Home Care In Julian, NC

When football coaches talk about complementary football, it’s easy to think about offense and defense. Special teams gets overlooked, despite it being a hybrid unit that impacts the other phases. It shouldn’t be forgotten.

The N.C. State defense took a few weeks to settle into a rhythm. The offense still hasn’t figured everything out. Special teams, though, has provided consistency through the whole season.

Caden Noonkester and Collin Smith provide the defense with excellent field position in the punting and kickoff roles, respectively. Noonkester averages 42.9 yards per attempt, his longest clocking in at 67 yards. Smith averages 61.1 yards per kickoff and has recorded 19 touchbacks.

On the offensive side, though, Jalen Coit and Julian Gray deserve a lot of ongoing credit for their efforts. They have N.C. State in the ACC’s top two for returns and are finally getting the attention and playing time they’ve been waiting for.

N.C. State got some help from Keon Lesane and Trent Pennix on kickoff returns against Marshall, but Gray and Coit remain the main figures back to receive.

“Our return game in both phases – kickoff return with Julian, punt return with Jalen – has been very, very productive,” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren previously said.

Fans got to see exactly what the return game can be when N.C. State hosted VMI and dominated on special teams.

Gray recorded an 82-yard kickoff return touchdown, scoring for the first time in his career. That came in addition to another 12-yard return.

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September 16, 2023 2:20 PM

“I kind of just bolted. I didn’t really look back or think about where anyone was at,” Gray said this week. “It was my glimpse of green grass. It was, like, as soon as I saw it, I just took off.

“To have the opportunity to score in the Carter, it felt really good. I just thank God every day just for the opportunity just to play football.”

He finished with 181 all purpose yards in that game. Since then, the redshirt sophomore hasn’t scored, but he’s up to 362 kickoff return yards and 500 all purpose yards. On kick returns alone, the Charlotte native averages 30.2 yards. With the 82-yard touchdown removed, his average still sits at 23.3 yards per attempt.

Doeren called Gray “exceptional.”

Gray likes knowing the coaches and his teammates trust him to make plays. He put in countless hours to improve this offseason and now it’s all paying off.

“They know we can score,” Gray said. “There is a chance that we will score on kick returns. That’s kind of a big thing.”

Fellow returner Jalen Coit said he’s happy for his teammate. They vowed before the season to make the return game dominant. Now, he has extra motivation to score on a return.

“We were out here during the summer working. To see us actually doing it in game time; all the hard work paid off. We just keep building from here,” Coit said after the win over VMI. “We can’t just settle for three games. We’ve got to keep building the whole season, so that when we come to the end of this thing, special teams really played a big part in it.”

Gray feels like he has a high ceiling and set a lofty goal of scoring 10 touchdowns this season. It’s not easy, but he believes in himself. Even when they don’t score, their success in the run game is key to field position.

Coit has 152 yards on punt return duties, including a career-high 33-yard return. He didn’t record any punt returns against Louisville, opting for the fair catch. In the outing versus Marshall, he finished with three returns for 42 yards.

Doeren called Coit a natural and a difference maker. The redshirt sophomore has good hands, can judge the ball well and get underneath. Then, he’s someone who can run fast and change directions effectively.

“I’m really proud of him,” Doeren said two weeks ago. “He showed us in the spring and in fall camp that he was a very, very trusted ball catcher as a punt returner, but until it’s live, you don’t know how they’re going to handle that exposure to the bullets or the missiles running down at you.”

The veteran coach also praised Coit’s decision-making skills; an underrated aspect of the return game.

“He has shown us that he knows what to do: when to fair catch it and when not to do something that could hurt the team,” Doeren said back in August.

The Pack currently ranks No. 4 in the ACC for kickoff returns and No. 26 in FBS, averaging 24 yards. It is No. 3 in the conference and No. 21 nationally in punt returns, logging 14.1 yards per attempt.

“Our special teams have done a very, very good job this year,” Doeren said Saturday. “There’s areas that I know Coach (Todd) Goebbel wants to be better, but they’ve definitely held their own.”

They credit now-Minnesota Vikings receiver Thayer Thomas with much of their development.

