07 FLUVANNA COMES OF AGE
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Center Stage Mamadi Diakite leads Blue Ridge’s resurgence PAGE 13
VOL 6. ISSUE 8 :: DECEMBER 17, 2014
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x’s and o’s 21 07 13
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NOT SO QUIETLY How a dunk goes from local to national
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TAKING FLIGHT Fluvanna girls look to take next step
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BUILDING THE REPUTATION Blue Ridge reloads with Diakite
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GAME TIME Charlottesville boys edge Albemarle
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THE LETTER OF THE LAW Technical fouls for dunking?
VOL 6. ISSUE 8 :: DECEMBER 17, 2014
Center Stage VOL 6 . ISSUE 8 :: DECEMBER 17, 2014
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07 FLUVANNA COMES OF AGE
Mamadi Diakite leads Blue Ridge’s resurgence PAGE 13
S TA F F Bart Isley, Creative Director Bob Isley, Infrastructure Director Ryan Yemen, Creative Editor O N T H E COV E R Blue Ridge’s Mamadi Diakite M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T Local sports are the lifeblood of every community in America, and we’re here to reach beyond the basics and give compelling accounts about Central Virginia athletes to our readers. CO N TAC T U S [ e ] info@scrimmageplay.com [ p ] 434-249-2032
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PREGAME
December drive William Monroe’s Keegan Woolford tries to drive past Madison County’s Dre Twyman. The Dragons edged the Mountaineers 43-40 in the first of the rivalry games to start December. While the season is still young, a few solid rivals have gone at it already on the boys side, including Charlottesville and Albemarle. To read more about the Black Knights’ big road win over the Patriots, flip over to page 19. ✖ (Photo by John Berry)
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Orthopedics
First Quarter
Not so quietly
STAB’s Montgomery-DeLaurier goes national... with help By Bart Isley
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St. Anne’s Montgomery-DeLaurier squares up for a shot against Blue Ridge. (Ashley Thornton)
{ MORE THAN DUNKS } Montgomery-DeLaurier is no one trick pony. Here’s his line just a few weeks into the season.
22.8
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y now you’ve probably seen the dunk that St. Anne’s-Belfield junior Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier unleashed against Collegiate Friday, December 16. If you haven’t, Google and type in “Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier dunk” and search.
ESPN and Bleacher Report are the top the results. At 77,000 views and counting on YouTube as of December 16, you don’t want to miss out. While the dunk is just fantastic and emblematic of the already highly-regarded MontgomeryDeLaurier’s incredible start to 2014-2015, how it became a viral hit in just a couple of days is equally interesting. It’s also a testament to a supportive environment at STAB and the relentlessness of one videographer. “I’m getting texts nonstop throughout the day,” said STAB boys basketball coach Brian Kent. “He’s watching the stats all day.” “He” is Anand Prahash, a junior who has emerged as St. Anne’s-Belfield’s sports video czar, creating movies along with his friend Trevor Chase of the various athletics teams and compiling them as highlight packages often with some serious music, inventive camera angles, wireless microphone footage, the works. That all started because Prahash felt like three people shooting still pictures for the yearbook at a football game was too much of the same thing. “I never really liked being the guy who was doing what everybody else was doing, so I switched my camera to video,” Prahash said. He hasn’t stopped since. They’ve developed seasonal montages featuring each sport from fall, winter or spring that have found an audience during community forum time at STAB and he and Chase even completed a non-sports documentary project about STAB’s Silver Lining Blood Drive. Prahash is self-taught, picking up the skills he needed through trial and error and simply continuing to work hard at mastering the software and the tools of the trade. He also had significant encouragement from a lot of different people, specifically several faculty members at STAB.
