07 ONE AHS ATHLETE’S IMPRESSIVE COMEBACK
scrımmageplay THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SPORTS AUTHORITY
Back to work Western soccer looks to reload after its unbeaten 2014 state title campaign. PAGE 13
VOL 6. ISSUE 13 :: MARCH 19, 2015
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x’s and o’s 21 07 13
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KEEPING THE STATUS QUO Miller girls hoops repeats as champs
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HEALING VARAKSA Coming back from a life threating scare
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SHUFFLING THE DECK Western Albemarle soccer regroups
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GAME TIME Covenant lacrosse edges Blue Ridge
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SIMPLE MANAGEMENT Changes are needed for winter sports
vol 6. issue 12 :: March 19, 2015
Back to work VOL 6 . ISSUE 13 :: MARCH 19, 2015
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07 One AHS AtHlete’S impreSSive cOmeBAck
Western soccer looks to reload after its unbeaten 2014 state title campaign. 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 Western Albemarle’s Aidan Sinclair 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
Kicking it off proper Playing on its new field for the first time, the Miller baseball team waits for senior Jack Morris to round the bases after his sixth inning grand slam against St. Anne’s-Belfield. After making it to the VISAA Division 2 championship game last year, the Mavericks are looking to take the next step and are off to a 3-1 start on the season including a 13-4 win over the Saints, who were the Division 1 runner-up last year. ✖ (Photo by Ashley Thornton)
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Orthopedics
First Quarter
Keeping the status quo Miller rolls to back-to-back state titles with its seniors By Bart Isley
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Lexi Mallory spots up for a jump shot in Miller’s state title championship game. (Ashley Thornton)
{ FAB FOUR} Miller had four different players average double-digit points this year.
MALONEY
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t’s far from a revelation that backcourt chemistry matters in basketball. Guards have to work together. They need to complement each other. And that’s exactly what Lexi Mallory and Lilly Riggleman have done.
In the last two years, they’ve led the Miller girls basketball program to two straight VISAA Division II state titles. “When we have both of them, especially when teams play that 1-2-2 or the 1-3-1 against us we’ve got two kids who can handle it and they’re not going to turn it over a whole bunch,” said Miller coach James Braxton. “And they both can knock down the three, so that’s been really good for us. They’ve been good for us.” Mallory and Riggleman, along with Delaware-bound center Adrienne Darden, were the core holdovers from the 2014 title squad, and the guard tandem emerged as one of the state’s best during that campaign. Little changed this season as they both earned all-state honors and sparked Miller to another championship run. Mallory is a lightning quick, attack-oriented point guard who has grown and matured into a reliable player and does a nice job of getting her teammates involved. She averaged 4.5 assists per game in 2014-2015, to go with 11.5 points per contest. She’s also a defensive force, averaging 3.9 steals in each outing. “She’s invaluable to the team...very versatile,” Riggleman said. “She’s a great point guard, she does her job so well.” Mallory helped incorporate new addition Micah Maloney, a junior who also earned an all-state nod at the end of the year, into the offense in a big way as Maloney averaged 13.1 points per game. Riggleman, who runs the point most of the time when Mallory takes a rest, also played a role in creating the Mavericks’ balanced offense this year. Her knowledge of the offense and ability to get plays started gave the Mavericks an extra dimension and let Mallory really settle in to her own role. “It’s nice to have someone else who
knows where everyone is on the court as a point guard,” Mallory said. “Your pressured but you’re not as pressured because you have someone else who knows what they’re doing and can make smart passes to everyone else.” Four players averaged double figures in scoring on the year, with Riggleman averaging 10.9 points per game herself. Both Riggleman and Abagayle Morrill were efficient threats from beyond the 3-point line at 33-percent shooting each from beyond the arc. But it was on defense that Riggleman really led the way for the Mavericks according to Mallory. “Her fast hands make it so much easier for us to move on defense,” Mallory said. “Her talking and encouragement (on defense) are really helpful.” With the graduation of Rachel Odumu, who headed to Division I Monmouth, from the 2014 title squad, there was something of a leadership vacuum for the Mavericks. That was going to require Riggleman and Mallory to take charge. “This year these kids had to figure out where their niche was and they have,” Braxton said. “Lilly has kind of led us with her scoring and just being strong down the stretch in games and Lexi sets the tempo. It’s been a good mix.” For Braxton, there’s also a pretty significant shared characteristic that’s made Mallory and Riggleman a perfect pair on the floor. “They’re tough,” Braxton said. “They’re mentally tough as well as physically tough. They have a knack for keeping the team together when times are tough.” ✖
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For more basketball coverage head to our website at: www.scrimmageplay.com.
College Update
We’ve gone digital But you can have it in print too!
Former Maverick makes a change to finish up collegiate career By Bart Isley Sometimes a change of scenery can do wonders for a college basketball player. Whether it’s a coaching change, injuries or just a logjam on the depth chart, occasionally a player just needs a new place to get things on track. Apparently Monmouth was just that for Brice Kofane. Kofane was a human pogo stick when he played at the Miller School, forming one of the most imposing frontcourts in Central Virginia history with Hippolyte Tsafack and Marshawn Powell during Kofane’s junior year. Kofane, at 6-foot-8, averaged nearly a double double (12.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game) during his senior campaign with Tsafack still in the fold. He headed to Providence after graduating and redshirted his first year on campus. But head coach Keon Davis left Providence after that season where the Friars finished 14th in the league, which left Kofane to try and carve out his career under a new head coach, former Fairfield head man Ed Cooley. He put together a promising first year,
playing 15.0 minutes per game and averaging 2.7 points and 4.1 rebounds. But as Cooley brought in his recruits, Kofane’s playing time dwindled, though he did step up occasionally including a gritty performance against Butler in February of 2014 during a campaign that ended with a Big East Tournament title for the Friars. After that season, Kofane took advantage of the senior transfer rule that allows seniors to move to another school and bypass the year of sitting out usually required for a Division I transfer, provided the athlete has graduated already and enrolls in a graduate course of study. Kofane headed to Monmouth and the school’s public policy program. On the court, he emerged as a force this year, starting all 33 games while averaging 5.4 points and 5.8 rebounds while leading the Hawks in blocks on the year with 55 total rejections. Obviously, sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Kofane’s switch helped finish his collegiate career on a high note. ✖
BELOW » MSA grad Brice Kofane played at Providence before finishing up at Monmouth. (Monmouth sports information)
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HEALING VARAKSA story bart isley photos ashley thornton
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MICHAEL VARAKSA IS DOING SOMETHING THIS SPRING THAT A LOT OF HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES HAVE DONE THIS SEASON. HE’S SURVIVED THE CUTDOWN PROCESS, EARNING A SPOT AS A JUNIOR ON ALBEMARLE HIGH’S BASEBALL TEAM. HE APPEARS POISED TO CONTRIBUTE, POTENTIALLY IN A VARIETY OF ROLES, INCLUDING AS A LEFT-HANDED RELIEVER AND A SPOT STARTER ON THE MOUND. There are at least 15-20 other guys at nearly 20 schools in Central Virginia that have done the same thing, earning a jersey and the right to represent their school on the diamond. A lot of those players are earning high praise from their coaches too, like Varaksa is doing. “He’s tenacious — he’s a wrestler so he has that mentality,” said Albemarle baseball coach Jimmy Bibb. “Everything he does right now is real fundamental, his swing is really good, there’s no extra movement, he gets his foot down early, he doesn’t take a big stride, he stays back on everything. He’s just getting better.” But few have made the climb that Varaksa has. Fewer still were as sure that this might not be possible a little more than five years ago. Because then, Varaksa wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk, much less run out a ground ball. One night, Varaksa went to sleep, and he thought he’d feel fine in the morning after his legs felt out of whack and he struggled to go to the bathroom. But when he woke up, he could tell something wasn’t right. “I lifted the sheets, stood up, and fell straight to the ground,” Varaksa said. Varaksa, just 11 at the time, tried to move his toes, but it was like they weren’t even there. So he climbed back in bed and called for his brother Joey, then an Albemarle baseball player. The brothers and their younger sister were staying with the Baltes family, close family friends, while their parents, Joseph and Bruns, were on a cruise, the first trip the parents had taken together without the kids in a long time. “I told him I couldn’t feel my legs,” Michael said. Joey responded like any older brother would, immediately grabbing Michael’s toes and accusing him of joking around. “You can’t feel this?” “No, I can’t, I’m serious.” Joey called for John Baltes and then picked up Michael and took him to a couch downstairs. Michael felt fine otherwise, and felt like this was probably some kind of full body cramp or a pinched nerve that they’d suspected when he had some numbness and back pain a few days before his parents left for the cruise. He tried to hydrate, but like the night before, when he thought he’d wake up and feel fine, he couldn’t go to the bathroom. “My friend Jake (Baltes) and I were playing Rock Band and I went to the bathroom and I was in there for like 45 minutes,” Michael said. “I just couldn’t go.” He couldn’t go with his legs out of commission either, and so early in the evening, John Baltes decided Michael needed to go the hospital. Joey carried him to the car.
