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Take a walk: Local musician finds path to recovery in the woods

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Many people know that a walk in the woods can help to clear your mind, but one local musician has discovered that time spent in nature can also help your brain recover from trauma.

In February 2015, Hendersonville resident and acoustic guitarist Eric Congdon suffered a severe concussion after another driver ran a stop sign and struck his vehicle. Congdon says his other physical injuries were thankfully minor, but he was surprised and frustrated by the impact of the brain trauma. Though he had been playing guitar for more than 30 years — performing at local venues and events such as Hendersonville’s Rhythm Brews concert series — when he picked up his instrument after the accident, he found it was impossible for him to play.

“I would try to play guitar and all of a sudden the room would start to spin, and I would fall over and pass out,” Congdon says. “My neurologist said, ‘Your brain can’t process that right now. You think you’re just sitting there playing guitar, but your brain is having to work really hard and it just can’t handle it.’”

Congdon says not being able to play slowed his recovery and darkened his mood. He was forced to cancel a string of performances and, unable to return to work, spent most days sitting around his home. “I was physically weak and mentally depressed,” he says. “For maybe two months, I couldn’t really play my instrument at all, and that was a long time for me.”

So, Congdon decided to take a walk. With either a guitar, a bouzouki or a mandolin on his back, he began to go for hikes, first to Moore Cove Falls near Brevard and then to other waterfalls in the Pisgah and Nantahala forests.

“I was the only person there, so I just started playing music,” Congdon says of his first excursion. “I’ve always done a little bit of hiking, but I would not describe myself as an outdoor enthusiast. But I think something about how peaceful and still it was out there was able to unlock something for me.”

Early in the mornings, Congdon would set out for a new location in the forest, “looking for small adventures that would push my mind,” he says. He would sit by the waterfalls and improvise songs, recording each session on his iPhone. Gradually his fingers began to move with greater ease. “I think when you have an injury like what I have, it really disconnects you from your personality,” he says. “But when I was walking in the woods, it was like the first moment that I felt reconnected to myself.”

Congdon has uploaded the videos he recorded to his YouTube channel, adding information about each location for other hikers to discover. The series, called “Hiking Jams,” has also been shared by the online publication Romantic Asheville and the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority.

Currently, Congdon has shared nine videos in the series. He says he is still in recovery, gradually easing back into playing publicly, but he will be returning to the Rhythm Brews stage for a show in September. In the meantime, he plans to continue the music video series, hoping to collaborate with other musicians and expand the territory he explores on his hikes.

“There’s so much to see in the woods around here, so why not keep it going?” Congdon says. “Though, I guess I’ll have to come up with a lot of music.”

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Loretta Lynch returns to NC with hometown thanks

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Loretta Lynch, the new U.S. attorney general, came home to North Carolina on Wednesday with messages of thanks to a hometown crowd that stood behind her during the protracted confirmation process and offers of federal support to local efforts to fight discrimination, hate crimes and human trafficking.

For the first time since being sworn in as the first African-American female to lead the U.S. Department of Justice, Lynch visited Raleigh and Durham, the city where she spent 12 years of her childhood, to meet with law enforcement officers, civil rights leaders and community advocates.

After making a big splash globally during her first month on the job – with the arrest of FIFA executives and corruption charges that rocked the international soccer world – Lynch spoke on Wednesday about her priorities at home.

At a civil rights roundtable discussion at N.C. Central University’s law school in Durham, Lynch talked about violence directed at houses of worship and federal resources available to help make those sacred places more secure.

She mentioned the investigation into the killings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha.

Lynch spoke of the killings in Charleston, S.C., in June and called hate crimes “the original domestic terrorism.”

She stressed her support for “protecting every American’s right to vote,” referencing the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department against North Carolina election law changes adopted in 2013.

Lynch was joined at the N.C. Central law school discussion by her father, the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, a preacher who led churches in Greensboro and Durham during the civil rights era.

She mentioned the historic stall between her nomination in November by President Barack Obama and the Senate confirmation vote in late April.

“During some of those days that seemed longer than most, it really was wonderful to know that I had the support of home,” Lynch said to the group in Durham. “There’s no place like that.”

Lynch, a Durham High School graduate who left home for Harvard University in the late 1970s, rose up through the ranks of the U.S. Justice Department as a prosecutor who, for much of her career, was able to push high-profile cases but escape the media glare.

That no longer is the case.

