THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507230186
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Coming soon to a football field or basketball court near you: two-sport Hampton High superstar Ronald Curry.
This is one of the positives that will come about if the Eastern Region's proposal to realign its districts for the 1996-97 season is approved by the Virginia High School League.
The VHSL's Redistricting and Realignment Committee will review that and other proposals from around the state in its summit meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Charlottesville. The committee's recommendations are expected to receive rubber-stamp approval from the VHSL's executive committee.
For years, South Hampton Roads has been somewhat cut off from the Peninsula in high school athletics. Fans, unless they elected to venture to the Peninsula, couldn't see superstars like Bethel's Allen Iverson until the regional playoffs.
Now, Hampton's four high schools - Bethel, Kecoughtan, Phoebus and Hampton - are proposed to join Norfolk's five schools in a district that could be renamed the Bridge-Tunnel District.
And there lies a negative.
For a generation, teams from the Peninsula or Norfolk did not have to fight Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel traffic to make a game time. Now, they will fight it with regularity on Fridays. Could it be any worse? The department of transportation can expect requests for HOV bus lanes in the next few days.
``The only negatives I see are the travel and the tunnels,'' Lake Taylor athletic director and football coach Bert Harrell said. ``We're scrimmaging Hampton in football next month and I'm trying to work it out with (Hampton High coach) Mike Smith to move the scrimmage from a Friday to a Thursday to avoid the Friday night tunnel hassle.''
Once on the playing field, will the Norfolk schools - Maury, Booker T. Washington, Lake Taylor, Granby and Norview - be good enough to compete with the Big Four from Hampton?
Hampton has been a football powerhouse for decades. Bethel won a state title in football in 1992. They are two primary reasons the Peninsula District is so revered in football. The Eastern District cannot boast of such successes. But Harrell, for one, isn't fearful of the switch.
``I'd just as soon play them this year,'' Harrell said. ``We've got Deep Creek, Indian River, Western Branch and Churchland on our schedule. I'd say that's as tough as Hampton, Bethel, Phoebus and Kecoughtan. Maybe tougher.''
Besides, when the Crabbers played Booker T. Washington in the Eastern Region Division 5 semifinals this season, Hampton escaped with a 34-26 victory. It wasn't a lopsided affair. And Hampton was unbeaten in the regular season while Booker T. finished 6-4, its first winning season in a decade.
What won't be tougher is the Norfolk schools' battles to line up out-of-district competition to fill out its schedules in various sports. The Eastern District, with only five teams, had become desperate for games, which was reason for this change.
Now, coaches might bemoan too many tough games in boys basketball, in which the new district could be one of the best on the East Coast.
Three of the teams - Hampton, Bethel and Booker T. Washington - have won state titles in the last 10 years. Kecoughtan has gone to the state tournament three of the last four years. And Maury is always tough, producing recent NBA No. 1 draft pick Joe Smith.
``Hampton and Kecoughtan are obviously very good every year,'' Maury boys basketball coach Jack Baker said. ``You may end up with a lot of very good teams not going very far (in the postseason).''
You may also end up with one of the toughest tickets around come district tournament time. The Eastern District boys basketball tournament could become the high school equivalent of the ACC basketball tournament. It could become big enough to move out of the standard high school gymnasiums and play at Hampton University's new convocation center.
Beyond football and basketball, there are other sports that will become more balanced at the regional tournament level. Kecoughtan has historically fielded highly competitive boys soccer and baseball teams. The same could be said of the girls basketball teams at Phoebus and Hampton.
So the successes of those programs almost guarantees that the Eastern District's habit of one-and-out in boys soccer, baseball and girls basketball regional play will end. The Norfolk schools combined to win one regional playoff game this year in those three sports. Now they can do one of two things - get better or get waxed.
What remains of the Peninsula District will absorb Nansemond River and Lakeland, if those schools qualify for Group AAA classification. The two Suffolk schools already are accustomed to traveling across the James River for competition. While in the Bay Rivers District, Nansemond River and Lakeland played Bruton, Poquoson and York. Their new set of district foes will actually be closer.
``That's not bad,'' said Lakeland principal William Hill. ``If that's the way it winds up being, I don't mind.''
And with the popularity of the new Disney animated feature, maybe officials will name it the Pocahontas District. ILLUSTRATION: Map
by CNB