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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994                   TAG: 9406170112
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GRADUATION SPLITS UP FOURSOME

FLOYD - The "fearsome four" are revered by their classmates. They go everywhere together. They do everything together. And last fall they helped their girls basketball team win the Girls State A Basketball Championship.

But today will be the beginning of a new life for these four girls, three of whom will graduate from Floyd County High School as part of the class of 1994.

Lynette Nolley, 17, was the superstar forward of this year's basketball team, leading the Lady Buffaloes to the Group A State Championship. She received the Timesland Group A female basketball player of the year as well as District, Regional and State Group A player of the year award. Nolley will attend Virginia Tech on a basketball scholarship this fall, so she won't be too far from home. Still, she will be without her best friends.

Brennen O'Neill is undecided about her future. The 18-year-old senior plans to study child psychology at Concord College in Athens, W.Va., or Salem College in Winton-Salem, N.C. She still doesn't know if she will play basketball at either college.

"We've had our crying sessions already," O'Neill said about the foursome going separate ways. "We used to camp out in my backyard all the time - that's as far out in the wilderness as we wanted to go - and I'll miss that."

The "the fearsome four" was "just something we made up to be silly," O'Neill said. It was like a secret code, a sort of bond that kept them together. Now, they are branching out on their own.

"It's going to be really hard for me because I'm going so far away," said 17-year old Susan Whalen who is leaving at the end of the month for Colorado. "Going to the [U.S. Air Force] Academy was the best opportunity for me. We all knew we'd have to be separated sooner or later. What's really going to be hard is listening to the choir sing 'Friends are Friends Forever.'"

Whalen said she probably will not be back to Floyd until Christmas, and will have to "write lots of letters" to keep up with her best friends, all of whom will be within two hours of home.

While Nolley, O'Neill and Whalen agree college will be a challenge, perhaps the hardest challenge awaits 16-year old Laura Harman who makes up the final piece of the Fearsome Four. As a junior, Harman will face her senior year without her best friends.

"I guess I'm going to be lost," she said. "We always hung out together ... we've been best friends since eighth grade. We always went to Brennen's house, because she lives in town, and we'd dance in the front room. I don't know what I'll do now."

Harman said she wouldn't miss today's graduation for anything. "I'll be there, but I'll have a big box of tissues."

Four other members of the championship basketball team also will graduate, including co-valedictorian Cherie Quesenberry, who plans to attend Wake Forest University. All seven graduating basketball players will go on to two- or four- year colleges.

Co-valedictorian Christy Bower, didn't play basketball, but also leaves her mark on the school. Bower was a member of many academic clubs, including the Mountain Academic Competition Conference, the math rally team and the science olympics team. She also was on the yearbook staff. Bower plans to attend Tennessee Tech majoring in engineering. Salutatorian Bronwen Cox will major in architecture at Virginia Tech.

by CNB