SPORTS SPOTLIGHT
HOW THE SMLCA BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM SHOOK VACA TO WIN ITS FIRST STATE TITLE By William Seidel
A
team’s first state title is always a memorable one, but the one for the Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy (SMLCA) boys basketball was improbable
in many ways.
game would pick the Ospreys as a threat to win the VACA State Championship at the beginning of the year with the turnover they had, even during a season impacted by the COVID-19 virus.
Here is what SMLCA had stacked up against them: the loss
Yet the Ospreys (No. 3 seed) took down Westover Christian
of nine seniors from last year’s state semi-finals team, opposing
Academy (No. 5 seed), 40-36, in February to win their first
schools returning many of their key players, and no offseason to
state championship in program and school history.
build chemistry with their new team.
“I think if everyone would’ve guessed, they would’ve had us
Simply put, nobody with respectable knowledge of the
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at the fourth or fifth spot of the VACA and maybe even lower,”