“They really realized the potential in me and helped me see that I could take this to the next level,” Prahash said. Which all brought Prahash and a bunch of sports fans across the nation together in mid-December. Prahash himself didn’t really realize what a spectacular play it was until after the game when classmates started telling him he had to get the play on YouTube right away. Someone who was taking statistics for Collegiate also stepped in and explained some of the process to get a play on ESPN.com as he’d done so during the fall. With a little bit of guidance in hand, Prahash just took things and ran with it. “He was on a mission,” Kent said. “He had the video done two hours after the game. Once it hit Bleacher Report it just got crazy.” It found its way to Bleacher Report after a social media assault that started with Prahash’s personal account. That web widened to include VantageHoops.com, Scrimmage Play and STAB alum and St. Louis Rams defensive end Chris Long. Around 11 a.m. Monday morning, Bleacher Report picked it up and it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. From there Prahash, his friends and the STAB community turned their sights on ESPN, reaching out in a variety of ways, including posting it on any and all ESPN Facebook posts. An ESPN employee eventually asked for permission to use the video and it was on the site’s homepage by Wednesday. “It’s a very daunting task and we just kept harassing them,” Prahash said. “It’s all about not relenting. You have to get it out there.” Mission accomplished. ✖
go online »
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College Update
We’ve gone digital
Former Fluco heating up for Highlanders as a junior
But you can have it in print too!
By Bart Isley The first thing that a lot of coaches and teachers said when Fluvanna County’s YaYa Anderson chose to accept a scholarship offer and join Radford’s basketball program was that it was a really great fit. Anderson himself clearly felt that way, or he wouldn’t have headed to Southwest Virginia. He should keep trusting his gut, because things are working out well for him as a Highlander. Radford sits just above .500 right now despite a challenging out-of-conference schedule, and that record already includes a signature win, a 68-66 victory over ACC foe Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Anderson scored nine points in the win, hitting three of his six 3-point attempts while playing 24 minutes against the Hokies off the bench. He buried all three attempts with an electric first half that was perfect — 3 for 3 from outside. His early sharpshooting helped open things up for 6-foot-7 post player Brandon Holcomb who was 7-for-8 underneath. Then in the closing seconds, when Javonte Green got a piece of the potential game-winning shot by the Hokies on a corner 3-pointer, Anderson dove
on the floor to keep the ball in bounds and the clock ticking toward the buzzer, helping finish off one of the biggest wins in Radford’s history and the program’s first ever victory over an ACC opponent. Anderson is averaging 22 minutes per game this year off the bench as Radford continues its ascent as a program under head coach Mike Jones — the Highlanders tied the record for most victories in a season in 2013-2014. Anderson is hitting 34.5 percent from beyond the arc and posting 5.5 points per game. That’s coming on he heels of his 20132014 sophomore campaign where he hit 82 3-pointers, good for eighth all-time in school history at Radford. He started 34 of 35 games and averaged 11.5 points per game during that year. While his role has changed from the starting lineup to coming off the bench, he’s a vital part of what Radford is trying to do right now, which is win a Big South title. Expect Anderson to continue to step up big in key moments for Radford this year as he continues to prove the Highlanders were an excellent fit for the former Fluvanna star. ✖
BELOW »Fluvanna grad YaYa Anderson is thriving at Radford. (Radford Sports Information)
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Taking Flight STORY BY RYAN YEMEN / PHOTOS BY BOB KENWARD
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Chad White has been waiting patiently at Fluvanna County for this opportunity since the 2009-2010 season when his team won the Jefferson District title . He still has a young team , even an undersized one , but it is deeper now than ever since that run when the Flucos went unbeaten in JD play and made it to the state quarterfinals . For the last few years, White has leaned on the team’s star, Kiana Childress and more recently also counted on Kate Stutz to simply carry the load. It got them to the Region 4A North tournament last year, but with an influx of young speed and some returning supporting cast members from the previous year, the Flucos are hoping to make more noise this season. With four seniors, five juniors, four sophomores and one freshman, this is arguably the best blend of talent and experience White has had in the last five years. And while his team hardly towers over its opponents, it brings athleticism and a desire to play the game at a faster pace than before.
