It’s been a stressful week here at The Star sports desk.
Getting The Chief’s new monthly tabloid out is quite an undertaking. Pictures, feature articles and this column, all under The Chief’s watchful eye, make the deadline clock click like a time bomb. Sounds like a job for Superman.
It’s a pressure cooker for sure, and thank goodness the big snowstorm that hit the Northeast didn’t make a stop around here.
That would have meant me shoveling the sidewalks at corporate headquarters and running around to buy birdseed for The Chief’s Perfect Polly bird feeder.
But, we put the sports page to bed on time, the storm was a miss and The Chief only needed another bottle of catnip blow bubbles. Life is great at The Star.
Now, on to this week’s actual sports news where we take a look at a the latest “Big-11” high school basketball polls, take a preview of some upcoming sporting events and travel through the mailbag where readers had plenty to say on last week’s 161-2 blowout pulled by a high school girls coach in California.
As predicted, a few upsets hit the “Big-11” in high school basketball. Here’s a look at the latest Top-3 in girls and boys play.
GIRLS:
#1) Hidden Valley : The Titans lost their first game of the year last Saturday in Abingdon. But, 12-1 is still enough to hold on to the top spot after they rebounded against PH Tuesday night.
#2) William Fleming : The Lady Colonels keep getting stronger. A 34-point win Monday night over Rockbridge County and 59-point winner Tuesday over Northside keeps them firmly in second with a 12-4 record.
#3) Lord Botetourt : The Lady Cavs improved to 10-7 with their win over Alleghany Tuesday might in Low Moor, and they hold on to the third spot despite plenty of challengers waiting in the wings.
BOYS:
#1)William Fleming : The 15-2 Colonels hold serve in first place after a win in the Lea Winter Classic and a blowout of Northside on Tuesday night.
#2)William Byrd : The Terriers knocked off Staunton River on Tuesday, so Kevin Tuck’s 14-3 Byrd team keeps the pressure on Fleming.
#3)Northside: The 13-3 Vikings, despite their loss to #1 Fleming, moves into third after previous #3 North Cross was overwhelmed at Carlisle.
Ready to make their move into the Top-3; 11-3 Patrick Henry, 13-2 North Cross and 14-3 Glenvar.
Last chance reminder for The Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame banquet set for Thursday night, January 29th, at the Salem Civic Center. Five individuals, highlighted earlier this month in a Star sports feature, will be inducted. Former Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel will be the guest speaker. Word has it that the banquet, in recent years held in an upstairs ball room, will move to the main Civic Center floor after ticket sales surged to well over 300.
Also at the Salem Civic Center, the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout plays out Saturday, February 7th with a top slate of teams from around this area and the southeast honoring the late WDBJ7 sportscaster.
Finally, to the mailbag where plenty of comments came forth after an Aurora Valley, California high school girls coach was suspended two games after his team pummeled Bloomington High’s girl team 161-2.
From Gladys in Radford: They missed the mark and got it backwards in the suspension of the Aurora Valley girls coach. The score was 161-2 and he got a two game suspension. Based on that score, he should have been suspended 161 games.
From Dexter in Rocky Mount: Don’t jump to conclusions on this guy after he said the game just got away from him. Maybe the 100-point bulbs on the scoreboard were out and he though the halftime score was 1-1 rather than 101-1. He can’t coach, so maybe he can’t read or count, either.
From Hillary in Roanoke: The Bloomington team should have passed the ball better. It’s a shame they couldn’t have tossed it accurately toward the Aurora coach.
From David in Salem: The Aurora coach commented he didn’t think Bloomington was that bad. I wonder if he realizes his team, because of him, was much worse.
Until next time, pace the sideline with your best strategy and send your comments to: [email protected]
– Bill Turner