Thomas left the N.C. State program with 25 career touchdowns (24 receiving, 1 punt return) for 12th in program history. His 24 receiving TDs ranks No. 2 in the record books.

Additionally, Thomas finished with a 9.73-yard punt return average, ranking him No. 13 all time, and 2,484 receiving yards put him at fifth in Pack history.

The duo needed to adjust a bit to their new roles, but they felt prepared and ready to go. Coit, specifically, noted some hesitation in the opener at UConn, but he’s found his footing. They studied Thomas – and still look up to Keyon Lesane – and know it’s possible to meet and possibly exceed the expectations he set.

“It got tough at times, of course, but having older guys like that led the way and guided you really helped,” Coit said. “I came here for a reason. God put me here for a reason, so I feel like if I just stay focused and keep the passion that I have for football, everything will work out.”

News broke today that Kicker Collin Smith is removing his name from the Transfer Portal, and will be returning to NC State in 2024.

NC State kicker Collin Smith has withdrawn from the transfer portal, @On3sports has learned.

He’s handled kickoff duty for the past two seasons at NC State. https://t.co/VNvB2Ek6qR pic.twitter.com/ArthVLgwnm

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) January 12, 2024

On December 30th, Smith initially announced he was entering the Transfer Portal, but thankfully, he changed his mind.

Smith has handled kickoff duty for the past two seasons at NC State, but hasn’t won the job as the Wolfpack’s place kicker. Last season he was behind Groza Award winner Christopher Dunn, and this season he was behind Brayden Narveson, who transferred in last year from Western Kentucky.

While Smith has only served in the kickoff role the past two years, I expect him to compete for the Place Kicker role in 2024. I’m not saying he has been promised the job, but I can’t imagine he decided to come back if he wasn’t being highly considered for the role. Smith made 27 of his 41 Field Goal attempts at Guilford High School.

Considering that we don’t know who NC State’s Place Kicker will be in 2024, with the exodus of Brayden Narveson, knowing that Smith will be back in 2024 is great news.

News broke today that Kicker Collin Smith is removing his name from the Transfer Portal, and will be returning to NC State in 2024.

NC State kicker Collin Smith has withdrawn from the transfer portal, @On3sports has learned.

He’s handled kickoff duty for the past two seasons at NC State. https://t.co/VNvB2Ek6qR pic.twitter.com/ArthVLgwnm

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) January 12, 2024

On December 30th, Smith initially announced he was entering the Transfer Portal, but thankfully, he changed his mind.

Smith has handled kickoff duty for the past two seasons at NC State, but hasn’t won the job as the Wolfpack’s place kicker. Last season he was behind Groza Award winner Christopher Dunn, and this season he was behind Brayden Narveson, who transferred in last year from Western Kentucky.

While Smith has only served in the kickoff role the past two years, I expect him to compete for the Place Kicker role in 2024. I’m not saying he has been promised the job, but I can’t imagine he decided to come back if he wasn’t being highly considered for the role. Smith made 27 of his 41 Field Goal attempts at Guilford High School.

Considering that we don’t know who NC State’s Place Kicker will be in 2024, with the exodus of Brayden Narveson, knowing that Smith will be back in 2024 is great news.

"The dean of Franklin Street."

That's what former UNC Chancellor Paul Hardin called Maurice Julian on the 50th anniversary of the opening of Julian’s College Shop.

The traditional preppy clothing store has been owned and operated by the Julian family for the past 80 years — since Maurice Julian opened the original in 1942.

Currently, the store is owned by his son and international award-winning designer Alexander Julian. It is managed by Bart Fox, Maurice Julian's grandson.

Maurice Julian's daughter and Fox's mother Missy Julian Fox also owned the store for a 15-year period after her father passed away in 1993.

She said he opened Julian's to cater to the clothing requirements of cadets arriving at the United States Navy Pre-Flight School on the UNC campus in 1942. The school was established in February 1942 as a part of the University's contributions to the war effort during World War II.

Maurice Julian rented space where 1922 by Carolina Coffee Shop currently is on Franklin Street, and the store remained in the location for 65 years. In 2007, Alexander Julian took ownership of the store and moved it to its current location.

Julian Fox said her father was a first-generation student at UNC. He fell in love with his wife, Mary, who was from Chatham County. Julian Fox said that, because of their family's religious differences, the couple eloped.

“They are credited with really (being) the first to bring preppy to the South. Dad being from up north, mom loving color and then sort of merging those two,” she said.

She said her father was legendary in the clothing industry. He designed many of the store’s best-sellers, a practice that was continued by his son, Alexander Julian.

Alexander Julian is credited with creating and donating the argyle pattern to UNC. He has designed the iconic UNC men's and women's basketball team uniforms and, along with his wife, designed the UNC graduation gowns.

“Because of my unmitigated love for the University and my undying love for the craft, combining the two is a fabulous kick,” he said.

Although unreleased to the public, Alexander Julian said UNC is awarding him an honorary doctorate of the arts in May.

Alexander Julian said growing up in Julian’s was formative to his career. He pursued an English degree from UNC and, while he didn’t graduate, he said it helped him communicate his ideas during the design process.

Alexander Julian dropped out of school at 19 to open his own boutique: Alexander's Ambition — something he did while his family was in New York on a month-long trip in 1969.

“It was a legendary place for meeting people, getting a date, getting outfitted — it was really fashion-forward,” Julian Fox said about Alexander's Ambition.

Alexander Julian said that while it was a brazen decision, the store was a key stepping stone in his career.

“There was a new thing happening," he said. "It was a new merger between American traditional and a worldwide sense of style."

Shortly after, in 1975, he took a leap of faith to move to New York City where he continued his success as a designer.

He said the ultimate gratification is when someone enjoys something he has worked on because he intends his designs to be worn.

“My favorite part of the store is a mirror, which is to watch the faces of customers, male and female, smile when they see themselves looking better than they’ve ever looked before,” Alexander Julian said.

Fox, the men’s manager of Julian’s, said he works with Alexander Julian to decide what is sold in the men's section. He said the inventory is a blend of Alexander Julian's designs with vendors that have partnered with the store for over 50 years.

Fox also noted that he and his uncle have to balance the business and family aspects of their relationship.

“It allows us to — for lack of a better term — butt heads a little bit more than the average business relationship would kind of entail. But at the end of the day, we’re just looking to bring in the best of the best and work off of each other,” Fox said.

Fox was raised in the store, similarly to the previous generation of Julian's. Julian Fox said her son used to play with the shirt tags that dangled over his head when he was a baby.

“The store was our home and our playground, and so the suit boxes became forts, the swatches were matching games,” she said.

Alexander Julian said he is proud to be the only top award-winning designer to design for his own store in a college town.

“I’ve been able to elevate the level of fan apparel, to design all sorts of special stuff for men and women at a quality level that has never been done before for things that are in Carolina blue and white,” he said.

Julian Fox said UNC students were employed at the store during her father's ownership and that is a tradition that has been carried on.

“That connection to University has always felt important and it is the community of Tar Heels that has kept us here for all these years,” she said.

@ZoeWerner356

Duke Energy retired the coal-fired power plant on Lake Julian, just south of Asheville, in 2020. Now, the company is planning to put a solar farm on the site, covering a coal ash basin, landfill and part of the old plant.

North Carolina’s legislature set a goal for the state’s energy producers, mostly Duke Energy, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 70% by the end of the decade. The bipartisan law, signed by the governor in 2021, sets a goal for energy production in the state to be carbon neutral by 2050.

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“To ensure the clean energy transition happens at the lowest cost to customers, with equal or greater reliability, Duke Energy is prioritizing existing plant sites for replacement generation, leveraging our current infrastructure, transmission and workforce,” said Bill Norton, spokesman for Duke Energy.

The company also plans to add a 17MW of battery storage to store power from the solar farm on the site.

“We see it as a big win-win for the community and it’s something that we would love to see more of as the utility continues to transition away from coal generation,” said Matt Abele, spokesman for the NC Sustainable Energy Association.

“Battery storage plays an integral role as we continue to incorporate more renewables into the grid,” he said. “Being able to dispatch that power when needed serves as a really important resiliency factor.”

