THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9503310257
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 32 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
They're a ruthless bunch, that Bayside Marlin preteen basketball gang.
In 10 regular-season games, the 10- to 12-year-old girls scored 450 points. Their opponents scored 134, an average winning margin of 32 points.
In the city championship tournament, the Marlins beat the Kings Grant Bulls, 44-13, and the Great Neck Bulls, 48-19, to capture the division's Bracket 1 semifinals.
In the single-elimination playoff finals, the Marlins won by forfeit in the first round. The other girls didn't show up. Can you blame them? They were drubbed by the Marlins, 60-12, in the final regular-season game.
Things got tougher after that. The Marlins beat the Great Neck Heels, 44-24, to move into the finals. In the city championship game, Bayside defeated Woodstock TNT, 39-22.
The Marlins finished the season unbeaten and won the Virginia Beach Junior Invitational tournament championship also.
The little team that couldn't win once upon a time became the team that couldn't lose this season.
Two years ago, the Marlins were a hapless bunch, said second-year coach Jeff Stafford.
``They got blown out. I don't think they won a game,'' said Stafford.
The bitter experience of losing made the taste of victory even sweeter and helped the team to grow together.
Stafford called point guard Shamea Rogers a future Olympian.
``She rebounds, scores, just a great athlete. She must have had 15 assists a game,'' he said.
Hayley Brooks and Stephanie Jones, Bayside's inside-the-paint players, dominated rebounding on both ends of the court.
``It was a once-in-a-lifetime team,'' he said.
Another undefeated team, Plaza Heat, won the intermediate boys title on March 22 with a thrilling 51-49 overtime victory over the Aragona/Pembroke Lakers.
Coach Kenny Deaton's team was led by O.J. Smith, Steven Van Nostrand and Traland McCamby in the big game.
``We were down by five or six points and Traland just swatted a guy's shot away,'' said Deaton. ``It got us fired up.''
The Heat's 24-0 season was a product of depth and teamwork.
``I'm especially proud of the team winning this championship for two reasons,'' said Deaton. ``First of all, we weren't used to playing in tight games and that tested us, and to hold Aragona/Pembroke to 49 points. They scored over 100 in a couple of games.''
The Larkspur/Salem Lakers were coached by Ray Sye. He expressed pride in them for winning the junior girls division city title.
However, Sye saved his biggest accolades for his girls' work off the court.
``We had 11 girls on the team and all are honor students,'' said Sye. ``You would have to look pretty hard to top that. I'm so proud of their academics.''
One of the honor students is Angela Sye, the coach's daughter and the team's center.
``She's 13 and already 5-11,'' said her 6-3 father, a 13-year veteran of community league coaching. ``She'll be a freshman next year, so I'll lose her.''
The Lakers had two or three players who could step right onto high school courts next year, Sye thinks.
``Our two guards, Nakia Weekes and Katie Karaman. Nakia was our big scorer and Katie played great defense,'' he said.
The Lakers swept through the junior girls tournament with three consecutive wins. They opened with a 31-15 win over the top-seeded West Kempsville Cavaliers.
They followed with a 19-14 victory over the Great Neck Monarchs to advance to the title game - where the Lakers beat the Linkhorn Seahawks, 32-21.
The Woodstock Tarheels took home the junior boys championship.
The Tarheels squeaked by the West Kempsville Trailblazers, 50-47, in the second round, and defeated the Cooke Rams, 60-54, to move onto the title game.
There, they dispensed with the Bayside Lakers, 49-40.
The Lakers' Chris Sherrod scored 15 points in a losing cause.
``He was our team leader all year, played a lot of minutes,'' said Lakers coach Ranier Blank.
``I was pretty proud of my boys,'' said Keenan. ``My leading scorers were Kevin Alig, Matt Keenan, David Griffin and Steve Fela.''
Unfortunately, most of his team will be moving on next season, Keenan said, including two - Keenan and Alig - who made the Great Neck Invitational All-Tournament team in December.
While the the rest of the community league teams were busy with the city championship tournaments, the Great Neck Athletic Association was holding its 21st Annual Tournament at the middle school of the same name.
The association isn't rude in spurning the citywide showdown. They're simply proud of their tradition, they said.
The 12 teams played a double-elimination format for the first time and the eventual champions profited from the change.
The Wildcats avenged a 40-35 loss to the Heat. They came back to beat the Heat, 36-28, and take the title in the championship game.
Phil Quam, who scored 81 points for the Wildcats in five tournament games, hit 21 of those in the clutch during the championship game. Brian Langbord played superb defense for the Wildcats, coached by Ray Mattes.
The rest of the Wildcats are John Young, R.J. Mattes, Kyle DuBois, Danny Donovan, Kenny Donovan, Eric Harwell and Mason Whitehurst. by CNB