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' Our coaches work on us with skills, but more than anything with the hustle. We want to be the toughest.' -- Kate Stutz 09 :: @scrimmageplay
“We pushed it last year, but really picked our spots in terms of how much we wanted to press depending on the team,” White said. “This year it’s all about the press because we’re finally deeper, we’ve got younger players that can come off the bench and contribute. We’re quicker, more athletic. It’s not that we’ve got bench players, we’ve got reinforcements. It’s about coming in and playing as hard and fast as you can. I’ve been waiting for us to get to this point.” The point White refers to is allowing Childress and Stutz not to have to be the heart and soul offensively. Both are such factors defensively that he wants to lean on those skills — Childress as an excellent ball pressure guard, and Stutz as one of the most underrated post defenders in the JD — and hope the rest of the team can step up offensively. That means counting on Morgan Symmers, a bonafide talent as a goalkeeper in soccer, to now knock down 3-pointers, a freshman in Jemika Johnson to help in the paint and clean up underneath the basket. “It’s been Kate and Kianna for the last few years, and every year they gain more confidence,” White said. “But now with Morgan Symmers we have a style that fits better where we’re getting up and down the floor more. If she’s open, we want her to shoot. She has more confidence now too because she came in as a soccer player. She doesn’t have to worry now about that, she knows we want her shoot. She has that confidence now.” Johnson is a player of interest as just a few years ago she was trying to find her identity. After a huge change in mentality during her eighth grade season on the junior varsity squad, White felt confident enough to give her a chance to play as a freshman at the varisty level. “Jamika, her progression has just been amazing,” White said. “When she was in seventh grade she was weak as water. She had the height and could move but she’s just become a different player. I never thought I’d be able to bring her up as a freshman but she’s already helping out so much. She’s so much more aggressive now. Kate talks about it in practice saying ‘I don’t think people realize how strong she is now.’ That’s amazing to watch that progression.” So much of what White is looking for is mentality, to be able to play with confidence. With Johnson, all he had to do was get her to play on the courts with her family and figure out that she had the proper potential. “I told her that her uncles and cousins are always playing,” White said. “I told her, let them bump you around. She thought I meant get physically stronger but what she learned was that it’s more than that. Really it’s about a state of mind, playing stronger, playing more aggressive.” And aggression is the key. While Symmers’ outside shooting or Johnson’s putbacks are key to the Flucos’ overall success, the message at the end of the day is all about defense. And that starts with Childress in the backcourt and ends with Stutz in the frontcourt. “Points are at a premium in girls basketball,” White said. “You take them any way you can get them. So it’s about
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James Graves is a 3-sport athlete and if you include the weight lifting program he participates in, that’s four. Between football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring and the iron year-round, he doesn’t have a lot of free time. That said, the Mountaineer senior makes time for what actually matters most and that’s making sure he gets into the college he wants to. That means Graves does a lot of juggling. Sporting a 3.89 GPA at Madison, the senior has made sacrifices to make it all work. “Sleep — I don’t get to sleep all that much,” Graves said, who is also avid outdoorsman. Graves is in the Beta Society at Madison as well. In the three sports he plays he’s a key contributor, whether at quarterback in football, as a sniper in hoops, or as a pitcher on the mound. That he’s able to wear so many hats and succeed in the classroom is a testament to the thing his coaches talk about most — he’s simply a hard worker. It’s easier said than done, but Graves makes it look easy, even if he’s not at full rest.
