individual accolades — including South Piedmont Conference Player of the Year as a junior. But it’s the team accomplishments that always meant the most to her.

“If you’d told me a few years ago that we were going to do what we did together as a team I never would have believed it,” Arnold said. “I was proud to score more than 1,500 points for West, but it was the team things that really mattered most. It’s the team that I will remember. The things that happened in my high school career were unimaginable. I can’t even find words to describe it.”

Some of Arnold’s earliest sports memories are of Davie-West Rowan football games. Her father’s side of the family has its roots in the Davie towns of Mocksville and Cooleemee. Lauren is related to James “Cooter” Arnold, the Davie football legend who went on to play at UNC.

Lauren can remember when she was very young watching running back KP Parks play football for West during the Falcons’ three-peat championship seasons. Sometimes life spins in a circle, and Parks is now helps train the Falcons. Parks’ expertise helps explain why Arnold is much stronger and tougher than she appears to be at first glance.

West Rowan’s championship girls were together a long time. Arnold can remember playing ball with teammates when they were 5 or 6.

By the time that group was at West Rowan Middle, Coach Poole knew big things were ahead, but it didn’t happen overnight.

There was a lot of sweat and individual and team growth before it happened.

Arnold and her classmates took some lumps from COVID and some from Carson when they were freshmen. West went 10-4 — three losses were to state champ Carson — but the Falcons were left out of the condensed playoffs. Arnold averaged 12.4 points as a freshman.

Arnold’s sophomore season included team adversity. Three key Falcons were suspended after an altercation with Central Cabarrus. In the next game, Arnold scored 29 points, a career high, to lead the shorthanded Falcons to a 40-point blowout of Northwest Cabarrus. By the end of that season, West was starting to put it together for 32 minutes. A 17-7 season ended with a 2-point loss to a  strong East Lincoln team in the second round of the playoffs.

The Falcons made their jump into the history books after that and ruled 3A the last two seasons. Both seasons included ferocious playoff wins against East Lincoln.

In her last three seasons, as steady as a clock, Arnold averaged 16.7, 16.1 and 16.3 points per game. She scored in double figures 92 times in her career.

The focal point of Arnold’s game was always rebounding.

“Going into a game, the only thing I ever worried about was rebounds,” Arnold said. “Coach Poole always told us that rebounding would decide the game, and rebounding is what Emma (Clarke), Mya (Edwards) and I tried to do. We were in their banging on the boards constantly, and if you rebound, the points will come.”

Arnold estimated that 40 percent of her career points came on offensive rebounds.

Poole didn’t argue that estimate.

“Rebounding isn’t how high you can jump, it’s boxing out,” Poole said. “Boxing out is a lost art. Lauren boxed out, and she wanted the ball. She was a great rebounder.”

In the 2024 state championship game against physical Terry Sanford, Arnold had 17 points and 17 rebounds.

Another double-double followed in the Carolinas All-Star Classic in Wilmington, the basketball version of the Shrine Bowl.

“Lauren was like, ‘Oh, I probably won’t get to play much, those girls are really big,'” Poole said with a laugh. “Then she goes out there and she got her minutes and she played an amazing game.”

Arnold said she’ll remember the complete all-star experience long after she forgets that her North Carolina team lost a tight game after she fouled out.

“We got to go talk to kids at an elementary school, things like that,” Arnold said. “Some of them really didn’t know girls could play basketball, and we were like superheroes to them. I signed a lot of autographs.”

Arnold’s basketball career will continue at Mars Hill, where the head coach is Emry Tsitouris, a Catawba assistant coach before she was hired at Mars Hill.

Arnold remembers Tsitouris coming to watch a West Rowan practice while she was still at Catawba. The young coach encountered Arnold again when she was scouting prospects for Mars Hill in a fall league.

Tsitouris identified Arnold as a player Mars Hill really wanted, and Arnold’s 3.8 GPA made her highly recruitable.

Then Arnold’s visit to the mountains went smoothly.

“I visited in the fall, but they told me to bring lots of coats with me for the winter months,” Arnold said with a laugh. “I’m really excited about Mars Hill. The coach told me I’m a ‘tweener,’ so I’m not really sure if I’ll be a guard or a forward in college, but I hope to fit in somewhere.”

She’ll fit. She should be an ideal SAC small forward with all-conference potential.

Arnold isn’t one to rest on her laurels. She’s still working out, staying in shape, getting up lots of shots, preparing for the next challenge.

“Her strength definitely is her rebounding, but Lauren is always working on her weaknesses,” Poole said. “She’ll be a great fit for an up-and-coming program. She’s just different, and I mean that in the best possible way.”

Arnold had elementary school teacher at the top of her career choice list for a while, but it’s second now behind occupational therapist.