ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604020006
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B14 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HIGH SCHOOLS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
In picking all-area teams in high school athletics, I've had to make some tough choices, but - for the most part - I've made them.
There have been a few times in more than 30 years of picking all-this or all-that teams when I have wimped out and declared a tie. It's only happened a few times, and those cases involved two players who were so equal in their performance there was no fair way to decide the issue.
When I took over as high school sports editor of this newspaper, it was decided we would pick an All-Timesland team in every sport. My decision, based on input from fellow sportswriters and coaches, would be final. There would be a first and second team, but no honorable mentions, which are used mainly to appease players not making the first two teams.
This year, though, I'm facing what I feel is the toughest choice in all my years. From three players, I must select a Sizzlin' Sophomore of the Year in boys' basketball.
Within a few weeks, when the team is published, you'll know the answer.
The three candidates are: Salem's Herschel Thomas, Liberty's Raymond ``Peanut'' Arrington and Patrick Henry's Boo Battle.
The case for all three players is strong. Statistics give no answer. If a candidate is better than his rivals in one phase of the game, another is stronger in some other key area. None is particularly weak in any phase of basketball.
These three are part of one of the best crops of Timesland basketball sophomores in years. Some players who would be considered as the top Sizzlin' Sophomore in other years might not even make the five-player team. They will be mentioned as others to watch.
Let's look at the three candidates.
Thomas, a 5-foot-9 guard, led Salem to a Region III semifinal, which was far more than anyone expected of the Spartans. The strongest argument for Thomas is a 29-point effort against George Washington-Danville, the nation's fourth-ranked team in the USA Today poll and the unbeaten Group AAA champion.
I rank this performance by a sophomore as the best I've seen. The final outcome, a 92-69 loss, was no shame for Thomas and the Spartans because GW had a huge advantage in talent. Thomas had many similar games this past season.
Now for Arrington. A 6-3 forward who was Liberty's tallest player, he led the Minutemen in scoring as they went 25-0 and won the Group AA title. How many times does a sophomore lead a state championship team in scoring?
Arrington did it in the clutch, too. In three state tournament games, he stepped up and scored 44 points. Arrington made 18 of 20 free throws in that run, but that was no surprise; he hit 82.1 percent during the regular season.
Battle was the only one of the three who didn't start. He followed in the tradition of a former Sizzlin' Sophomore of the Year, Los Angeles Lakers forward George Lynch, who always came off the bench as a sophomore. Yet, Battle led Patrick Henry in scoring with 15.5 points per game against the toughest schedule any of the three sophomores faced.
Against GW-Danville in the Northwest Region tournament, Battle scored 22 points in an 85-47 loss. He led a 71-63 upset of William Fleming, a Group AAA semifinalist, when he scored 19 points. He also had 18 points to pace PH past Group AA semifinalist Northside 77-71 in a December game on the Vikings' floor.
Battle, a 6-4 forward, was one of Timesland's better rebounders, with a 7.1 average. He also shot 57 percent from the field.
A runner-up finish would be Battle's second in Sizzlin' Sophomore competition. As the best all-around athlete of the three, he was second to teammate Mike Stevens on defense in football.
Different coaches offer varying opinions on the trio, so that's no help in making a decision.
The son of a friend, who plays basketball and knows all three players, was asked if he was picking a team to play a game, which one of the three he would choose.
``I'd pick Battle, because I'm a guard,'' the player said.
OK, if you weren't playing, but only choosing? ``I'd pick `Peanut.'''
If next week I tried another young player who knew all three, I'd get a different selection. There will be a choice made and no matter who it is, I'll be wrong twice and right only once.
BREAKING GLASS: One of the most surprising spring sports scores in recent memory came this past week in boys' tennis: Patrick Henry 5, E.C. Glass 4.
A Roanoke Valley District squad beating Glass was as rare as an American League baseball team beating the New York Yankees in the 1950s.
Frank Murray, Glass' athletic director, couldn't remember the last time it happened. In talking to Dave Petersen, the tennis coach at Salem when it was an RVD team, and looking at available records, it is known that PH (1988) and Salem (1987) have gone to the Group AAA tournament in the past 10 years. But neither beat Glass to get there.
Petersen said he thinks the last time any RVD team might have beaten the Hilltoppers was when his team went to the 1982 state tournament over Glass from the Northwest Region.
Murray, by the way, says PH is for real, though Glass has a young team.
HONOR ROLL TIME: Coaches in spring sports are urged to begin making their nominations for the weekly honor roll by 10 a.m. Friday. Instructions on how to do so have been sent to each school's athletic director.
Nominations for the first week start with games played this past Friday and run through Thursday. That will be the format each week.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB