Although most of us are still in football mode, high school basketball started last night, at least in our area. Seems like it starts earlier every year.......
In the only (reported) game involving a Shenandoah District team, Waynesboro edged past Stuarts Draft 66-64. I could not tell from that score or from the box score if SD is going to go hog wild again this year with the Grinnell offense or if they have perhaps abandoned that idea this year.
More games are on tap later this week for various teams, and then I suppose next week, the first full week of December, will have an even larger slate. So it is therefore time for my never-been-wrong prediction for the district standings.
Good thing that East Rock is headed for the Bull Run after this year, because I see them as being top dogs in basketball also, after they have just ruled the football field all season. So let them have it this year, thanks mainly to Mr. Jefferson, and then maybe things will even out after that.
I see Lee, or the last incarnation of the Leemen I should say, in the number two spot. They lost quite a lot but they will re-build just on tradition and on the strength of last year's JV team, which I believe went undefeated. The long-haired hippie kid (not being smart, just descriptive) was the best player on the team for them last year and I expect him to be a force for the Leemen this year.
I then see a four-way middle of the pack between Riverheads, Stuarts Draft, Wilson, and Page County. They could finish in any order.
To give you some insight into my Gladiators, since I guess the word will be out soon enough, we will have a good news/bad news situation in Greenville this season. The good news is that I understand we finally have a much needed "big man." I know nothing more than that, other than he is a transfer student from another state.
But in the bad news department, and I would almost put it in the devastating category, the word is out that Braeson Fulton, a two-time all-state performer, who would have only been a JUNIOR this year, is sitting out basketball this season, and perhaps even permanently, because his future dreams lie in baseball and he wants to concentrate on that.
I don't have a personal acquaintance with the kid and therefore it is not my place to second-guess his decision, but from purely a fan standpoint, I am shocked and disappointed. He is/was one of the most fundamentally sound and intensely competitive kids I have ever seen on the court at Riverheads and we would have been a VERY strong team the next two years with him on the floor.
Not only that, but he would have hit his 1,000th career point by the halfway point of this season and would have even had a chance to eventually become RHS' all-time leading scorer. But all indications are that the decision is final and it is what it is. The Big Red will be decent to very good without him, but with him.........oh well.............what can you say?
As for the other three middle of the packers, all of them battle hard each year and it is just too hard to separate them until we start seeing some game results.
That leaves a bottom three of Luray, Buffalo Gap, and Stonewall. I will put them in that order, at least for the moment, and that is based almost entirely on them finishing low on the totem pole last year. I will be as happy as the next guy if any of the three can move up the ladder this year.
So there you have it.......enjoy your first tip-offs when they occur and the rest of us will join you after football season is over.
In the only (reported) game involving a Shenandoah District team, Waynesboro edged past Stuarts Draft 66-64. I could not tell from that score or from the box score if SD is going to go hog wild again this year with the Grinnell offense or if they have perhaps abandoned that idea this year.
More games are on tap later this week for various teams, and then I suppose next week, the first full week of December, will have an even larger slate. So it is therefore time for my never-been-wrong prediction for the district standings.
Good thing that East Rock is headed for the Bull Run after this year, because I see them as being top dogs in basketball also, after they have just ruled the football field all season. So let them have it this year, thanks mainly to Mr. Jefferson, and then maybe things will even out after that.
I see Lee, or the last incarnation of the Leemen I should say, in the number two spot. They lost quite a lot but they will re-build just on tradition and on the strength of last year's JV team, which I believe went undefeated. The long-haired hippie kid (not being smart, just descriptive) was the best player on the team for them last year and I expect him to be a force for the Leemen this year.
I then see a four-way middle of the pack between Riverheads, Stuarts Draft, Wilson, and Page County. They could finish in any order.
To give you some insight into my Gladiators, since I guess the word will be out soon enough, we will have a good news/bad news situation in Greenville this season. The good news is that I understand we finally have a much needed "big man." I know nothing more than that, other than he is a transfer student from another state.
But in the bad news department, and I would almost put it in the devastating category, the word is out that Braeson Fulton, a two-time all-state performer, who would have only been a JUNIOR this year, is sitting out basketball this season, and perhaps even permanently, because his future dreams lie in baseball and he wants to concentrate on that.
I don't have a personal acquaintance with the kid and therefore it is not my place to second-guess his decision, but from purely a fan standpoint, I am shocked and disappointed. He is/was one of the most fundamentally sound and intensely competitive kids I have ever seen on the court at Riverheads and we would have been a VERY strong team the next two years with him on the floor.
Not only that, but he would have hit his 1,000th career point by the halfway point of this season and would have even had a chance to eventually become RHS' all-time leading scorer. But all indications are that the decision is final and it is what it is. The Big Red will be decent to very good without him, but with him.........oh well.............what can you say?
As for the other three middle of the packers, all of them battle hard each year and it is just too hard to separate them until we start seeing some game results.
That leaves a bottom three of Luray, Buffalo Gap, and Stonewall. I will put them in that order, at least for the moment, and that is based almost entirely on them finishing low on the totem pole last year. I will be as happy as the next guy if any of the three can move up the ladder this year.
So there you have it.......enjoy your first tip-offs when they occur and the rest of us will join you after football season is over.
