Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309300383
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOHN A. MONTGOMERY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"The big one," as he put it.
But Ewing's birthday was special for a reason other than his observing the half-century mark. He spent much of the day with his girls' Amateur Athletic Union 13-and-under basketball team at their annual picnic at Whispering Pines Park in Roanoke County.
Ewing's AAU squad was one of six from the Roanoke Stars program - a dozen teams between the ages of 11 and 18 - to participate in the AAU national tournament this summer, and it returned home with one of Roanoke's best showings.
The 13-and-under tournament was played in Maryville, Tenn., in July and August as part of the Junior Olympics.
Roanoke, one of 78 participating teams representing 35 states, finished in the top third of the field with a 3-3 record. The Stars defeated teams from Akron, Ohio; Huntsville, Ala.; and Wichita, Kan. They lost to units from Detroit, Philadelphia and Hartford, Conn.
Ewing has coached the same age group since the girls' AAU program started in Roanoke in 1984, and his teams have won approximately 85 percent of their games, including national tournament play.
Typically, Ewing's players are eighth-graders and become eligible to play high school basketball the following fall.
His teams have qualified for nationals in each of his 10 seasons, and twice have won the national sportsmanship trophy. This year, Roanoke was one of two teams selected from Virginia.
"This was the first year the nationals took more than one team from Virginia," Ewing said. "It also was the first year we didn't win the state; we finished second. But at nationals, we won three games and made it out of our pool [to the final 32]. This team is one of the two or three best I've had."
The Stars were led by Lisa Bryan, a ninth-grader at Cave Spring Junior High, who stands 6-4 in her basketball shoes. Bryan was the tallest player in the tournament.
"Well, I was the tallest listed," Bryan said. "There was one girl from Texas who could look me in the eye."
Two people Bryan can't quite look in the eye are her 6-foot-5 father, Bob, and her brother, Mike, a 6-foot-7 freshman at Randolph-Macon College. Mike was a star basketball player at North Cross, which won the private-school state championship last season.
Bryan's grandfather was an All-American at the University of South Dakota in 1935.
But while Bryan has basketball genes, she didn't seriously pursue the sport until September 1991.
"She has a real bright future," Ewing said. "She'd like to go beyond the high school level."
Bryan, who turned 14 during the season, scored 75 points in the tournament, including 22 in a 52-47 victory over Wichita. Particularly impressive were her six-game shooting statistics - 56 percent from the floor, 66 percent from the foul line.
As expected, Bryan is a strong rebounder, but she shares the credit. "My team helps me a lot," Bryan said. "We've got great guards."
Mandy Williams from Salem High School and Sara Moore from Lord Botetourt made up the Stars' backcourt. Forwards Kristin Smith from Cave Spring and Sarah Hicks from Northside completed the starting lineup.
The Stars also had two 6-footers coming off the bench. Twins Alyssa and Catie Redick from Cave Spring gave Ewing his first team with three players standing more than 6 feet tall.
AAU tryouts are held in December. After teams are chosen, practices are scheduled once a week, generally Sunday afternoon, until the state tournament in early summer. By national tournament time, practice increases to three times a week. The season culminates just in time for girls' high school basketball season in the fall.
AAU teams also travel to several weekend tournaments prior to the state tournament. Ewing estimated his teams have averaged about 20 games per season.
"It becomes pretty much a year-round sport for them," Ewing said.
Most of the 13-and-under players come from area schools. "You basically can take kids from anywhere in Virginia," Ewing said. "Usually that means within a reasonable driving distance. Last year, we had a player from Fauquier County in Northern Virginia. This year, it was a local phone call to all of my players."
AAU regulations allow national tournament teams to add as many as three players from other state teams before the national tourney. In 1987, Ewing selected two Northern Virginia stars, Charleata Beale and Rachel Hemmer.
"I really thought we'd do something that year," Ewing said, "and we did win our first three games." The Stars were upended, however, by Missouri Valley and Arkansas, teams that finished second and fifth, respectively.
Ewing took special note of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game in 1992 between Stanford and Virginia: Hemmer was on Stanford's team, and Beale played for the Cavaliers.
Ewing has watched several of his local players star in high school, and many have had successful college careers. "Including Division III, we've had somewhere between 40 and 50 players move on to college ball," Ewing said.
Among the notables are Cave Spring's Lisa Hodges, now at North Carolina State, and William Byrd's Sherry Banks, now at Virginia Tech.
Ewing's stepdaughter, Lisa Allison, played on his first AAU team, which competed in the nationals at Yakima, Wash. Allison was one of 12 players selected to the All-American team that season. Allison went on to play at Campbell College in Buies Creek, N.C., from which she graduated this spring.
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in North edition October 7, 1993.