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Above, Morgan Symmers the turnovers. A lot of that is because you might not have the pieces so you need those easy baskets from ball pressure, but to truly be successful you need the pressure and the right pieces. Before we just had to rely on Kate and Kianna to score 85 to 90 percent of the time. We can be different now.” For Childress, getting the chance to play a more up-tempo game is all too welcome. It caters to her skillset, but also the younger talents like sophomore Chaniya Brown help to spell her. Childress can play full tilt on both ends knowing that she has help to get a breather or a break from the occasional foul trouble. “I think a lot of the difference this year is the fun style we get to play now where we’re small, but we’re quick and so we’re using it to our advantage,” Childress said. “I’m trying to be a better leader, make sure I don’t commit the silly fouls on defense. I also try and help the younger girls know where they need to be, what they should be doing.” And if Childress and the complement of guards that White has are the heartbeat of this team, Stutz is the squad’s unsung hero charged with playing safety underneath the basket and guarding the tallest player. On the volleyball court the junior is a celebrated setter. On the hardwood, she’s plays well beyond her height. “I love being able to go against the tallest players,” Stutz said. “It’s a fun challenge. I’m not that tall but our coaches work on us with skills, but more than anything with the hustle. We want to be the toughest, the fastest, the hardest working team.” That only comes with doing all the little things right. In the post, the game is simple, and also easier said than done. “Boxing out the right way is key because you’ll get the over the
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' Last year we took the approach that the regular season was just preparation for the postseason' -- Chad White back calls,” Stutz said. “On the other side, shot wise, it’s all about pump fakes, getting the bigger players off their feet.” So with full-court pressure and Stutz as the back stop for the post play, Fluvanna is looking to build on the progress it made in 2013-2014. While the style is different, the Flucos are trying to take the same attitude as last year when it comes to the Jefferson District slate. “Last year we took the approach that the regular season was just preparation for the post season,” White said. “Everyone makes the postseason now. So we want to do well in the regular season and it’d
Right, Kiana Childress be nice to have the JD trophy, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about Conference 23. We just have to get better everyday and we will by playing the Monticellos and Albemarles and so on.” Fluvanna’s JD schedule was hardly kind starting with a strong Albemarle squad, the vastly improved Orange County, and the defending 3-time JD champs Monticello. While the results may not be in the Flucos favor right now, they’re still ironing out the kinks with the changes they’ve made. “We aren’t shooting right now the way we’d like, but at the same time we’re taking good shots,” White said. “As a coach, you’re never going to get on a kid for missing a good shot. So long as we’re taking the right shot it’ll all come together. We’re only shooting 22 percent right now. Once we shoot 40 percent we’re going to give people something to talk about.” The verdict on this team isn’t about its win-loss total in December, or January. There’s no question that Fluvanna is better on the court this year than they were last year and vastly improved from seasons before that. And come February when the schedule flips over, that should show when the games count most heading into Conference 23 play. A program is never built in a day, but White and Fluvanna are working hard to make it happen over this season. ✖
TEAM SPOTLIGHT WILLIAM MONROE GIRLS BASKETBALL Congratulations to the William Monroe girls basketball team. Not only did they top rival Madison County, but this season they’ve reached out to the future Dragons, including having them play at halftime of one of their games. Bringing attention to youth squads is key in promoting participation as well as keeping a community tight knit. Good Job Dragons!
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building the Re putat i o n Story by Bart Isley ][ photos by ashley thornton 13 :: @scrimmageplay
S
ome elements of Mamadi Diakite’s story, when viewed collectively, make him seem a little like an urban legend, even though each element is true. That tends to happen with obviously gifted athletes, particularly those that check in around 6-foot-10. He cleared 6-foot-2 in the high jump in just his first year of jumping, earning a state runner-up medal for the effort. He altered, re-directed or erased around 30 shots in one of his first big games at Blue Ridge, finishing with 10 blocks on the night against Virginia Episcopal just days after traveling to the United States. He’s earned the first UVa men’s basketball scholarship offer handed out to a player at a local school since Lars Mikaluskus roamed Blue Ridge’s halls. And that was within months of setting foot in America. Those are all true. It’s also true that Diakite smiles a lot, he jokes with teammates and he is, by all accounts, well-liked on Blue Ridge’s campus. But make no mistake. Diakite is a man on a mission and he seems to have found, for him, the perfect environment to get there at Blue Ridge. OFF THE COURT Diakite arrived at Blue Ridge without much knowledge or understanding of the English language. In fact, his only exposure came a month before his arrival, when he took a basic English class. “A month before here, I took an English class and it was pretty good the person teaching me was a really good teacher from Sierra Leone,” Diakite said. But learning the peculiarities or even the very basics of English in just a month is completely unrealistic, and that’s where Blue Ridge’s English Language Learners program came into play, a service that helps jumpstart the school’s international students’ pursuit of English fluency. In less than a year, Diakite has made huge leaps, in part because he was already well-educated. “Mamadi has taken huge strides in assimilating English,” said John Hetzel, who teaches the English Language Learners class. “He has a knack for languages and spoke three languages in Guinea before learning English and some Arabic. He is also fluent in French.” Diakite’s parents are both a part of Guinea’s healthcare industry in different capacities, and Diakite himself is by all accounts a sharp student. “He is alert and focused by and large in class and frequently is a leader in class discussion,” Hetzel said. It didn’t hurt either that Diakite went out of his way to embrace his new environment. Hetzel pointed to his first day at school last winter when he took a photo with the school’s shortest student (he immediately became the tallest obviously when he first checked in) and then unleashed a torrent of fist bumps and high fives to everyone he ran across. “Mamadi literally became part of the fabric of school on his very first day last winter ... by the end of a week he had met virtually every student in school,” Hetzel said. “He has the social skills of an aspiring politician.” For Diakite, it’s a pretty simple formula that’s led to him picking up the language quickly while succeeding in the classroom. He just works at it regularly. “I put the effort in in the classroom and that works really well,” Diakite said with a smile. “Everything is
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clear in my head now.” Still, he had to learn how education worked in America, as the system is quite different from the one he came up in in Guinea according to Diakite. The school’s boarding environment and structure weren’t an easy adjustment out of the gate, but he’s found his footing there about as quickly as he did on the court. “If you want to study, or you want your kid to study, bring him here,” Diakite said. “He will study, he’ll put an effort in. But I’ll tell you the truth, it’s not easy. You have a lot of homework, they don’t care if you’re playing basketball or not, you’re a student. You’ve got to study.” IN PRACTICE
“We don’t play zone, we think zone is for lazy people” -- Diakite
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It’s hard not to get swept up by Diakite’s breathtaking talent on the court. He’s a legitimate 6-foot-10 which is eye-catching to start with. Then he jumps. And it isn’t like when other tall people jump. There’s an immediacy to his movement, like when Thor or Iron Man lift off in Marvel’s movies. Diakite just explodes off the ground. “I’ve never seen that combination of how quick he is off his feet and the length,” said Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey. “He’s got a lot that he can do, he’s just got to work his way through some growing pains.” The growing pains are important to note because that’s where his environment is intersecting perfectly with what Diakite needs to work on, to develop. In addition to Ramsey, who has tutored a number of big men over the years who played Division I basketball and has also navigated the recruiting waters that Diakite is currently treading, former Longwood assistant coach and UVa player Cade Lemcke came on staff for the Barons this year. Lemcke, who serves as the associate head coach in charge of player development, ran offseason individual skill development for everyone on the roster. Diakite also pointed at playing soccer this fall for the Barons (a follow up act to his work in the spring in the high jump that nearly earned him a state championship) as a big help in his development, particularly on the offensive end. “In practice i was going harder than in games because I wanted to work on my footwork,” Diakite said. “It really helps whether I’m playing face-up or (with my back to the basket) working against my man.” The Barons’ coaching staff has followed up that productive offseason with an intense start to the year, with hard-nosed practices that test the entire roster every day. The Barons can go at it and truly put into practice the iron sharpens iron philosophy. “The coaches talk about defense first -- we don’t play zone, we think zone is for lazy people,” Diakite said. “So we play one-on-one, really aggressive, press defense on the entire court. During practice everything is like that.” ON THE COURT One big reason that those practices are that intense? A veritable flood of players came to Blue Ridge behind Diakite. Often when a player of Diakite’s pedigree arrives at a private school, particularly in basketball, but sometimes in football like when Christian Hackenberg was at Fork Union, a wave of players will follow who want to play with that supreme talent. Whether it’s because it’s a chance to test yourself against him in practice,
