AREA TEAMS WON'T HAVE FAR TO TRAVEL FOR BIG EVENTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992                   TAG: 9201190072
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long
AREA TEAMS WON'T HAVE FAR TO TRAVEL FOR BIG EVENTS
There's some new tournament action looming for Timesland basketball teams next winter.
Specifically, the North Cross holiday tournament might expand, and Fleming could be involved in two new events against some outstanding competition.
Virginia Amateur Sports, which sponsors the state games during the summer, also would like to start a tip-off tournament at the Roanoke Civic Center in December. But that might depend on whether they can get either Patrick Henry or William Fleming to participate.
This year, North Cross played host to a four-team tournament involving Auburn, Floyd County and Roanoke Catholic. Next year, North Cross coach Jim Muscaro says he hopes to expand the field to eight teams, and he might invite Salem, a Group AA team.
Fleming is talking about two tournaments, though one would have to be changed to a double-header if the Colonels competed in both. That's because Virginia High School League rules allow a team to participate in only one regular-season tournament.
Virginia High, in a quest to compete against the Arby's Classic in Bristol, Tenn., which has refused to invite the Bearcats, is trying to start a tip-off tournament in early December. This would be an unusually tough tip-off tournament involving Fleming, possibly along with Dobyns-Bennett of Kingsport, Tenn.; Booker T. Washington of Norfolk; John Marshall of Richmond; Louisville (Ky.) Male; Harker Prep from Maryland; and Oak Hill Academy.
Fleming is considering holding a four-team affair at the Salem Civic Center on Feb. 5-6, 1993. Oak Hill is another team in the field, and at least two other nationally prominent teams would be invited. That could wind up as two doubleheaders if Fleming goes to Bristol. Otherwise, it would be a tournament.
Patrick Henry has been invited back to the Arby's Classic, where the Patriots have reached the championship game three times in five years and won twice. However, a new VHSL rule prohibits teams from playing in tournaments that involve them in more than three games.
VHSL executive secretary Earl Gillespie says this rule might be changed in March to permit state teams to play in any size tournament as long as they don't exceed the limit of 21 games in a season.
"It [the Arby's Classic] would be my first choice right now," said PH coach Woody Deans, whose team was invited back even before the trophy presentations at this year's Arby's Classic, which the Patriots won.
If the VHSL doesn't change the rule, PH might participate in the Virginia Amateur Sports tournament, which would give that a liftoff.
\ Fleming and Patrick Henry won't be able to hold their second meeting as scheduled on Friday, Feb. 7, because of a conflict with a concert at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The optional dates are Feb. 6 or Feb. 8. Neither Fleming coach Burrall Paye nor Deans, who have a bigger rivalry going with each other than do the players on their teams, can agree on a date.
Deans says he wants to play on Thursday to avoid the weekend and to help the Roanoke Civic Center, which has cooperated with him in the past and already will have the basketball court set up from the Virginia-Virginia Tech game scheduled there on Feb. 5.
Why don't the athletic directors of the two schools - Fleming's Jim Easthom and Patrick Henry's Dave Osborne - remove this decision from the bickering coaches and settle it themselves?
\ When Lord Botetourt lost at Group AAA Cave Spring 69-66 last weekend after blitzing the Knights 81-53 at home in December, it dropped the Cavaliers' record to 4-5.
It was the low point of the season because coach Don Meredith's boys' basketball team had lost twice each to Group AAA Patrick Henry and Group AA R.E. Lee of Staunton, which at the time were No. 1 in the state their respective classes.
All this caused some of the players to make suggestions to the coaches and led to some soul searching.
"As a coach, you're always open to kids' input and suggestions," said Meredith. "We were getting a little too much.
"Losing creates problems. You like to play good people, but you have people start wondering why did we do this and that. Obviously against two teams [Patrick Henry and Lee], we were outmanned. We came off them against Cave Spring, which is an improved team playing at their place where they're very tough to beat.
"As coaches, when you have a small problem, we always try to attack it. Otherwise, like a snowball, it starts out little and all of a sudden it becomes a snowman."
Whatever Meredith and the other coaches said proved to be the right thing. Botetourt responded by beating Christiansburg 81-55 on the road this past week.
\ Cave Spring's unbeaten girls' basketball team got a scare Thursday night when 6-foot-1 Lisa Hodges, the team's leading scorer, went down with a knee injury in a 50-41 victory at William Fleming. It turns out that she suffered only a hyperextension of her knee and was cleared to return next week. However, the Knights are off until Jan. 30 because of exams, so Hodges shouldn't miss any games.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB