Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412070071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At the Salem Civic Center on Saturday afternoon, it was 36 points.
Appropriately with those mascots involved, the Virginia High School League Group A girls' basketball championship game became a stampede. And when it was over, it was Alan Cantrell playing the Kevin Costner role in the soon-to-be-released Floyd County flick, ``Dances with Trophies.''
About 10 percent of Floyd County's population of 12,000 was at the civic center to watch the Buffaloes tie the state public-school record for consecutive basketball victories at 56. They came from Willis and Copper Hill and Alum Ridge and Indian Valley. On a day when the Buffaloes won their second consecutive state title, you probably couldn't have bounced a check in Check.
Both teams wore black-and-gold uniforms, but that's where the similarities ended. Buffalo Gap had 41 points. Floyd had 41 points off turnovers. There was a serious Buffalo gap on the floor. All the Buffs did in a 77-41 triumph was press and impress.
What do you do when you're surrounded by Buffaloes? You lose your composure and lose the ball. You can't run, or run your offense. You keep leaving the back door open for those easy shots called Buffalo chippies.
Cantrell, the Buffaloes' prodigal girls' and boys' coach, has guided the Floyd female squad to an 85-2 record the past three autumns. The 1992 team came to the state semifinals in Salem with a 27-0 record and lost in overtime to champion Wilson Memorial and future Vanderbilt star Angela Gorsica. The Buffaloes lost their third game last season, to eventual Group AA champion Blacksburg.
They haven't lost since, and finished a 29-0 season Saturday. They won't start thinking about next season at least until this morning. See, basketball in Floyd County has become a full-time occupation for more than Cantrell, whose boys' opener was postponed Friday - the coach was busy, OK? - and will start the season Tuesday night against Fort Chiswell.
This is Cantrell's third coaching stint at Floyd County, and he promises he won't leave again unless they make him. He learned his basketball at East Tennessee State, where he coaxed coach Sonny Smith into letting him hang around the Buccaneers. When Cantrell graduated, Smith helped the Buchanan County native get a coaching job at Floyd County.
This time around - after moving to Grundy, Whitewood, Tazewell and Pound - Cantrell has more than a team. He has a program, and even first-graders learn his full-court press. It is said in Floyd County that when infants stop dribbling one way, they start dribbling another.
Four summers ago, Cantrell started Floyd County's basketball camp. There were about 100 campers. Last summer, that number was almost doubled, girls and boys. No time is wasted. Camp begins the week after school ends in the spring.
``It's for first- to seventh-graders, but we even have some kindergarten kids there,'' Cantrell said Saturday. ``In the fourth grade, our coaches are doing what we do. It's a clone of what the varsity does on down. It's like they've done in Giles County in football. The Giles High School team runs the Single Wing, so they run the Single Wing all the way down the line.''
Floyd County's girls have added to their hoops hopes by playing AAU basketball in increasing numbers and attending college camps as a team and as individuals. And Cantrell takes coaching girls and boys literally. Some days, the two teams practice together and scrimmage.
``The girls make the boys really have to work hard,'' Cantrell said. ``The girls can't stand to lose. I think it's doing both programs a lot of good.''
At Floyd County, practices might be tougher than games. This season, the repeat girls' state title team outscored opponents by 35.7 points per game. In only four of 29 games was the margin of victory less than 22 points, only one of those in the past 21 outings.
Nine players return from a too-tough team that has two Division I grant-in-aid signees. For a Group A school - albeit one of the largest in the state's smallest classification - Floyd had a girls' title team of uncommon depth. And apparently there's more on the way.
They're Buffaloaded.
by CNB