SUPPORTING THE FUTURE SPORTS STARS OF TOMORROW Best of luck to our 2013 student athletes as they embark on their college careers. Maiah Bartlett Miles Davis Blissie DuBose Will Eppard Tyler Gimple Will Grossman Allie Nicholson Lloyd Smith Stewart Staunton Aaron Stinnie Catherine Towers
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play with him in games to reach a higher level or because Diakite is going to bring in college coaches in droves, people want to play with him. Throw in Ramsey’s established connections and Lemcke’s own network, and it led to a wave of talent that includes speedy, fearless point guard Malik Johnson, smooth wing man Scott Spencer and former Fluvanna big man Aamir Sims. That influx of big-time players is a huge help to Diakite too. For one, he doesn’t have to be on the floor the entire time. Blue Ridge is about as deep as any team in the state and one of the deepest locally in recent memory. Player after player who can contribute and make plays seems to come off the bench with a pack of combo guard types like captain Noah Brooks providing a defensive spark or Afanna Offor knocking down 3-pointers or Josh Colon and Sasha Yadrishchenskiy making plays. Juan Porta could also return from injury later this year to give the Barons yet another backcourt piece. Diakite also now has someone to challenge him in practice. Simms is the only other true post player on the roster at 6-foot-8, and he’s pretty adept at stepping out on the wing too. His post game is seeing some immediate development because he’s working against Diakite each day in practice. “I better myself off of him and he betters himself off of me,” Simms said. “We feed off each other.” Simms has also been able to aid in Diakite’s transition to the American game as far as what is going to be called by officials. Diakite is a work in progress on the fouls front, but some of that isn’t his fault, and Simms is here to help. “That stuff is legal where he’s from, I can help with controlling your cool because referees in Virginia are calling it differently,” Simms said. “And I used to do the same thing.” So with some guidance and some serious running mates, yet another piece has fallen into place for Diakite.
“I better myself off of him and he betters himself off of me” -- Simms
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PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Despite the seismic impact he’s had on Blue Ridge’s basketball team and the state’s basketball community, Diakite isn’t overly serious or too locked in to notice what’s happening around him. “Mamadi succeeds at being very intense about his basketball, but is a laid back and friendly character at school,” Hetzel said. That intensity showed when he blew up on the summer AAU circuit, testing himself against some of the nation’s best and building a lot of buzz in the process. “I love playing against them,” Diakite said. “I thought they were really monsters like LeBron James because the media was talking about them and I’d see a lot of mixtapes and I was like ‘wow, this guy would kill me.’ And then I play against them and a lot of them I think I have more skill than them. But maybe people are saying I just got here so you’ve got to work harder.” Clearly Diakite is set on doing that and if he stays the course, he’s found an environment, teammates and coaches that are conducive to him reaching any goal he wants to attain. “Uniquely, he’s a really hard worker on and off the court,” Ramsey said. “He’s handling the boarding school life tremendously.” And each one of those goals will keep stoking the flames of what already looks like an urban legend, but is unequivocally the real deal. ✖
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Game Time Charlottesville 55, Albemarle 46 By Luke Nadkarni
Charlottesville’s Jordan Saylor had 14 points in his team’s win on the road against Albemarle. (Ashley Thornton)
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It doesn’t matter the sport — any time Charlottesville and Albemarle get together, it’s going to be an intense, passionate contest from both sides. Friday night showcased the two rivals on the hardwood, and in front of a packed house on the road, the Black Knights pulled out a 55-46 victory after squandering a 17-point second half lead to improve to 5-0 on the season. A 14-0 run turned a 25-22 halftime lead into a 39-22 CHS advantage midway through the third quarter, highlighted by a pair of three-pointers from Micah Girstantas on consecutive possessions. The burst broke open a tight game, a game that saw neither team lead by more than four points in the first half. The Black Knights led 12-11 after one quarter, and the second quarter was largely the same tug-of-war. “They left me open in the corner,” said Girstantas. “That’s all I’m supposed to do -hit open shots.” But the Patriots climbed back into the game just as quickly. They responded with a 12-2 run of their own, punctuated by a coast-to-coast scoop shot from point guard Kennedy Brown to trim the lead to 41-34 near the end of the third quarter, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Two free throws from Charlottesville’s Kendell Dennis pushed the Knights’ margin to nine after three. For the game, the Knights shot 19-of-32 from the line, compared to a 17-of-26 output for the Patriots. Albemarle continued to storm back, forcing turnovers on Charlottesville’s first four possessions of the second half. With his team trailing by three, Brown took advantage of a mistake by Girstantas, who fouled Brown as he attempted a tying three-pointer from the corner. Brown made the first two free throws, but missed the third. Patriots sophomore big man Austin Katstra, who led
