Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990 TAG: 9007040101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He wasn't invited to participate in the Virginia State Games held in Richmond this past weekend, although Squire's Richmond AAU basketball team is one of the best in the state.
Snubbed in his hometown, Squire is hoping to be at full strength this weekend for the CorEast Virginia State Games in Roanoke.
Squire's team is entered in the Open Boys division and is scheduled to begin play Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Carter Center at North Cross. The gold-medal game is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at North Cross.
Basketball competition will be held in three girls' divisions and four boys' divisions at five venues - First Baptist Church Recreation Center, James Madison Junior High, Patrick Henry High, Salem High and the Carter Center.
Squire's team is hoping to avenge its showing in the state 19-and-under AAU championships in April, when it was beaten by the Augusta Heat and Piedmont teams.
The Piedmont team, which lost to the Augusta Heat in the championship game, has added former William Fleming star Mark Ward to a group that includes Odell Hodge of Laurel Park, Kevin Martin of Fieldale-Collinsville and Jeff Reid of Patrick County.
It is believed that the Augusta Heat will be without star guard Corey Alexander, who will leave this weekend for the Nike basketball camp. However, one of Squire's best players, 6-foot-8 post man Yuri Barnes, also is Nike-bound.
Squire is hoping to have high school All-American Kendrick Warren, although Warren and fellow Virginia Commonwealth signee Thomas Meredith have summer-school classes Friday morning and will miss at least the first game.
Squire says he has four of the top six juniors in the Richmond area: 6-6 Kevin Connor from Hermitage High School, 6-7 Jo Jo Chambers from Highland Springs, 6-3 Stanley Taylor from Prince George and 6-8 Simpson Toliver from George Wythe.
The remainder of Richmond's top players represent Richmond Metro, which participated in the Richmond games last week. Richmond Metro also enlisted Alexander, from Waynesboro, for the competition.
"We weren't invited or even contacted," Squire said. "We tried to find out why we weren't invited, and they said they were only taking the top four teams from Charlottesville [site of the 17-and-under state competition]. But even when two of those teams dropped out, they weren't interested in us."
When he examined the situation further, Squire learned that the basketball coordinator for the Richmond games had ties to the Richmond Metro organization.
"A lot of our players used to play for Richmond Metro," Squire said. "When we started, all we had was a 19-and-under team, but now we have 19s, 17s and 16s. The positive aspect of the situation is that now the kids have an opportunity to choose, but it almost gets to the point of recruiting."
Squire said he is "kind of blinded" to what's going on with the CorEast Virginia State Games but looks forward to reconvening his team for competition.
"But, when you're involved with the AAU, you never know what's going to come up," he added. "Yuri [Barnes] missed the state tournament because that was the weekend of his prom."
Basketball coordinator for the CorEast Virginia State Games is John Hodges of Martinsville, who has been affiliated with the state AAU for 20 years, the past eight as chairman.
"The girls are overbooked; we had to turn away girls' teams," Hodges said. "But the boys are coming up a little short. Right now, the top two teams in the [boys'] 11s and 12s are in the nationals, the 11s in Florida and the 12s in Utah. Three of our teams in boys' 15s are in Kingsport, Tenn.
"One problem we've had is fielding our best teams [in Roanoke]. When you've got six or seven gone, it's hard to fill those spots. But when you've got 242 teams, as we did for our [AAU] games in April, and up to 3,000 players, you're never going to get everybody together at the same time." B11 B7 SQUIRE Squire
by CNB