ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
Last we saw of Travis Cantrell, he was sniping from the perimeter and driving the lane as Floyd County High was entwining itself in glory by weaving its way through Liberty University's Vines Center on the way to winning the state Group A championship.
Cantrell didn't have long to celebrate.
The very next day, he was off on another round trip from Floyd to Lynchburg to practice with the Virginia Select AAU team.
That was the start of an extended series of journeys that those of a literary bent might call Travels With Travis.
As his father Alan, also his basketball coach, put it: "It has been a little hectic.''
Hectic is as good a description as any for the day the week after the state championship victory over Surry County that Travis played both baseball and basketball, in two counties, the same day.
The start of it was an 18-2 baseball flogging of Galax that featured Cantrell's first career varsity home run. The circuit clout was a little more complicated than usual because it was a grand slam. Cantrell, typically for him, low-keyed the accomplishment.
"It was all right but it wasn't like it was a close game or something,'' he said. "But I'll take it anyway I can get it.''
Hang the score, baseball purists would notice that Cantrell was the No. 9 hitter in the order. Larry Spangler, the veteran Galax coach did.
"Uh-oh,'' he said to Buffaloes coach Skip Bishop. "Now they're going to be on you to move him up in the batting order.''
Actually, the only moving Cantrell had in mind after the baseball game was out of the parking lot and down the mountain to Martinsville where the select hoops team was playing a group from Russia that night. After opening ceremonies in which opposing players handed each other gifts, the Virginians handed the Russians a 92-88 beating. Cantrell scored 15.
"It was a little different listening to them hollering at each other during the game in a language you couldn't understand,'' he said.
The Russians certainly could understand talent, and Cantrell's team had that, as was established when the team won the state AAU age group title in Richmond the following week.
Talent? These guys ought to be holding autograph sessions.
Among the dribbling prodigies Cantrell has been teaming up with: Peanut Arrington of two-time defending state Group AA champion Liberty, guard; Marcus Cunningham and 6-foot-7 wing Charles Stephens of George Washington of Danville; and 6-7 Travis Watson of William Campbell. Add to that group international hoopmeisters Iiro Tenngren, a Finnish guard who is an exchange student at Heritage High in Lynchburg; Alex Miloserdov, a Russian recruited from the select team beaten in Martinsville; and 6-11 Souleymane Camara of Senegal and private basketball finishing school Oak Hill Academy.
No matter what language is employed to describe it, these boys can hoop it up, regardless of the ZIP code.
Recently, the destination was Maryland, where the select team won four of five in a tournament. Upcoming through the rest of the spring and summer will be trips to Carson-Newman College in the Smokies, Chapel Hill, N.C., Georgia, Las Vegas and California. When school is out, the team has a trip to the Netherlands planned.
By the start of school next year, Cantrell is going to have more miles on him than a used car with a doctored odometer.
"It's going to be busy,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB