THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605140098
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
BASKETBALL in the spring?
It's happening in Norfolk's middle schools right now.
More significant, on April 19, boys and girls basketball tipped off the first interscholastic sports competition in Norfolk middle school history.
That's just the start as more sports are in the works at the city's eight middle schools. Next year, wrestling, girls and boys soccer, and girls volleyball will be added. Football is on the future agenda, as are field hockey, softball and baseball.
The hope is that the addition of middle school sports programs will make the athletes that much more fundamentally sound, on the playing field and off, by the time they reach high school and create a feeder system that's already in place for Virginia Beach and Chesapeake high schools.
``We want to take our athletic programs to another level,'' said Bert Harrell, Virginia High School League coordinator for the Norfolk schools. ``We want to train our athletes as 12-year-olds, not 16-year-olds. The biggest thing is a change in attitude. They listen at 12. Many times by the time these kids are 16, we've already lost the battle.''
Northside Middle School assistant coach Amanda Evans said many on her team never had touched a basketball before this season. Seventh-grader Shannon Peele said she had no basketball experience before April.
``It feels real good. I like to go out there as a team,'' said Peele. ``My team encourages me on my foul shots and layups.''
Peele said before she began playing basketball, the bulk of her spare time was spent watching television.
Northside's Sherina Hibbler previously played rec basketball but says, ``This is better because I get to play with all my friends.''
Her buddy Patrice Johnson agrees, adding she was often prone to get into fights during rec ball.
``Here they have security so it's safe,'' she said.
Granby girls basketball coach Berdell Wilson regards middle school sports as ``the best thing that's happened for girls basketball since they decided to put girls basketball in the high schools.'' Like Harrell, Wilson is hoping the addition of the sports will put Norfolk high school teams on a level playing field with Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
Earlier this year, the Norfolk schools began working in that direction by offering clinics to coaches at the community, recreational and high school levels. Clinics, teaching the latest strategies and techniques from some of the area's most knowledgeable experts, already have been offered in softball, baseball, football and field hockey. For example, Old Dominion University coach Beth Anders taught the field hockey clinic, and several coaches from the University of Virginia taught football.
Harrell wants every coach in the city to be on the same page.
``We want community league coaches that are going to be feeding Maury to be working with the Maury people from the beginning and so on,'' he said.
While middle school coaches stress fundamentals, they also talk of the importance of maintaining good grades. Although all the requirements haven't been hashed out yet - middle schools principals are in the process of forming a league - athletes must pass five subjects every nine weeks.
``Kids who weren't passing before turned around and all of a sudden are passing now,'' Northside principal Tim Sweeney said,
Wilson is thrilled at creating that awareness before students reach high school, when grades often keep potential athletes on the sidelines.
Lake Taylor Middle boys basketball coach Jarrell Wilkerson cannot overstate the importance of teaching discipline at an early age. Also a varsity coach at Booker T. Washington, Wilkerson says he'll feel better prepared when kids start coming in for tryouts.
``Now if I know the guy who's coming, I know what I have to teach him,'' he says. ``I'll get to see a potential player a whole lot earlier.''
While Wilkerson says AAU and recreational programs have their benefits, not everyone is able to participate.
``Some kids can't get transportation,'' he says. ``This gets a kid into the system. It helps the total program more.''
That already has happened in Virginia Beach, which Harrell says has the model program Norfolk is mirroring. Beach schools offer 13 sports and have as many as 2,500 kids participating at the middle-school level.
``The program has many strong points,'' said Bill Peachy, coordinator of student activities in Virginia Beach. Peachy said he believes the sports are a deterrent for potential dropouts. ``They give the kids some direction and some goals to live up to. That can make the difference.''
Chesapeake offers girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, and track along with wrestling and football. Portsmouth is without middle school sports, which could create some disparity this fall when the Eastern District absorbs Norcom, Wilson and Churchland high schools as part of a realignment.
Jimmy Williford, specialist for health, physical education and athletics in that city, says Portsmouth does not have the budget to add middle school sports.
``We're looking to expand our intramural program,'' he said.
Granby's Wilson feels that might give Norfolk a slight advantage during high school play.
``Except for maybe Churchland, where they send their girls to (basketball) camp,'' he said. ``I think we'll have a slight edge over Wilson and Norcom.''
Even with just the inclusion of basketball, it's a whole new ballgame for middle school kids not accustomed to activities beyond intramurals. Sweeney overheard his cheerleaders searching for rides to an away game when he assured them they would be taking the bus with the team.
``They just had this look of `Wow!' They're so used to doing the car-pool thing with the recreational league,'' he said. ``The whole thing has had such a great reaction here.''
Game days are either Thursday or Friday afternoon at 4; the boys games follow the girls game one week, and the order is reversed the following week. Recruiting coaches this season wasn't exactly a formal procedure - Harrell expects it to become more regimented as more sports are added - but many of the names aren't unfamiliar to area sports fans. Lake Taylor High varsity coach Teresa Jones also coaches at Lake Taylor Middle. Former Old Dominion player Juanita Etheridge is the girls coach at Lafayette-Winona.
``We got basketball under way on a shoestring,'' Harrell says, although middle school sports will be in next year's budget. Until then, there's nothing fancy inside the city's gyms; without scoreboards and game clocks, often a chalkboard and wristwatch are all that's available.
``Air conditioning would be nice, too,'' noted a parent fanning herself in the sweltering Northside gym during a game last week.
Don't count on that just yet. But cheerleaders, concessions - Snickers, blow pops and soda - and plenty of parental support in the stands are already givens. During a recent Northside-Ruffner girls game, the members of the boys teams avidly displayed their rooting interest and at times voiced their displeasure with the officiating.
``That was three seconds,'' grumbled a Ruffner boys player about a Northside girls player.
``This is way overdue,'' Kathy Cole said as she watched her son, Mark, play ball. ``With city league, there's so many restrictions. I think for football, you have to be a certain weight and age. I think it's better to have it in the schools.''
``You might have some kids who think they're not good enough for JV,'' said Anthony Arrington, who coaches AAU basketball and has a son in middle school. ``I'm for playing school ball. They should have been doing it all along.''
Harrell says the plans call for Norfolk to continue adding a few sports every year. Football, the most expensive of the lot with a $100,000 price tag by Harrell's estimate for the eight schools, still could be a few years away. Because of limited facilities, instituting track is uncertain. But soccer, wrestling and volleyball are budgeted for the fall.
That pleases Harrell. A former football coach at Lake Taylor, he estimates working with hundreds of kids. Some, he says, turned out successful; some are in jail. Others are dead.
``We're dealing with a lot of inner-city ills,'' he says. ``The way to break the pattern is education. Athletics are just an extension of education.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
NEW GAME IN TOWN
CANDICE C. CUSIC
The Virginian-Pilot
[Edward Fonville]
[Lina Brown]
Staff photo by CANDICE C. CUSIC
Eighth-grader Shawna Carr leads the cheering squad from Northside
Middle School in a basketball game against Ruffner.
Staff photos by CANDICE C. CUSIC
From left, Ruffner players Sharon Reeves, Marvell Cuffee and Tiffany
Rouse take a break.
Ruffner fan Betty Clark videotapes the recent boys game against
Northside.
Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Azalea Garden's Travis Matthews, right, attempts to block a Lake
Taylor shot during a recent middle school basketball game at Lake
Taylor.
by CNB