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“i was just scared... i thought they were going to cut my legs off, i really did. i thought i was going to be paralyzed.” - m.varaksa 09 :: @scrimmageplay
“He looked up at me and said ‘don’t let them put anything in me’ and I couldn’t bust out (in tears) in front of him so I said ‘I’ll do everything I can’ and I went inside… and I haven’t cried like that since our grandma passed away. I was sobbing on the stairs.”Michael, for his part, hated needles, but he was just generally petrified. “I was just scared...I thought they were going to cut my legs off, I really did,” Michael said. “I thought I was going to be paralyzed or they would amputate something because I was just really scared.” It didn’t take long for doctors to jump into action when Baltes and Varaksa arrived at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The on-call physician told Baltes he wanted to give Michael a significant, aggressive track of steroids. Baltes okayed the treatment and it would prove to be the decision that likely saved Michael’s life. Meanwhile, his parents, who’d received a call in their cabin through a circuitous relay to someone on the ship who had traveled with their party and had a cellphone, were desperately trying to get back to Charlottesville. “I was like ‘What do you mean he can’t walk?’” Joseph said. “We’re like ‘Crap, how do we get off this boat?” After 21 hours that included waiting for the boat to dock in Florida and a car drive from Dulles International in Washington to Charlottesville, they arrived in Michael’s hospital room and there wasn’t much that doctors could tell them despite extensive testing that had already been performed. “They had no idea,” Joseph said. “When I got there they told me they were getting intensive care ready because they weren’t sure what was going to happen. They really had no idea.” That meant more testing for Michael, including spinal taps that were so painful that both Joseph and Joey reacted and tried to protect him, leading doctors to force them to leave the room. “I think we were going on 36 hours of no sleep,” Joseph said. “There was no control. In fact, I came to terms with God that night that he was going to take him...I thought he was going to die.” Michael’s fears hadn’t abated either. If anything they’d intensified, but seeing his parents and knowing they were there made him feel safe. Unfortunately, things hadn’t gotten any better. He still had no feeling in his legs, and the doctors were concerned that if it kept rising, it was going to start impacting his ability to breathe. And then it stopped. Almost as quickly as it had started, the disease halted its ascent. The doctors finally identified what it was — acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). ADEM is an extremely rare disease, with between three and six cases per year in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia combined, and it usually follows an infection of some kind. Essentially it’s the body’s immune system trying to attack that infection, but accidentally attacking the nervous system. The current most common treatment is high dose intravenous corticosteroids, which is exactly what the on-call physician opted for out of the gate and that Baltes approved of without
ACADEMIC EDGE
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ALBEMARLE’S AMANDA UDSTUEN
Albemarle’s girls soccer team has been one of the area’s top girls soccer programs over the last few years, and Amanda Udstuen has been a factor in that success as a member of the Patriots’ varsity squad the last three years. “She maintains an excellent balance of striving on the field and in the classroom,” said Albemarle coach Amy Sherrill. “Amanda puts forth maximum effort regardless of the occasion: practice, game, or classroom. She is a delight to have speeding up and down the sideline putting pressure on defenses and causing havoc in the attack.” Udstuen, who has been a solid player in a loaded program, sports a 4.3 GPA and is headed to Virginia Tech. She’s been in a laundry list of clubs, including FAST (Female Athletes Striving Together), Photography, JCL (Junior Classical League), Math Honor Society and Beta. “She exemplifies the role of being a dedicated student athlete,” Sherrill said. (Photo Credit Ali Davison)
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“he was the first one i told when i got home, and he was like ‘good, we’re going to work.” - m.varaksa 11 :: @scrimmageplay
hesitating. Baltes, who passed away shortly after being diagnosed with cancer in 2012 (and full disclosure, played a huge role in the initial development of Scrimmage Play), let Joseph know at some point after things started to get back to normal that he felt guilty about not getting Michael to the hospital sooner. “He apologized that he didn’t get him there sooner,” Joseph said. “And I wouldn’t hear it. I told him John, everyone missed it, but John took it so hard. But I let him know (the steroid decision) saved his life. That was the ticket — that slowed it down.” When Michael started recovering, he got better quickly. In just a few days, he was taking steps. Everything in his lower body was steadily waking back up. “Just the fact that I was able to walk again is a blessing,” Michael said. Soon he was ready to leave, and the rarity of an ADEM diagnosis prompted doctors to take him into a lecture room at the hospital, where medical students peppered him with some questions about his experience. Michael spent most of his time thinking about the meals the doctors in the audience were eating because he was hungry. “I was like ‘I don’t know, I just want a cheeseburger’,” Michael recalled. After a little while on the hot seat, the attending physician then asked Michael to stand up and walk out, that he was being discharged, prompting a cheer from the assembly of doctors. But that was far from the end for Michael. As an avid baseball and football player in addition to having just taken up wrestling before the disease hit, Michael wanted to work back into form and that wasn’t going to be easy. Doctors indicated that he might not ever get back to a place where he could sprint at a full stride. It just happens to be one of the after effects of temporary paralysis and ADEM in particular. So he started with that walking at the hospital. “That was weird,” Michael said. “It felt like I’d never walked before.” And then jogging. “The first time I jogged was terrifying. I thought I was going to collapse,” Michael said. “I was afraid.” Even fielding ground balls wasn’t natural any more for him, a skill he’d been practicing for years.That’s when he started to develop an entirely new way to think about sports. He started by trying to find his ceiling at any particular skill. “I try to figure out what I can do, find that limit and then push past that limit,” Varaksa said. “I think I’ve just gotta keep pushing it.” Slowly, his body started to come back around. By ninth grade, he was starting to regain his more natural form and found some success those first two years on the wrestling mat, but even then, problems persisted. “When he first came out he had a little bit of a problem,” Bibb said. “His arm strength was not that good and his swing was really weak. He had to cheat to catch up with a fastball.” That’s part of what made this year’s tryouts a bit of a nerve wracking experience for Michael. With a brother who’d been
a star for the Patriots, he has a lot of respect for the program. Making the varsity squad meant a lot to him, and he wasn’t sure it was in the cards. “I was worried honestly, during tryouts, there was definitely some doubt in my mind,” Michael said. “But I just thought if I showed them what I could do, if I just kept my head up and learned from my mistakes, maybe I could do it and make the team.” Over the last two years he’s made gigantic strides, and he’s clearly made a believer out of Bibb. Some of that is surely just growing up and natural maturity, but a lot of is the determination to get back what a random, rare disease tried to take away from him. “It’s shocking really,” Michael said. “It’s weird to think (Joey) was on this team not too long ago with all his friends and now I’m on here with all my friends. I’ve known some of these guys since Little League. It’s a cool experience... I want to finish strong.” Based on what he’s already overcome, what he’s already survived, how he’s learned to attack obstacles? That shouldn’t be a problem. ✖
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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Shuffling the Deck Story by ryan yemen | Photos by Ashley thornton
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hey just can’t be as good as they were last year, right? Western Albemarle has put together some great boys soccer teams under coach Paul Rittenhouse over the last decade, but let’s be honest, topping an unbeaten year where the Warriors won the Jefferson District crown, the Conference 29 championship, the Region 3A West tournament and the coup de grace, the Group 3A state title, that’s a tall order. And to try and match or one-up last year (if that’s even possible) when a team graduated it’s back line defense led by Michael Nafzinger and arguably the most prolific scorer that Central Virginia’s seen in Forest White, that’s just not feasible. Or is it?
