The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995                  TAG: 9504070206
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN              PAGE: 11   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: FRANKLIN                           LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT TO TIP OFF FACULTY-PARENT BASKETBALL GAME

Bargain-priced tickets are still available for the special performance in the city this week by Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston.

Doors open at 5 p.m. Monday for the stellar event, billed as family entertainment, at Franklin High School. And tickets are only $2.

Some Franklin students may think LaBelle resembles Mechelle Blunt, who teaches science at the school. Blunt, also a singer, has performed on national TV, competing in ``Showtime at the Apollo.''

And Houston could be confused with Amy Powell, a Franklin High School student who studies music at the Governor's Magnet School.

Opening for the two nationally known soloists will be the Scott Singers, the Second Generation. The Scott family has toured the country and cut several albums of gospel music. Several of their children will sing ``Lean On Me.''

The Bronco Fillies will perform country line dancing and the S.P. Morton Raisins will entertain.

The entertainment all happens at the third annual faculty-parent basketball game sponsored by the Parent Teacher Student Association.

A Hard Rock Cafe will be open in the cafeteria from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Hot dogs, hamburger and pizza will be sold, and Permanent Dayz, a band composed of three Franklin High students, will play.

Taking the basketball floor in the gymnasium at 6:30 p.m. will be the ``Lady Broncos,'' the faculty team, challenging the parents, the ``Bronco Mommas.''

The second game features the faculty team, ``Sugar Daddies,'' facing the ``Bronco Stallions,'' the fathers. Reggie Langhorne, a ringer brought in last year by the Sugar Daddies, promises to return. Langhorne, a Smithfield native, is retired from the Indianapolis Colts.

Two other celebrities - Quentin Jackson, a former Harlem Globetrotter now with Union Camp Corp., and Larry Rose, another Union Camp employee who was a referee for the NCAA basketball finals - will officiate.

Concessions will be sold during the game.

Proceeds will be used toward a telephone intercom system for Franklin High School. The system would provide two-way communications between classrooms and the office and would access the school's new video system in the library. by CNB