In terms of solar farms, the Buncombe County project is small, projected to produce about 9.5 megawatts of power. That’s about enough energy to power 7,100 homes. For perspective, solar farms in eastern North Carolina, with large, flat parcels of land available, can produce 80 or more megawatts.

Building big solar projects in western North Carolina is hard. There’s not much land available, the terrain is mountainous and there isn’t as much infrastructure to connect to the power grid, Duke Energy’s Justin LaRoche said.

LaRoche testified about the Asheville solar project earlier this month before the North Carolina Utilities Commission. He told the commission about the challenges and benefits of putting a new solar farm, even a relatively small one, at the old coal power plant.

“It’s a really neat transition of the site itself, going from a brownfield coal facility,” he said. “We’re excited to see the transition of this site.”

“Nine-point-five megawatts isn’t going to solve the problem there, but every little bit helps,” LaRoche told the commission.

The City of Asheville and Buncombe County wrote to the commission to support the project. The county has a goal to use 100% renewable energy by 2042. The city has a more aggressive goal, aiming to rely completely on renewable energy by 2030.

“This project is particularly attractive due to its location on a brownfield formerly used for coal fired generation and proximity to existing transmission infrastructure,” Buncombe County sustainability officer Jeremiah LeRoy wrote to the commission.

“Given the high cost of land in Buncombe County, the challenges of siting utility-scale solar in the mountains, and the lack of need to clear cut any existing tree canopy, this site is a perfect fit for such a project,” LeRoy said.

One big benefit of the site is that it’s already connected to the power grid. Duke already built a 560MW natural gas power plan on the site. The final phase of that project started full operations in April 2020 as the company took the old coal-fired power plant offline.

As Duke retires more of its old coal-fired power plants, the company plans to continue to repurpose the sites, with more solar, battery storage and emerging technologies like ??new small-modular nuclear and natural gas that can be converted to use hydrogen in the future, Duke’s Norton said.

That will all be part of hitting the state’s carbon neutrality goal in the next three decades.

Clean energy goals

The state legislature, with a 2021 law that passed with broad support of both parties and the governor, set a goal for power producers to be carbon neutral by 2050. The General Assembly tasked the North Carolina Utilities Commission with approving a plan to hit that target on time.

Duke Energy, along with a number of environmental and industry groups, proposed a slew of options for how the state can hit that goal in less than 30 years. By all accounts, it will require a mix of energy sources, including solar and wind. It could also include new nuclear technologies and more traditional power generation like natural gas.

“It’s really tough, at this very moment, to predict exactly what the grid makeup is going to be 10, 15, 20 years from now,” said Abele, with the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association. “We have a lot of solutions available to us.”

Duke has been making big investments in solar and power storage. In March, the company turned on an 11MW battery storage facility in Onslow County on the coast, paired with an existing 13MW solar farm on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

The company said the new Onslow County battery storage is the biggest so far in North Carolina.

“Battery storage is an important resource for our transition to cleaner energy,” said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy’s North Carolina state president. “Pairing the energy storage system with our existing solar facility at Camp Lejeune helps strengthen the reliability of our energy grid and makes better use of our existing solar generation.”

Duke is also looking to wind power as part of North Carolina’s future energy mix. The company won a lease for an offshore wind farm in the waters southeast of Wilmington. That lease, if the company goes forward with the offshore wind farm, could generate 1,600MW of power. That’s more than a nuclear plant and enough to power almost 375,000 homes.

JULIAN, N.C. — A teenager was found unresponsive in the woods near a party where the NC ALE special agents, assisted by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office and North Carolina State Highway Patrol, found three handguns, marijuana, and several underage attendees drinking alcohol on Saturday, Jan. 21. in Julian, NC.

Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) special agents found the teenage girl in the woods near the home, unconscious. She was treated by EMS and taken to a hospital.

The 18-year-old host was arrested and charged with underage possession of alcohol and aid and abet underage drinking.

Others at the party ranged from as young as 11-years-old to 23-years-old.

Multiple other arrests were made, according to deputies, but none were detailed.

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