For whatever reason, whether it’s just the pool of talent, Rittenhouse and his coaching staff’s ingenuity or some combination of the two, Western boys soccer is now always there at the top of the Jefferson District standings. Each year passes and there’s some irreplaceable talent, and each year, somehow the Warriors rise to the occasion. How do you explain Western’s stranglehold as one of the best perennial programs in a sport as fluid as soccer?
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Above, Aidan Sinclair
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“We have to recognize what the different players give us and find the right places for them, but we have to be flexible.” — Rittenhouse
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“Maybe I’m just stubborn but it might also be that our staff is great, we’ve always got great players and we’ve got realistic expectations,” Rittenhouse said. “It’s not quite the cliché of reloading instead of rebuilding, but when you look back historically, almost each year of the last few years we’ve graduated six starters. It’s consistent, but this year we did lose two guys that played for us for four years in Michael and Forest. But the big thing is getting our guys to understand the process. We never try to replicate what we did the previous year.” Part of what makes Western so good under Rittenhouse is that there isn’t necessarily a system in the old fashioned sense of the term. He and assistant coaches Milo Oakland and Brandon Flowers never pigeon hole players into their positions, never draw up a concrete plan saying that the team will play exactly one style. In fact, sometimes it’s quite the opposite. The Warriors are notorious for developing one player at one position with the mindset of moving him elsewhere when the time is right and a replacement is comfortable stepping up into the vacant spot. “We have to recognize what the different players give us and find the right places for them, but we have to be flexible.” Rittenhouse said. “Our system is flexible in terms of the positions, but also in terms of the styles. If we need to be more defensive we try and morph into that team that protects the goal, protects the players and then flexes into something that’s more attack driven. It’s malleable. We’re lucky because we’ve had such smart kids that we don’t have to say, ‘Okay, this is what we do, come hell or high water.’ We spend a fair amount of time turning our players into problem solvers on the field. When you’ve got smart players they can learn to adapt when (an opposing) team’s players come in and change the style of play.” Two years ago the Warriors broke away from playing their traditional 4-4-2. The selling point for the 4-2-3-1 was that Western had the right players defensively to keep the goals down while giving themselves the most opportunities to create an aggressive offense. The result there was that the Warriors lost just two games in regulation during that two-year stretch. “I think what our style allows now is that we can work on many different projects instead of just trying to reinvent the team,” Rittenhouse said. Where a selling point was needed years ago, the Warriors’ players now love the versatile format. “The formation we run allows us to move around a lot,” said junior Jake Paulson. “I think it suits us well. We really like it. And on the defensive end it teaches us to be physical, train for that and so when it comes to the games we’re ready, it’s the same thing.” The Warriors are looking forward to freshman Wilson Brown playing a big role as he is already being lauded for his creativity in practice as a mid-forward. Another freshman, Johnny Riordan brings both size and speed to the field as a defender, a position of need. “Just because a player is young, doesn’t mean they can’t be effective in this sport,” Rittenhouse said. “We’ve got some really good options as far as the young guys go.” The major project this season is replacing the back line defenders, and the Warriors don’t expect to be as physical as they were able to be last year because of their youth. But when size is an issue, you
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Above, Luke Paulson
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“(they’re) supposed to be our Achilles heel and in these first few weeks I’ve seen that group grow so much faster than I expected.” — Luna
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lean on game-planning, overall intelligence and the coaching staff at Western plans on making sure that its new defense playing in front of veteran goalkeeper Al Luna knows how to make up for whatever size differential this team might face this year. “We were able to take risks last year defensively because we could just size up and take advantage of that,” Rittenhouse said. “We might not have that right now, but so we just have to be intelligent early on and really evaluate those risks that we would have taken.” For Luna, watching a young defense take root has been a bit of a surprise. He didn’t expect to see such a shake up position wise, much less see in the first few weeks of practice that he was going to enjoy it. “As a goalie on a team where we lost four defenders, I was completely surprised to see what the coaches had, who was playing where,” Luna said. “The defense, at least early in the year is supposed to be our Achilles’ heel and in these first few weeks I’ve seen that group grow so much faster than I expected. I am not afraid of what we have starting in the back. We have a real chance to build something special.” With Luna back in goal, the Warriors have a clutch senior, one who stepped up to the call of playing the pivotal role in last year’s state title won in penalty kicks. But beyond that there’s Paulson, Colin Moore and Aidan Sinclair, a group of versatile juniors who play midforward and at a high level. “I think technically and tactically, there’s no reason we can’t play the same way we did last year,” Sinclair said. “It’s great that we have that.” In fact, there are 14 juniors on this team which makes the rebuild at Western particularly interesting. This team isn’t nearly as young as it should be, at least not on paper. “I think what’s similar about this team from last year is that everyone is out here to compete,” Paulson said. “We lose players every year but it’s always a building process for us each year.” On top of that there’s the idea that Western has to slip eventually. Lately under Rittenhouse, the worst Western has done is lose in the region tournament. Even dating back to the days before realignment, the Warriors seemed to always find a way to play past district play. After one of the most impressive runs in recent memory, this group is eager to keep the ball rolling. “One thing that’s fun each year talking with players from other teams is that there’s this idea that Western is done, they’ve lost too much,” Paulson said. “So far, that’s never been the case.” The Jefferson District is interesting from a soccer standpoint because while there are plenty of games where the Warriors will simply roll past lesser opponents, teams like Albemarle and Charlottesville present outstanding rivalries and prepare Western for the big games in May and June. The Patriots won a state title in 2012 and played in another title game last year. The game at Western with Charlottesville last year was one of the most intense and entertaining back-and-forth affairs this area saw in soccer period. With games against the Region 3A West and state title runner up in Blacksburg early in the year, this Western team will be battle tested, and the players love it. “Our season is great because you can lose a game or play a close game (in the district) and know that going into the conference, the region, that you’re ready to compete,” Moore said. “I like having the
Below, Colin Moore bullseye on our back. It makes us compete more, work harder in practice. We know everyone is after us. We play better in those close games.” “We’ve talked about this as a staff — this is going to be a lot of fun to coach this year,” Rittenhouse said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. We have to figure out how to make it all work and get the kind of leadership we had from players last year. Those seniors last year had some disappointment (early in their high school careers) and were chomping at the bit because of that. We have four players that have just lost two games on the varsity level. So we need to find different ways to motivate.” The core that has to remind the Warriors what it’s like to lose? Luna, Paulson, Sinclair and Moore. Suffice it to say, the culture of winning is absurdly strong at Western right now. But those four still remember what it feels like to lose, and thus, don’t be surprised if they step up to make sure that the Warriors have the kind of season that they’re used to. Winning breeds winning, especially when paired with continuity. The Warriors might be different this year, but they won’t be that different. “We’ve got time to roll this thing out,” Rittenhouse said. “Hopefully we take the lumps the right way. We’ve got 16-plus games to figure it out.” ✖
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TEAM SPOTLIGHT FLUVANNA COUNTY BASKETBALL Both the Fluvanna County girls and boys basketball teams took time out of their schedule to read to the students at Central Elementary school last month. Great Job Flucos! Way to reach out and give back to the community that supports you. It makes a difference. Keep up the good work!
