Former VGCC basketball players have moved on to further success
As Vance-Granville Community College prepares for another men’s basketball season, the program can boast of several alumni who have gone on to enjoy various athletic and academic successes.
Among them is Raleigh native Bryan Burrell (pictured above, left), one of the stars from VGCC’s first season in the National Junior College Athletic Association. He graduated from VGCC in 2009 with an Associate in Arts degree and transferred to Gardner-Webb University, becoming the first VGCC player to later play for an NCAA Division I team. Burrell is set to graduate this month from GWU with a degree in Sports Management after two seasons as a guard for the Runnin’ Bulldogs. As his last requirement before graduating, he has been interning with a Raleigh sports agency, 540 Sports & Entertainment. The agency has been working with major college basketball players getting ready for the recent NBA Draft. Burrell’s next plan is to get a certification from Nike/Ganon Baker Basketball and set up his own business doing training and skill development for basketball players. “My experience at VGCC set the foundation for me to be successful in the future,” Burrell said recently. He added that VGCC head coach Avery Wilson “helped me tremendously to develop as a person.”
Another former Vanguard who has gone on to succeed at the next level of basketball is Ric Yarbrough of Franklinton (pictured above, right), who transferred to North Carolina Wesleyan College in 2010. This year, he was a key contributor to the Battling Bishops as they won the USA South conference regular-season and tournament championships in the same season for the first time in Coach John Thompson’s 16-year career at NCWC. The team secured a berth in the 2011 NCAA Division III Tournament — their first appearance in the national tournament since 2002. Yarbrough was named to the USA South All-Tournament Team and received the Moe Bauer Sportsmanship Award from NCWC.
Of course, not all Vanguards student-athletes continue playing college basketball while they continue their education. For example, Cameron Keith of Youngsville (pictured above, center), a Dean’s List and Phi Theta Kappa honor society student at VGCC, transferred in 2010 to North Carolina State University. “I’m just as proud of Cameron as I am of any other transferring student from our team, because he’s getting a quality education, and with his great character, I know he will succeed,” said Coach Wilson.
According to Wilson, there has actually been one former VGCC basketball player who went pro, although not in the United States. John Holley, a student from Raleigh who played for VGCC’s first club basketball team in 2007-2008 (before the school officially joined the NJCAA), has spent some time playing professional basketball in Japan.
