THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607030219
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATTI WALSH, CLIPPER SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 52 lines
SOME OF THEIR black and white uniforms have numbers. Some don't.
Some of them played basketball for Great Bridge last season. Some didn't.
Their one common thread: They're a part of the first varsity team at Hickory High School, the new school which doesn't open its doors until September.
And the Hickory girls basketball team is doing more than just putting bodies on the court in the 4th annual Rising Stars Summer League at Princess Anne High School.
The Hawks are putting wins in the scorebook. Hickory is off to a 3-2 start, for fourth place in the Water League - a league that boasts area powers like Kempsville, Princess Anne, Salem and Churchland.
``The neat thing abut Hickory joining the league was that I was two teams short at the last minute,'' league director and former Princess Anne coach Brian Miller said. ``Menchville and Norfolk Collegiate were supposed to be on board but they couldn't get the commitment.
``It was actually (Great Bridge coach) Ro Moore's initiative to go ahead and split the team in half.''
The opening of Hickory and the graduation of four seniors - three of whom were starters - has left Great Bridge to rebuild after a 17-5 finish in the 1996 season. Moore thought it would be to Hickory's and Great Bridge's benefit if the teams started working out together during the summer, rather than keep the Wildcats team intact for one last go-round.
``At the time, no coach had been named (at Hickory),'' Moore said. ``We had such a big turnout for summer league at Great Bridge and I didn't want any of the girls to be left out. I thought it would be good if we could go ahead and get two teams so they could start working with their groups.''
The split has left the Wildcats' feeder system dry - only two players from the Great Bridge Middle School team will attend the high school and most of the junior varsity team is headed to Hickory as well - in a year when Great Bridge could've taken back its status as a Southeastern District perennial power. Two-time regular season champion Churchland will compete in the Eastern District next season.
``Hickory and Great Bridge combined,'' Miller said, ``they would have been awesome.''
But that's not going to happen, leaving Moore in an unenviable position of watching the players she's groomed take the court for another school.
``I wish them all the best,'' said Moore, who frequents the Princess Anne gym to watch ``her girls'' play for Hickory and Great Bridge. ``They're going to be very competitive. There's a lot of good athletes going over there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MIKE HEFFNER
Hickory High School's basketball team takes to the court in a Rising
Stars summer league game at Princess Anne High School. by CNB