his team with a game-high 16 points and 14 rebounds, grabbed the loose ball, got fouled and made one of two to knot the game at 45 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining. “Albemarle made a good run,” Charlottesville head coach Mitch Minor said. “Towards the end I think we got a couple good traps and a couple good steals, which made a difference.” From there it was all Black Knights. Point guard Jordan Saylor knifed into the lane and fed DeAndre Bryant for a layup to put the Knights on top for good with 1:44 remaining. That began a 7-0 CHS run which all but put the game on ice. A couple possessions after Bryant’s basket, Girstantas swiped an Albemarle inbounds pass and took it for a layup to add to Charlottesville’s cushion. “I thought our inexperience at the guard position at handling pressure like Charlottesville can put on you would be troublesome,” Albemarle head coach Greg Maynard said. “That’s something that’ll be an ongoing process -- we know we’re gonna get pressed a lot.” In total, Charlottesville forced 14 Albemarle turnovers and held the Patriots to just 1-for-15 shooting from beyond the arc, while making 4-of-11 three-pointers themselves. “We want ball pressure. It doesn’t matter whose man it is -- we get up on the ball tough,” Minor said. “Even though [Albemarle] got into the lane a couple times I thought we did a pretty good job of helping each other out.” In addition to Katstra, Jake Hahn was the other Patriot to score in double figures with 11 before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, and Myles Adams-Yates chipped in eight. For Charlottesville, Saylor led the way with 14, followed by Girstantas with 11 and Tyreek Ragland with nine.✖
See a photograph you like? Defensive stand Warriors goalie has more than one trick | By Ryan Yemen
At Scrimmage Play we pride ourselves on offering the best possible graphics Two years ago the Western Albemarle boys to Shin, who doubles as a Junior National Judo soccer team get was fueled its underclassmen medalist, we can our byhands on, in both our but has developed into one of the with sophomores and freshman bearing the area’s most versatile goalkeepers. magazine as well as at our website at brunt of the work load. The netminder has shown he’s capable of Now two years later, forwards Aaron Myers making big saves, particularly in the team’s www.scrimmageplay.com and Alex Nolet, as well as senior defender two ties. In the first game of the season, Tom Rogers are all in their senior seasons and looking to earn a Region II bid, something that Orange County snatched away from them in the Jefferson District semifinals last season. After the first month of play, the Warriors seem to have the defensive side of the equation figured out and junior goalkeeper Kai Shin is a big part of that. Before Western went on its spring break, none of its four opponents were able to score more than once, a testament to the team’s play in the middle of the field, but also a nod
Shin endured wave after wave of Albemarle attack, but stood tall and showed no rust in the 1-1- tie. But while Shin’s on the field because he can make stops, his strong leg has also been of great use as he’s able to easily clear the zone but also spark fast breaks all by himself. The Warriors averaged a little over two goals per contest before the break, but if that average starts to increase, don’t be surprised if it’s because of Shin’s ability to contribute to the transition game. ✖
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Western Albemarle’s Kai Shin hauls in a shot during his team’s 1-1 tie with Albemarle that kicked off the soccer season for both squads. (Frank Crocker)
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Overtime
The letter of the law Examining the techinal foul for pregame dunking
Think about it this way for a second. First, if your job is to enforce the law, do you let certain people off the hook if they do something that is technically against the law, but seems silly? It’s an interesting rabbit hole to go down, because really, whether a law seems outdated, or stupid, it was put there in place for a reason. Not to mention, we all don’t agree on a person-to-person basis, what laws fit in that category — so that is to say that if you were to let someone slide you’re putting your own personal interpretation of the law into the play, and once that starts happening things get messy. Now think about the conversation that’s bubbled up in collegiate sports where Tennessee Tech beat the University of Florida 82-80. There’s outcry that the NCAA needs to update its rule book because