BSH honors championship basketball team’s legacy

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

Past and present collided in the gym of the Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot Knights on Feb. 4. With the Knights of today leaving the floor at halftime in a matchup against the Fuqua Falcons, athletic director Chuck Thomas turned the attention to members of the 1973 Huguenot Academy Rebels, who were celebrated for their VAAC championship season from 50 years ago.

The Rebels were honored with a new championship trophy that is to be included in the school’s planned Hall of Fame, as well as a plaque honoring the team’s legendary head coach Jim Davidson, who passed away in 1979 due to brain cancer at the age of 33.

The halftime recognition was followed by a reception in the school’s library, where former teammates, school cheerleaders and rivals from opposing schools came together to reminisce about the historical moment forever etched in the school’s history.

The championship run was a storybook finish for the Rebels, who the year prior fell to Surry Academy by two points in the tournament finals. Losing key seniors and needing multiple players to step up, Davidson and his balanced, depth-laden group charged forward with just three losses by a combined six points and a revenge victory over Surry in the tournament semifinals to set up a meeting with Isle of Wight, the eastern region division champions.

Isle of Wight was one of the three teams to defeat Huguenot that season. They wouldn’t be able to do it a second time, and the Rebels would be named the VAAC conference champions in boys varsity basketball for the first time in school history with a 55-46 win. It was the first of three titles under Davidson in his five-year coaching tenure, with the team also winning in 1974 and 1975.

The celebration was sparked by a desire to tie the histories of Huguenot Academy and Blessed Sacrament Huguenot together in a more concrete fashion. Huguenot Academy merged with Blessed Sacrament at Belmead in 1998, and Paul Mitchell, a former Huguenot Academy student-athlete who put the event together, likens the previous relationship of the two schools to a divorce.

Mitchell has assumed the role of a local historian since he retired, spending time gathering old newspaper clippings, replacing trophies that were previously discarded at the school and tracking down the surviving members of the Rebels team to bring them back to their old stomping grounds.

“Trophies can be replaced, they’re replicable,” Mitchell said. “We need to right this wrong.”

Malkerson’s other individual event against Hanover was in the 200-meter individual medley, where he finished in 2:30.89, placing second just behind Hanover freshman Colin Eliason (2:25.88).

Eliason later won the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 59.01 seconds, just ahead of senior teammate Ben Morgan and his 59.50-second finish.

Powhatan’s other big win came from freshman Elizabeth Vallent, who pulled out a close first place finish against Hanover senior Cere Duplissey (5:06.08) with a time of 5:04.31. Earlier in the day, Vallent also finished second behind Hawks junior Jordyn Dillard, who cruised to a 2:36.83 time that was just past her seed time by 0.18 seconds.

Aside from those wins, Hanover seemed to be in complete control in both individual and relay events.

In the boys and girls 200-meter medley relays that started early in the meet, the results prove eerily similar, with Hanover’s top quartet of swimmers just pulling in front late in the race to win. Hanover’s boys team won with a time of 2:06.99, just ahead of Powhatan’s admirable 2:07.44 finish. Hanover’s girl relay team placed first with a final time of 2:21.13, again giving the team a remarkably close finish against Powhatan, who finished in 2:22.26.

Performances like senior Nathaniel Eliason’s 25.63-second mark in the 50-meter freestyle or Campbell Derrico’s 100-meter freestyle time of 1:04.01 had challengers like Powhatan’s Brandon Vallent or Hayden Russell close behind, but the Hanover swimmers were able to claim the wins at the end of the day, and take some significant confidence into their quest for regional glory in the process.