On Wednesday, when the Rolling Stones were scheduled to perform live at Raleigh’s PNC Arena, renowned photographer Annie Liebovitz had her camera focused on Lynch – a new bright star.

Two magazine cover-shoots were in the works.

Those who know Lynch describe her as low-key, amiable, but tough when necessary.

Boz Zellinger, a Wake County assistant district attorney who was part of a task force meeting with Lynch in Raleigh, was impressed by her interest in eradicating human trafficking.

“I think the most impressive part was how she actively listened to what was going on in this community,” Zellinger said.

‘Modern-day slavery’

Lynch started her North Carolina stop in Raleigh in the federal courthouse where the N.C. Coalition Against Human Trafficking met.

The coalition brings together law enforcement agencies and various legal and social service organizations and individuals fighting human trafficking in North Carolina.

Lynch lauded the work as a “grassroots effort” that draws on “ingenuity and collaboration across many disciplines, organizations and professions” to fight a “complex and devastating crime.”

“The efforts you’re leading in North Carolina exemplify that cooperative and innovative approach – and illustrate its vast potential,” Lynch told several dozen people gathered for a task force meeting. “You are demonstrating the power of working together, across traditional professional lines, to bring a comprehensive approach to a daunting and urgent challenge.”

In May, Lynch noted, the Wake County Violent Crime Task Force brought together federal, state and local law enforcement officials for a two-night undercover operation that led to multiple arrests and the release of several minors who were victims of sex trafficking. She cited the case of Christopher Jason Williams, a Fayetteville man sentenced to 45 years in prison for two counts of trafficking children that came to light through a concerted approach for identifying victims that included teachers, human services providers, families and law enforcement agencies.

Lynch said it was important to go beyond the focus on catching traffickers, too, and help survivors of such crimes rebuild their lives.

“Human traffickers prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society to exploit them for labor, for sex and for servitude of all kinds,” Lynch said.

Lynch described trafficking as “modern-day slavery” that “has no place in modern-day society.”

Many people, Lynch said, think that trafficking happens in other places, not in their communities.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “it is the invisible crime that does happen everywhere.”

Blythe: 919-836-4948;

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2 bitten by sharks, including N.C.’s 7th attack in a month

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Two more people in the Carolinas were bitten by sharks this week – a man swimming at Ocracoke Island in North Carolina and a boy at Isle of Palms, S.C.

The Ocracoke incident was the seventh shark attack in a month in North Carolina.

The 68-year-old man, Andrew Costello, was swimming about noon Wednesday 25 to 30 feet offshore in waist-deep water when he was bitten on his left lower torso and hip, lower left leg and both hands. He was airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, where he was in fair condition. The hospital could not confirm Costello’s hometown, but Boston media reported that he is a Massachusetts resident.

Lifeguards at Ocracoke Beach, in Hyde County, said the man was swimming in front of a lifeguard stand. The shark was 6 to 7 feet in length, according to Hyde County officials.

On Tuesday evening, a 12-year-old boy suffered a minor shark bite in Isle of Palms County Park near Charleston. His name has not been released.

Park manager Cynthia Wilson said the boy and his mother approached lifeguards while they were packing up after their shift, around 6:05 p.m.

His leg injuries were “very likely” caused by a shark, Wilson said. Lifeguards administered first aid, and the fire department was called, but firefighters did not need to treat the boy further.

Mary Paisley, 48, of Hillsborough was on Ocracoke Beach when the man was attacked. She said he swam to shallower water and was helped onto the sand by others. He was conscious while waiting for medical care, she said: “Everyone was just concerned and calm and quiet. It was nothing like the ‘Jaws’ movie.”

Back in the water

About an hour after the attack, many people went back in the water, Paisley said. But she said she did not want her family to go back in. “For the rest of the week, I don’t think we’ll be getting in the water except to get our feet wet,” she said.

Still, she said she would not think of cutting her vacation short. That’s good news for tourism officials. The Fourth of July holiday weekend is one of the busiest of the summer for beaches, said Wit Tuttle, executive director of the state tourism office. He said he does not anticipate a drop in business.

Tuttle said that last summer brought a record number of visitors to North Carolina beaches, more than 6 million.

“We think we’ll have another record one this year,” he said. “These things are tragic, but I think people will understand they’re rare and isolated.”

Wednesday’s incident comes after attacks on the Outer Banks on Friday and Saturday.