the Golden Eagles started the game with a 2-0 advantage before tipoff because of a technical foul handed to the Osprey’s for dunking during warmups. High school players and fans know this rule well and every year someone gets caught doing something that they, by the letter of the law, aren’t supposed to be doing — or they can but there are consequences. So is this a stupid rule that needs to go? Before you make a final judgment consider a couple of things first. Let’s remember that dunking period, whether during warm-ups or in the game, was banned from the sport. That sounds archaic, but so does playing without a 3-point line. Basketball is not baseball in that regard. The game is still evolving. But getting back to the technical fouls administered for pregame dunking, let’s start with why this rule is in place in either college or high school. It was not too long ago that players didn’t have the benefit of playing with breakaway rims (the mechanism that allows the rim to bend down). Not too long ago a dunk could easily bend one of those fixed rims. Not too long ago a dunk on a fixed rim could easily break the hand of the dunker. So from a player safety standpoint and a sheer maintenance point of view (changing a rim takes a lot of time) it seems logical that teams could go without dunking during warm-ups. So that’s the spirit of the rule. It’s not in place to punish players and fans. But that’s certainly how the no-dunking rule is perceived now. When the rule was first put in place, no committee back then could have imagined how important and stirring dunking would become in the sport. I’d argue that a dunk has a larger impact on the game than any other play because basketball is the one sport where the crowd has a pretty direct effect on the product on the floor. When a crowd is electric it is both inspiring for one side, and intimidating for another. Dunks in warm-ups get the home team’s fans amped up. Conversely, if you’re in someone else’s gym, it can scare a crowd, let them know what they can expect. A nasty dunk from the visiting team has a pretty funny way of shutting people up. So maybe we’re a bit selfish as fans in wanting this anti-dunking rule thrown out. That said, these games aren’t free and at the end of the day, the fans are there to be entertained. Now if the rule was removed, what do you think a coach might do about pregame dunking, because we all know it’d be rampant and at the high school level, kids would take much greater risks in trying to pull off something special. When one of those players gets hurt, you can bet the bank that a coach would put in their own no-dunking during warm-ups policy and we’d be right where we are now.
22 :: @scrimmageplay
“There’s an unspoken rule that you can dunk early on in warm-ups, but not at the end.” Now, even though the rule is in place and gets enforced every once in a while, we all know full well just how much dunking actually occurs before the game. Players know when the officials are on the court and they stop. Every once in a while they get caught or maybe an official gets a bit over zealous in trying to catch a team in the action — but for the most part, there’s an unspoken rule that you can dunk early on in warm-ups, but not at the end. The officials know it’s going on, they can hear the fans going crazy before games. Most of time they are letting the players and fans get hyped, staying off the court and hanging out in the locker room. In that sense, they’re trying to make the best of both worlds. I think what we have in place right now works. It’s not perfect but nothing ever is when it comes to rules in sports and enforcing them. ✖
Ryan Yemen
CRE ATIVE EDITOR
back talk »
What are your thoughts on the outlawing of pregram dunks? Email: ryan@scrimmageplay.com
Success stories begin here.
Success Story: Cardale Jones Cardale Jones wasn’t supposed to be the man at quarterback for Ohio State until Braxton Miller graduated or left for the NFL — whichever came first. That’s part of why the Ohio-native came to Fork Union back in 2011, to put some distance between himself and Miller as far as eligibility goes once he arrived in Columbus. He also needed to iron out some academic habits, and FUMA provided the structure and tools to get that done. Jones, after a couple of hiccups after arriving at OSU, got things on the right track and this year, when his number was called, he was ready to rise to the occasion. When Miller went down with
an injury in August, backup J.T. Barrett, a redshirt freshman, got the nod and stepped in and played extremely well for the Buckeyes and worked himself into the conversation for the Heisman Trophy. But when Barrett fractured his ankle in late November, it was up to Jones, now a sophomore who entered fall camp as the number three quarterback, to deliver in the Big Ten Championship game. He was nearly flawless, torching Wisconsin 59-0 while throwing for 375 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Now he’ll face Alabama in the first round of the college football playoffs on an even bigger stage for a chance to play in the national title game. Yet another test for Jones. One he’ll surely be ready for.
Fork Union Military Academy is the leading Christian military boarding school for boys in grades 6 - 12 and PG. www.forkunion.com — 1-800-GO-2-FUMA