Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It implies that no one can control the fates that bring us a winter in which Mother Nature ravages the area and high school basketball schedules. Because of the latest weather-related calamity to befall Virginia, the Group A boys' state basketball tournament is a mess.
It wouldn't have been that way had the Group A principals and the Virginia High School League not played Russian roulette with the weather - and lost.
First, the VHSL had an option when it was discovered that the state tournament semifinals and championship games, scheduled for March 17-19 in Charlottesville, would have to be moved. University Hall is tied up that weekend as a site for the NCAA Eastern Region women's basketball tournament.
"We had two choices: Move it away from Charlottesville, or get it all in one week," said Larry Johnson, the VHSL programs supervisor.
Unwisely, the VHSL executive committee chose to keep the state semifinals and finals in Charlottesville by jamming them into one week. The quarterfinal games were scheduled Monday with semifinals and championship games in Charlottesville from Thursday through Saturday. The Salem Civic Center had made a proposal to play host to the state tournament when it was discovered U-Hall wouldn't be available, but it was rebuffed.
In hindsight, changing the schedule was a bad choice. Obviously, VHSL officials didn't remember their lesson from last winter's March blizzard that fouled up the Region C tournament.
The VHSL, to its credit, did ask the regions to try to finish by Friday, giving them a day's grace in case of bad weather. Only Region III in this area complied, and because of that, Salem, Martinsville and Northside, which played in the semifinals, didn't have to worry about qualifying for the state tournament and being overloaded with games.
The Group AAA Northwestern Region and Region IV had little choice but to finish Saturday because of the travel distances between the schools. However, those regions had days built in during the week and still will finish on time.
That brings us to Region C. With all the principals at a meeting Friday, no one was available to explain why the region waited until Wednesday to start its tournament.
When the ice storm hit that day, it knocked out Region C until Friday, meaning first-round games were to be held that day, semifinals Saturday and the championship Monday. The first round of the state tournament will be played as a doubleheader at Radford University's Dedmon Center on Tuesday.
If Floyd County, Glenvar, Chilhowie or Lebanon reaches the state tournament, it will play four games in five days against two well-rested teams from Region D. Parry McCluer and Grayson County, with first-round byes, need play only three games in four days.
Any of those teams that survives would have to come right back Thursday in Charlottesville. Region B has the same problem, so it won't play Region A in first-round state games until Tuesday.
"We gave both regions [C and B] the option of playing Sunday," Johnson said. "Fluvanna wouldn't play [in B], and Parry McCluer wouldn't do it in Region C."
Wayne Flint, Parry McCluer's principal, didn't have an option. School board policy in Buena Vista doesn't permit high school sports on Sunday. That wouldn't have been necessary had the Region C principals not waited to start their tournament until Wednesday.
\ PUGH QUITS SALEM: Two years ago, Luke Pugh was a "Sizzlin' Sophomore" linebacker for Salem's football team that reached the Group AA state semifinal. This year, he was one of the outstanding players on a Spartans team that made the Group AA playoffs, and he was regarded as the best returning player for the 1994 team.
Now Pugh says he's not going to play football as a senior.
"I just didn't want to play for Salem," he says.
Pugh might have been upset that the coaches did not select him to the All-Blue Ridge District team. Salem coach Willis White says Pugh was nominated, so it came down to the other coaches not voting for him.
"That's some of the reason," Pugh says. "I'd rather not say if it's the coaches. I'm just going to concentrate on academics."
Pugh's brother, Josh, was a two-time All-Group AA offensive lineman and received a scholarship to play at NCAA Division I-AA power Marshall.
The younger Pugh says he might be giving up a chance at winning a scholarship, but adds, "I wasn't thinking about playing in college. I was just thinking about going to college and getting my degree."
\ 30-POINT GAMES: The race for the scoring lead in Timesland was a close one, but the big question is which area player had the most games in which he scored 30 points or more this winter.
The easy answer would seem to be Salem's Mark Byington, who was third in Timesland scoring. He had four games of 30 points or more.
Covington Boys' Home standout Donnie Costigan, who was second, had a 59-point game early in the season, but he scored 30 or more points only two other times. North Cross' Monty Smith, the Timesland scoring champion, did it five times.
Yet none of those players led the way in games of 30 points or more. That honor goes to Northside's Nathan Hungate, who did it for a seventh time when he scored 30 points against Liberty in the Region III tournament this week.
Hungate had six of his 30-points-plus efforts during the regular season. He had all of them in a span of 16 games, starting when he scored 30 in an 84-62 victory over Blacksburg. He had one streak of three against William Byrd, Lord Botetourt and Rockbridge County.
\ RVD DOMINANCE: In most sports, teams from the Commonwealth and Cardinal districts own the Roanoke Valley District teams. Basketball has been the exception in the past eight years.
Going into Saturday's Northwestern Region title game between William Fleming and GW-Danville, the RVD was hoping to win its seventh regional title in the eight years since Damon and Ramon Williams graduated from Fleming.
RVD teams had gone 11-6 against teams from the Commonwealth and Cardinal districts in that span. Overall, RVD teams had a 23-9 record. With two teams making the regional each year, only three times has a RVD entrant failed to win at least one game.
\ NEW FLEMING AD: Jim Easthom, William Fleming's athletic director, retires at the end of the school year. While there hasn't been an appointment of a new athletic director, several sources say longtime Fleming football coach Sherley Stuart will succeed Easthom. Stuart, who has hinted in the past that he might retire from coaching, will continue as football coach.
by CNB