Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9401270347
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The two William Fleming High School standouts just wish they had started their careers earlier.
Manns, a junior, and Burwell, a sophomore, play inside. Manns is 6-foot-1 and averaged 11.1 points a game last season as a sophomore. Burwell, 6-0, is a top reserve for the Colonels, who were virtually tied with Cave Spring for second place in the Roanoke Valley District standings before the two teams played Tuesday.
Statistically, Manns is having a tremendous season with averages of 16.1 points and 15.3 rebounds to lead the district in both categories. Burwell is averaging 4.6 rebounds and in the past four games has stepped up her offense with 22 points.
"I think they'll play college basketball," says Roland Lovelace, Fleming's coach. "Felicia has such a natural talent. She can probably outrun most of the girls on the team. She has a good work ethic.
"Height alone won't make them players and neither will talent. You have to have some basketball smarts, and you get that through experience."
That's where an earlier start would have helped both players.
"I didn't get started until I came to high school," Manns said. "I just went out for the team - the junior varsity - and I got picked for the varsity.
"I knew a little bit, but I didn't know as much as thought I knew. I had seen some of my friends playing. Since I was tall, I figured I'd have an advantage."
Burwell saw some of her friends playing when she attended middle school.
"I wanted to play, get a career," she said. "When I came to high school, it was like a whole different world. It was nothing like middle school. Coach [Al] Graves [one of Lovelace's assistants] showed me a lot."
Lovelace says the problem is that girls in the city are four or five years behind their counterparts in Roanoke County or Pulaski County. That's because there were no recreation league programs for players such as Manns and Burwell.
"I tell them all the time we're 12 light years behind because we don't have a rec league. You see Cave Spring; they're smarter because they've played a lot longer than we have," Lovelace said. "Right now, our middle school program is terrible. They start sometime in November and finish before Christmas. They don't have enough time to put enough time into it."
Boys don't have the same problems, Lovelace said, because they have plenty of recreational programs in the city.
Lovelace thinks his two young stars have made a tremendous amount of progress in their knowledge of the game.
"We still have a long way to go," said the Colonels' coach. "We can teach them, but in a game they sometimes regress back to the old things they used to do."
Lovelace said basketball players can't afford to be mechanical.
"We emphasize that if you have to think about what you're going to do, you're already beat. It has to be by natural instinct," he said. "That's pretty much where Cave Spring and Pulaski County have the advantage. They know a little more about basketball.
"We try hard, but sometimes experience and knowledge overcome the work ethic."
Progress is coming, though. Last season, Marquetta Randolph was All-Timesland for Fleming. She was overlooked by Division I colleges, but went to Division II Virginia Union on a scholarship. Still, Randolph was outstanding in the Virginia High School Coaches' Association all-star game, helping the West defeat the East.
Manns agrees that she's behind in her knowledge of the game. "I've learned a lot from Coach Lovelace, and I think we can do it [catch up with other programs] if we stick to it," she said. "I know I've improved a whole lot in shooting free throws the entire game.
"Sometimes I'll be thinking about what I do so I don't walk [with the ball]. I should be able to jump into it. If I had started playing when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, I'd be a lot better."
Burwell went to two middle schools. She decided to play basketball when she arrived at Addison from Ruffner.
"It's made me mentally and physically tougher," Burwell said of the game. "It's helped me believe in something. I want to be good in something. It's given me something to do after school instead of hanging around doing nothing.
"If I had started playing earlier, I'd be a lot better. I've improved a lot the last two years from where I was. I still have to learn jump shots and foot movement. I think I play good [on] on defense."
Both girls hope to turn their high school basketball careers into college scholarship opportunities. They also may turn out to be pioneers in helping produce opportunities for other young Roanoke girls' basketball players.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***