Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 7, 1993 TAG: 9310070326
SECTION: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS LENGTH: Medium
"Boys are tougher than girls," said Fleeman, who is the only female on the pavement come summer. "That's just a fact. They roughhouse. There's no crying about it."
Any inequity that may have existed before Fleeman's arrival on the brutal battlefields of playground basketball, where the weak of flesh are ferretted out and disposed of like so much chaff, has been corrected because of her arrival.
Fleeman, a stout 5-foot-11 center who is the star of the Narrows High School girls' basketball team, has done her share of roughhousing. Her playground-breaking emergence has not come without cost, however.
"It makes them mad when I beat 'em," Fleeman said of her male peers. "You know how guys are. When a girl beats them in anything, it's trouble."
Fleeman (pronounced "FLEA-man") knew the pain boys could cause long before pounding the pavement. She had received some home schooling from her older brother, Roger, a former Narrows star also noted for his court savagery.
The Fleemans took their sibling rivalry to family court - as in the basketball court, where there was no judge, jury or referee and the only law was that the strong survive.
"He's given me a bloody nose once or twice," she said. "He wasn't being abusive. That's just basketball. I've got to watch what I say; I don't want Social Services coming after my brother.
"... That's what made me so tough, I guess. After playing with him, the girls aren't nearly so rough."
A firm believer in equal opportunity, Fleeman has been just as rough to the sisterhood of the Mountain Empire District. Coming into the week, the senior center was the district's leading scorer (18.5 points per game) and second-leading rebounder (9.5). She is perhaps the league's strongest player.
"She is the best pure post player in the league, without a doubt," said Todd Lusk, Narrows' coach. "I haven't seen anybody in the MED that comes close to matching her strength inside."
Never was Fleeman more unstoppable than against archrival Giles a couple of weeks ago. She scored 20 points in the fourth quarter to rally the Green Wave from a 14-point deficit to a district victory. She finished that game with a career-high 32 points.
"I've never seen anybody have a quarter like that," Lusk said. "What's scary is that she can dominate every game like that."
Narrows, which got off to a slow start this season but had improved its record to 4-5 overall and 3-5 in the district), likes to play an up-tempo game behind quick players such as Melissa Lawrence, Suzanne Webb and Sarah Kellam. When the Green Wave has to play half-court offense, there's little doubt where the ball is going.
Fleeman spurred the rally against Giles with a trio of hard-earned, old-fashioned three-point plays. She has gotten a lot more of those this year, thanks to her great strength - and her 71.8 percent free-throw shooting.
"I used to try to draw the foul then brick the shot off the backboard," Fleeman said. "Now, I've learned to go up strong and try to make it. If I get fouled, I get the extra point."
Fleeman is making her points in the classroom, as well. She is enrolled in advanced courses at Narrows, but her participation in sports took its toll on her schoolwork last year. She spent the spring getting her grades back up, and she hopes to play college basketball next year. She has been contacted by Radford and small schools such as Concord (W.Va.) and Bluefield.
Fleeman also is a terrific volleyball player, and she won the district and Region C shot-put championships as a sophomore. She had a chance to compete in Germany with a group of American track and field all-stars last year, but she stayed home to work on her grades.
"I learned a lot last year," she said. "I'm not going to let my grades get in that kind of shape again."
As usual, her education began at home.
by CNB