Of the six North Carolina attacks in June, two teenagers bitten while swimming off Oak Island received the most serious injuries. Both had arms amputated.

North Carolina has averaged about three shark attacks per year in the past decade, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Experts have suggested a number of reasons for the increase, including more people in the water, warmer waters and rising shark populations.

Shark fishing

Shark fishing near swimmers has been suggested as a factor. The June attacks prompted the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries to urge those fishing, especially for sharks, to do so away from swimmers and surfers.

Louis Daniel, director of the division, it would not be feasible to ban shark fishing, because the bait and equipment used to catch sharks are similar to what is used to catch other fish.

“If you put a baited hook in the water, you’re shark fishing,” Daniel said.

He added that water this summer has warmed up unusually quickly, which draws sharks closer to the shore. And he said federal regulations have long been in place to protect shark populations – and those populations are growing.

He said swimmers can protect themselves by being more vigilant about conditions that might draw sharks, such as avoiding murky water, not swimming if you are bleeding, not wearing shiny items and swimming near others. Staff writer Jane Wester contributed.

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Fire breaks out at South Carolina church previously burned down by KKK; cause …

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COLUMBIA, S.C. – An African-American church in South Carolina that was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan in 1995 caught fire again Tuesday night, though authorities said it was too soon to say what caused the latest blaze, which broke out on a night of frequent storms. No one was believed to be inside at the time.

The fire at the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal church in Greeleyville broke out at a time when federal authorities are investigating conflagrations at several other predominantly black churches — including one Friday at a church near Aiken, South Carolina — but so far the fires don’t appear to be related.

Greeleyville is a town of about 400 people around 50 miles north of Charleston, where a pastor and nine members of a historic black church were fatally shot on June 17 in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

Agents from the State Law Enforcement Division were on their way to the church before the fire was out, Division Chief Mark Keel said. But he said they will have to wait until the hot spots are extinguished before using dogs and other investigative tools to figure out what started it. He said investigators will be on the scene first thing Wednesday morning.

“We do know they apparently had some strong storms,” Keel said. “Talked to a guy who said they had a lot of lightning down there tonight. I don’t know whether that had anything to do with it at all.”

The image of orange flames coming from the same church the KKK burned down 20 years ago brought up painful memories, said Williamsburg County Councilman Eddie Woods Jr., who got out of bed to drive to the church after hearing about the fire.

“That was a tough thing to see,” Woods said. “It is hurting those people again. But we’re going to rebuild. If this was someone, they need to know that hate won’t stop us again,” Woods said.

All of the fires currently under investigation broke out days after the fatal shootings at Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dylann Storm Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder in the shootings, and the FBI is investigating possible links between the 21-year-old white man and a hate manifesto that showed up online along with photos of him.

Mount Zion AME Church burned down on June 20, 1995. Two Ku Klux Klan members pleaded guilty to starting that fire and a second at another predominantly black church. They were each sentenced to nearly two decades in prison.

Speaking at the church in 1996, President Bill Clinton implored people not to respond to what was a string of nearly three dozen church fires — many of them racially motivated — with the same hatred that drove the people who started the blazes. He gave the church a plaque to commemorate his visit, and noticed membership had grown four times over since the fire.

“The American people are the most religious, church-going people of any great democracy,” Clinton said. “We cannot let someone come into our democratic home, the home of our faith, and start torching our houses of worship.”

___

Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at http://https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP

© Copyright Times Colonist

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Confederate flag quietly flies atop NC Capitol two days a year

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While the Confederate battle flag continues to roil passions in South Carolina and around the country, another Confederate flag has quietly flown atop North Carolina’s Capitol.

The first national flag of the Confederacy – the Stars and Bars – flies up to twice a year to commemorate Confederate holidays, state officials say.

For some, that’s twice too many.

“Would we fly the swastika above the state Capitol?” Sen. Joel Ford, a Charlotte Democrat, said Tuesday. “And if the answer is no, we should not fly the Confederate national flag. Both represent some of the darkest periods in the world’s history.”

On the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, Old South vestiges are everywhere in North Carolina and other Southern states of the former Confederacy. Drive into most towns, and it’s rare not to see a granite Confederate soldier or obelisk towering over the courthouse square.

Historic forts and battleground sites run by North Carolina all display Confederate national and battle flags as tools to interpret history, said Keith Hardison, director of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties.

But since photos emerged of accused Charleston shooter Dylann Roof brandishing a Confederate battle flag, reaction has rippled across the country. S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and other state leaders called for its removal from their capitol grounds.

While the Confederate battle flag waves daily on the State House grounds in Columbia, flying the national flag in Raleigh twice a year has attracted little notice. Few state lawmakers even know it still flies.

“I’m not aware of any complaints,” Hardison said.

‘Negative feeling’

But back in 1992, about 100 protesters gathered near the Capitol on Confederate Flag Day. Leading them was Kelly Alexander Jr. of Charlotte, then state president of the NAACP. “We hope this will be the last year in which this flag flies,” he told a reporter at the time.

On Tuesday, Alexander, now a Democratic state representative, was surprised to hear the flag still flies on Confederate Memorial Day (May 10) and Robert E. Lee’s birthday (Jan. 19) at the request of a citizens group, usually the Sons of Confederate Veterans or Daughters of the Confederacy.

To him, as well as some other lawmakers, it doesn’t belong. “Whether it’s being flown once a day or once a year, the negative feeling is still there,” Alexander said.

When the General Assembly authorized the Confederate banner in 1961, it was the battle flag that flew atop the Capitol, said Fay Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Cultural Resources. At some point in the 1980s, she said, that was changed to the first national flag, with its three red and white stripes and a circle of seven stars in a blue field. Later flags had 13 stars.

Former Gov. Jim Martin, who took office in 1985, remembers the flag rarely caused a stir when it flew. “I don’t think many people cared one way or another,” he said Tuesday. “That was something routine to do at the time.”

The national flag, he said, was not as controversial.

“That’s why we didn’t put the battle flag on the Capitol,” he said. “It had been appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups. That was not part of the old Southern heritage, that was part of the new hatred movement.”

‘No compromise’

The flag hasn’t drawn the only protests over enduring Old South remnants.

Last month, UNC-Chapel Hill trustees voted to rename a building honoring Civil War Col. William Saunders, a graduate and Salisbury lawyer who apparently was a KKK organizer in the early 1870s. There was also talk of removing a monument of a Civil War soldier from the outskirts of campus near downtown Chapel Hill.

Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio on Tuesday emailed commissioners after she learned of a Confederate memorial on county property near Memorial Stadium. She wants commissioners to “determine what action you would like to take.”

In Charlotte in 2005, former City Manager Pam Syfert ordered workers to remove the flagpole holding a Confederate battle flag at city-owned Elmwood Cemetery after eight months of debate over whether the flag should be flown.

UNC Charlotte historian David Goldfield was a member of a task force appointed to find a compromise. “The NAACP and African-Americans complained every time they went to visit the cemetery and had to go by this display of the Confederate battle flag,” Goldfield said. “On the other side, white Sons of the Confederacy felt disenfranchised. … The problem was that there is just no compromise on this issue.”

Jim Steele, manager of the Civil War-era Fort Fisher state historic site, expects to hear more comments from visitors about the dozen Confederate flags displayed at the site. The site also displays Union flags.

“We hear an occasional comment, but not much over the years,” Steele said. “I think we’ll hear more. But I also think people understand that the flags here are used to provide historical context.”

Hardison said Civil War flags are at all the state Civil War sites.

“They are the flags that would have flown at these sites during that time,” he said. “Our mission is to interpret the history of North Carolina. We run museums.”

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Take control of summer cooling costs with these tips from Duke Energy Florida

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., June 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — A sweltering hot Florida summer can cause your electric bill to jump as your air conditioning battles high humidity and temperatures consistently north of 90 degrees. But, you can survive the heat and your summer energy bills by following these simple tips from Duke Energy Florida.

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  • Set your thermostat to the highest comfortable setting. Energy used to cool a home during summer can account for half of a monthly electric bill. Adjusting your thermostat to 76 degrees from 73 degrees saves more than 15 percent in electricity costs. When leaving for the day, turn the setting up a few degrees.
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  • Close blinds, drapes and shades during the hottest part of the day to keep the sun’s rays from heating the inside of your home.
  • Turn off unnecessary lights, and use energy-efficient light bulbs that use less electricity and emit less heat.
  • Use fans, but only in occupied rooms. A ceiling fan (spinning counter clockwise) can make you feel three to four degrees cooler. But remember, fans cool people, not rooms.

