ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
Perhaps you were unaware:
Radford High's effort to overhaul Floyd County in the Three Rivers District basketball race was given a recent lift when transfer Brian Smith became eligible.
Smith, who was attending Blacksburg prior to his arrival in Radford, has been in three games so far. Virginia High School League transfer rules prohibited him from being eligible first semester. As for his playing skills, reviews from his coach, Rick Cormany, have been of the rave variety.
"It's been a success story all the way,'' Cormany said. "He may be the hardest worker I have on the team. The way he came in here and practiced with the team when he wasn't allowed to play first semester made him gain everybody's respect.''
Smith is 5-foot-10 or so, but he is said to be able to launch himself like a rocket from a standing start and dunk with two hands. With those unusual abilities to call on, Smith has been deployed in the post.
"This is the first time I've ever kept a senior who is ineligible at the start of practice,'' Cormany said. "There are usually too many drawbacks to that sort of thing. Had he been eligible, he would have started.''
Smith had one false start before he was off and running.
"The first game for which he was eligible, it snowed,'' Cormany said. "The kid was pumped out of his mind to play then we had to postpone the game.''
The third game in which Smith played, Radford beat a good Grayson County squad to avenge an earlier defeat.
Said Cormany: "This kid plays tremendously hard inside.''
FAMILY TRADITION: Adam Loveday, who has been something of a sensation for Auburn High's basketball team this season as a sophomore, is the son of Joe Loveday, one of the stars of Auburn's state championship team of 1966-67.
The younger Loveday, a sophomore, goes 6-5 and about 220 pounds and plays the game with great vigor. He's averaging 14 points per game (and is the Eagles' leading scorer), is shooting 56.2 percent from the floor, and is averaging 8.3 rebounds per game.
In one particularly memorable performance, he scored 18 points in just two quarters of a loss to undefeated Floyd County, the state's top-ranked Group A team.
"He's a very good player,'' Auburn coach Kevin Harris said. "So good that a lot of teams are sagging down on him with a guard to make life difficult for him.
"His offensive rebounding is nearly spectacular. He has the knack for being at the right place at the right time and he also has the quickest hands of any player I've ever coached.''
Loveday has nearly as many offensive rebounds as he does defensive rebounds.
There is one other point about Loveday that excites Harris.
"I don't think he's through growing yet,'' the coach said.
The elder Loveday holds the single-season scoring record for Auburn. He had more than 500 points during the state championship campaign, according to Harris, who has researched the high school's basketball records.
"Joe was a big man who went about 6-4, which was very big for a center in those days,'' recalled Nelson Simpkins, the Shawsville High principal and a teammate of Joe Loveday's on the championship team. "He had strong moves to the basket, but he could also come outside and shoot with the guards. The way I remember him is as a shooter.''
Harris also has high hopes for another sophomore, 6-3 Johnny Davis, who doesn't start but has played in every game.
"He's the hardest worker I have in the program,'' Harris said.
Auburn's best basketball appears to be ahead, not just this year but beyond, Harris said.
"We're going to get better,'' he said. "Right now, we're the best 3-10 Group A team in Timesland.''
HOPING TO CONTINUE: Several Blacksburg High football players have their eyes on playing college ball, probably at the Division III level.
Michael Davis, the All Timesland linebacker, is considering Emory & Henry and Bridgewater. He is also thinking about a year of postgraduate work at a prep school such as Fork Union or Hargrave. Another possibility he is said to be considering is walking on at Virginia Tech.
Michael Crist, the son of Blacksburg coach David Crist, also is looking into Emory & Henry, Tusculum (Tenn.) and Bridgewater. Crist played some quarterback and linebacker for the Indians the past two years. Chances are, he'll land on the defensive side of the ball in college.
The LaForce brothers, Tommy and Tucker, are also possibilities for Bridgewater. Tommy LaForce was the Indians' quarterback the past two years. Tucker LaForce was a hard-charging fullback who is currently enrolled at New River Community College.
SHORT STUFF: We got a recent telephone message from former All Timesland linebacker Brandon Steele of Giles who reports that he is working his way through a challenging first year of college at Penn State. In addition to managing the academic demands of one of the nation's better colleges, Steele is a walk-on for Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions, one of the nations' finest football programs. ... E-mail arrived recently from former Christiansburg football-basketball-baseball standout Ricky Brinkman, another Pennsylvania resident. Brinkman wanted an update on the athletic fortunes of his alma mater. ... Stevie Allen, another Christiansburg athletic prodigy of days gone by, called the other day when he was in town visiting his parents. He was back in Florida, where he's an assistant football coach and head golf coach at Atlantic High in Port Orange, Fla., before a return call could secure more details on his situation. ... Auburn basketball player Phil Morris, a 6-7 senior who is the son of distance-running guru Tom Morris, is out for at least three games after unfortunate timing on a dunk attempt in practice left him flat on his back on the gym floor. ... Upon hearing that former Floyd County head basketball coach Skip Bishop had returned as the Buffaloes assistant, Rick Cormany of Radford told Floyd County counterpart Alan Cantrell: "So you're double-teaming me now.'' .... Former Christiansburg and Auburn girls basketball standout Crystal Moles has left Longwood College and is attending New River Community College. She is said to be uncertain about whether to try to play college basketball somewhere else. Longwood assistant athletic director Tom Bilello said that Longwood will cooperate with her and grant her a release from her national letter of intent should she want to transfer to another school. However, he said that her hopes for being eligible next year may be complicated by NCAA transfer rules. Moles did not complete the terms of her national letter of intent when she left Longwood's team after the first semester.
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