THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120590
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
College basketball's national spring signing day will pass across South Hampton Roads today like a ship in the night: quietly and without fanfare.
There are no guarantees that the two area recruits who will likely sign with Division I schools - Churchland 6-foot-9 forward Marvin Rodgers with West Virginia and Booker T. Washington 5-10 guard Kenny Brown with Maryland-Eastern Shore - will qualify under NCAA freshman eligibility guidelines. Both may be sitting out next season.
There will be no celebration of an area player going to North Carolina or Georgetown or Maryland.
No hometown product pinning his hopes on Old Dominion.
None of the area's top talent is projected to qualify under NCAA freshman eligibility rules - 2.0 minimum grade-point average, minimum score of 700 on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
What makes this sadder is that the Class of '95 got a break when the NCAA voted to delay new, stricter standards until next year.
This was considered an outstanding year locally for prospects. But instead of being the Division I talent mother lode it could be, South Hampton Roads has become a junior college recruiting hotbed as the two-year schools swarm in to pick up the pieces.
First to sign this spring was Granby's Shawn Hobson, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star player of the year, with Hagerstown (Md.) Junior College.
``I don't think these kids should be embarrassed by going to junior college,'' Maury coach Jack Baker said. ``If you do the best you can, why is that an embarrassment?''
Players such as Western Branch graduate Ivan Chappell (who went to Otero Junior College and ended up at Virginia Commonwealth University) and Norview's Willie Young (Brevard Community College to Tennessee-Chattanooga) turned their junior college experiences into stepping stones.
The real problem, according to Baker, is that there are no junior colleges nearby.
``There's nothing in Virginia, now that Ferrum went four-year,'' Baker said. ``And Chowan went four-year. Some of these kids would rather stay here and go on with their lives than go to Florida or Texas or Iowa.''
South Hampton Roads has had top players who didn't qualify in the past. But it seemingly always had at least one recruit in which to take pride: Cradock's Petey Sessoms in 1991 (ODU), Granby's Ed Geth in 1992 (UNC), Maury's Joe Smith in 1993 (Maryland).
This makes two consecutive years in which the Group AAA area hasn't had a notable Division I signing of a boys basketball player who qualified. Nansemond River's Howard Frier signed with Colorado last year, but Nansemond River plays at the Group AA level; the 22 Group AAA public schools drew blanks.
College coaches say Division I talent exists. According to recruiters, Churchland's D.J. Dunbar, Maury's Shaun Jackson and Hobson can all play at that level.
``It could have been a great year,'' said Boo Williams, who runs Hampton Roads' premier AAU summer basketball league. ``It was a good year on the court and not so good a year academically.''
``There are a lot of problems,'' Baker said. ``You can't pinpoint it to one particular thing. A lot of it has to do with their background and upbringings where academics weren't stressed and still aren't.
``A lot of kids don't see the value of an education. It just doesn't appeal to them in the eighth, ninth or 10th grades. Then somebody tells them they're good enough to play college basketball and in some cases it's too late to turn their academics around.
``These kids today are no different than the Joe Smiths and Cornel Parkers of the world.
``They weren't great students early on,'' Baker said of the two ACC standouts. ``But they realized their opportunities and buckled down.''
Williams called the last two years frustrating.
``And in a lot of the situations we had no control,'' he said. ``We saw this coming and began to look ahead to next year where we hope to avoid the same situation.''
There are more than a half-dozen area players in next year's graduating class being looked at as probable Division I candidates - Kenny Inge and Damon Thornton of Atlantic Shores, Indian River's Terry Rouse, Cox's Ben Green, Green Run's Will Brooks, Nansemond River's Montoria Valentine, Maury's Ike Richardson and others.
But they must also qualify and there are question marks on many of those transcripts.
Williams looks to this year's sophomore and freshman classes before he sees the best mix of academic success and on-court talent.
``You got (Brian) Bersticker at Kempsville, Jason Capel and David Selby at Indian River, Carl Lentz at Cox, Toot Young, Deshawn Hendrick and Toni Harrell at Lake Taylor and Tim Sweeney at Maury,'' he said. ``The best group is coming in the ninth and 10th grades.''
If anything, area coaches can hold up the disappointments of this year's graduating class and use it as a lesson to be learned. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Shawn Hobson, the All-Tidewater Player of the Year whom recruiters
say has the skills to play in Division I, will instead start his
college days at Hagerstown (Md.) Junior College.
by CNB