Duke Energy Florida offers a variety of programs, incentives and rebates to help customers reduce their energy use and save money year round. Start with a no-hassle, no-cost Home Energy Check. Through this Duke Energy Florida service — which can be performed online, over the phone or in person — a highly trained energy advisor will provide customized, energy-saving advice and determine your eligibility for rebates toward energy-efficient home improvements such as additional insulation and upgraded windows.

To sign up for a no-cost Home Energy Check or to learn more than 100 energy-saving tips, visit www.duke-energy.com/save or call 1.877.574.0340.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida owns coal-fired and natural gas generation providing about 9,000 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 1.7 million customers in a 13,000-square-mile service area.

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McCrory pushes bond initiative during eastern Carolina visit

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SWANSBORO, N.C. (WNCT) – Governor Pat McCrory headed to the East again Tuesday discussing his plan to spend tax dollars on improving roads and infrastructure.

The governor’s stop in Swansboro was another push for his bond initiative, Connect NC. It comes nearly a month after Onslow County Commissioners voted unanimously to support the plan.

Connect NC is expected to cost taxpayers $3 billion to fund a string of projects across the state for much needed improvements.

“Preparing our state for the next generation so they have the same job opportunities, education opportunities and quality of life opportunities that I’ve had and many people before me,” Governor Pat McCrory, (R) North Carolina.

In eastern Carolina, it would mean projects upgrading Dickinson Avenue, US 17 and US 158, the Port of Morehead City, and roads at Camp Lejeune.

McCrory is pushing lawmakers to approve the Connect NC bond. Right now, they have yet to do so. There have been indications it won’t be on the ballot until next year.

Tuesday’s event took place at Hammocks Beach State Park. McCrory and other state leaders also toured the park, which grew about 300 acres after a recent settlement with the state.

WNCT will continue to follow this story and track its impact on the East.

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Answer Man: WNC Farmers Market rates up? I-40 travel woes? – Asheville Citizen

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Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: You should check on the rates going up at the WNC Farmers Market. They’re going up so much some of the farmers and other vendors say they’re leaving. Why are they doing this?

My answer: To see, once and for all, if you can get blood out of a turnip?

Real answer: They are going up, but not quite as dramatically as the reader suggested.

“The (North Carolina) Board of Agriculture approved a rate increase to $12 per space. In the retail spaces, it was $10,” said Doug Sutton, director at the WNC Farmers Market. “Historically, we have gone up on rates about about every five years.”

The fee increase will take place Sept. 1. Some larger spaces will cost $16 a day. These are the summer fees. Winter fees (January-March) will drop to $10 a day.

The market, located near the confluence of Interstates 40, 26 and 240, hosts about 250 vendors daily, a number that fluctuates throughout the year. Between Christmas trees, pumpkins and other seasonal goods, the total number of a vendors in a year reaches about 1,000, Sutton said.

The market wants to keep its vendors happy, but Sutton points out that about 70 percent of its budget comes from the market’s receipts, the remainder from the state.

“You hear rumors where people talk about saying they’re going to leave, but that remains to be seen,” Sutton said. “We wanted to let them know what the new rates are early. Every time we’ve had a rate increase, nobody has left yet.”

The Farmers Market is open seven days a week, year round. Hours for April-October are 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

Question: With no signs warning us that we could be facing a 15-mile backup on I-40, we merrily crossed into North Carolina from Knoxville June 20, hoping to make it to downtown Asheville in time for a nice lunch. Seemingly instantly, we were in a longgg line of drivers from Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, you name it, who feed Western North Carolina’s economic engine of tourism. I tried Googling the state transportation department to see if there had been a wreck down the line. I found nothing, but reception in the Pigeon River Gorge is hardly ideal. Finally, a mobile sign appeared: “Expect delays for the next seven miles.” We felt as if we had certainly already been in severe delays for a solid seven miles. Then, after another grueling crawl, we came across the culprit: A crew of three — T-H-R-E-E — men on heavy equipment removing Jersey barriers. Why would such a small undertaking require traffic to be routed into only one lane so far west? Our hearts went out to the families traveling with young children and the elderly; there aren’t exactly a lot of alternatives to exiting I-40 once one is east of Newport, Tennessee. But imagine how we felt when we then came across the North Carolina Welcome Center just west of Exit 15. CLOSED and blocked off! Without a single warning sign in advance! Enraged tourists can easily find another state in which to spend their vacation dollars. But my hope is that Answer Man will pinpoint the agency responsible for such mishandling and neglect. Someone deserves a demotion.

My answer: Luckily, here in Beer Town USA, we specialize in soothing enraged tourists. Please, come settle your nerves with a few dozen beers.

Real answer: Brian C. Burch, division construction engineer for the North Carolina DOT’s Division 14, which handles the far western part of the state, took this one on. He said they appreciate drivers’ patience as they work “to make I-40 safer by reducing the risk of rock slides. Media in Asheville and Knoxville have reported about the work.

“The lane reduction was necessary to take down a half-mile stretch of the existing median wall, and rebuild a new one between the temporary lanes that were recently constructed,” Burch said. “It was necessary to shift all travel lanes to the river side through this area, to give the contractor a safe amount of room to remove loose rocks. On Saturday, June 20, contractors were working to complete this task.”

The DOT has been using the media, electronic message boards (including the one near the state line), as well as on NCDOT Mobile (m.ncdot.gov), its website (ncdot.gov) and Twitter (@NCDOT_I40, @NCDOT_Westmtn) to keep motorists informed.

“These lane closures were expected to remain in place for 21 days, however, due to the efforts of the contractor, GLF Construction, in less than two weeks, there are again two lanes of traffic in each direction,” Burch said. “There is the possibility eastbound may be down to one lane for a few hours (this) week to complete the transition, otherwise, we have no lane reductions scheduled for this part of the project. Because of narrowed shoulders, the speed limit remains 45 between mile markers 6 and 8.”

The rest area problems come down to a water issue, and Burch offered an apology for the inconvenience.

“Regarding the Haywood County I-40 rest areas, over the last several weeks the department has experienced problems with providing adequate water supply to serve weekend summer travel demands,” Burch said. “These rest areas are unique in that they depend solely on six wells for water due to being located 15 miles from the closest municipal water system. As we made repairs over the weekend, it required intermittent closures to our facilities. The department endeavored to notify the public of these closures by placing alerts on our website and social media shortly after discovering the problem. We are continuing to isolate flush valves and replace fixtures in order to use less water, help keep reservoir levels up, and keep our facilities open. We are also investigating the possibility of adding another well to increase our pumping capacity.”

This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com

CITIZEN TIMES

Answer Man: Faux brick crosswalks done? Annoying stickers?

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Answer Man: I-26 widening? Rainfall disparity?

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Governor talks proposed bond package at Hammocks Beach

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Posted Jun. 30, 2015 at 6:42 PM
Updated at 6:56 PM

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Syracuse football recruiting: 3-star North Carolina hybrid Moe Neal sets SU …

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Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse missed out on one of Robert Washington’s friends when defensive tackle Christian Colon committed to Penn State last week.

The Orange will have a chance to land another, though, when Forestview (Gastonia, N.C.) High School athlete Moe Neal visits on July 16. Neal announced the trip on Twitter Monday night.

The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Neal is a speedy athlete who would play hybrid in SU offensive coordinator Tim Lester’s new offense, lining up on the wing, in the slot and in the backfield and contributing as both a running and receiving threat.

Ranked three stars and the No. 38 athlete in the country by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings, Neal holds offers from the Orange, as well as about 15 other schools. In early May, he named SU to his Top 5, along with Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College and Mississippi State.

Neal said he’s known Washington since the summer going into eighth grade when the two met at a Future Stars camp. They live about 15 minutes away from each other, Washington said, and have teamed up for USA Football with Washington lining up in the backfield and Neal in the slot.

Robert Washington (left), Aapri Washington (middle), Moe Neal (right) on their unofficial visit to Syracuse for the Florida State game last season.Courtesy/Robert Washington Sr. 

“It was just a bond from Day 1 and we grew from there,” Neal said. “We’ve went on combines together, visits, the whole nine yards. We’re family now.”

Neal visited with Washington and other Charlotte-area prospects for SU’s game against Florida State last season, but hasn’t gotten a chance to get the full campus tour and experience.

Neal carried the ball 273 times for 2,018 yards and 29 touchdowns as a junior, according to MaxPreps.com, while adding 35 receptions for 549 yards and another nine scores. He’s accounted for 74 total touchdowns in his three seasons of high school ball.

Syracuse currently has 12 players committed to its Class of 2016, including one other hybrid in Darius Stubbs. The Orange has about six spots remaining.

Contact Stephen Bailey anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-427-2168

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