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Game Time Covenant 12, Blue Ridge 10 By Bart Isley
Michael Colberg, seen here against Hargrave, scored the game-tying goal against Blue Ridge and assisted on the go-ahead tally. (Ashley Thornton)
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Covenant’s boys lacrosse team needed to hit the accelerator, and they needed to do it fast. Down a goal to Blue Ridge going into the fourth, the Eagles needed to find their stride. “It was just all heart and focus,” said Covenant coach Mike Gardiner. That heart and focus turned into goals in the fourth quarter as they reeled off three straight to beat the Barons 12-10 Tuesday afternoon in an early season clash of two of the area’s more talented squads. “There’s a lot of history — It was a struggle from the beginning,” Gardiner said. “We talked about ground balls being an issue coming here and they crushed us on ground balls in the first half. But we turned it around at halftime and flattened that out.” The Eagles’ Michael Colberg provided the spark, burying the equalizer with 6:47 to play. He followed shortly thereafter with a feed to sophomore Owen Archer, who flipped in the go-ahead goal with 5:51 left in the contest that put the defending VISAA Division II champions ahead for good. “The great thing about this group is that they’re unselfish,” Gardiner said. “When they were (passing) it around the offense constantly they were calling Michael’s number out because he had the matchup. It was good to see.” Colberg finished with three goals for the Eagles, who were deadlocked at 7-7 with the Barons in the first half. Drew Gaffney also notched a trio of goals and Jay Gaffney iced the game with 1:49 to play on his second goal of the game that put them up 12-10. Covenant then won the ensuing faceoff and drew a slashing call from the Barons seconds
later. From there the Eagles milked the clock to hold on the win as Blue Ridge failed to create a turnover. “I think it was just game fitness and I think they’re in a little better shape than us and it showed,” said first-year Blue Ridge coach John Hetzel. “We ran out of gas and we got a little banged up. We’re not deep and when that first line gets banged up it’s evident because we have guys out there that are beginner varsity players.” Hetzel, formerly a Blue Ridge assistant, took over with the departure of Kyle Gardner after last season, and the Barons are playing on an alternative field at the school while a turf surface is installed on the main football/lacrosse field. For Blue Ridge, Matt Cameron and Shane Ford both finished with strong outings, with Ford scoring four goals and dishing out an assist while Cameron had a hat trick and an assist. Jason Hess, Clayton Turner and Andrew Link each had a goal while Colin DiSesa led the Barons with two assists. Turner in particular gave the Eagles some problems on the offensive side according to Gardiner. “(Turner) surprised us big-time,” Gardiner said. “He wasn’t a scorer but he was pressing us on defense and getting guys open. They’re very dynamic.” Austin Hall finished with 10 saves in the cage for the Eagles, stepping up with the clean fourth quarter in particular when Covenant had to have some stops. The Barons will try to bounce back Thursday at home at 4:30 p.m. The Eagles hit the road to take on Roanoke Catholic Friday at 5 p.m. ✖
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
Simple management Scheduling in the winter shouldn’t be so hard
S
o let’s break it down real simple — what happened this winter was nothing short of cutthroat. There were a ton of cancellations and somehow they were mixed in with meaningless district tournaments in basketball. So let’s call those what they are — cash grabs. Of interest to me was that the attendance for the Charlottesville and Monticello girls game followed by the Charlottesville Albemarle boys game in the JD finals were both outstanding. The attendance for the Charlottesville girls in the Region 4A North semifinals, a game that had the Black Knights won, would have put them in the state tournament? The same for the Albemarle girls in their Region 5A North semifinal. It was embarrassing. It was made up of mostly players from other teams coming to support players in the same district. What we have here , and it’s painfully obvious to see in the winter and spring cycles more so than the fall, is a system that simply doesn’t work. The idea of a district serves for gate and travel purposes only, it’s about revenue. The standings hardly matter. At least in the spring there aren’t any meaningless tournaments to soak up time. The weather is usually good enough that most spring teams don’t often get crunched for time, especially with so much field turf around. But let’s get back to winter. What should be done for a team like the William Monroe girls basketball team? They played in the Bull Run District tournament expecting that they’d at least have a playoff game in the Conference 23 tournament. What’d they get? Some snow, that sadly enough forced the tournament directors to decide to whittle things down to the semifinals so that the bottom teams were simply cut out of the mix. They never got a chance to play. Imagine what that would feel like to be a senior on a team like that, one where you’re told “tough break kid, too much weather, you’re done.” And that’s a week after you played in a what amounts to symbolic tournament. What if the district tournaments were gone, and the conferences and regions were able to say something like, “Hey, this is the time of year where it sometimes snows, things get cancelled, lets take advantage of some spare time?” What I’m getting at is that maybe we don’t need so many regular season games and a fake postseason tournament. Why not space things out. Teams don’t need to play two and three games a week in January and February. The districts and regions in this state do themselves a disservice by trying to cram things into a period of time that, let’s be honest, because this area handles winter weather so poorly, it’s just not feasible. The three week playoff format right now needs at least four weeks, and in a bad year, might need five because to be honest, Virginia just can’t do winter weather. It’s not a judgement, it’s an observation. So with that said, do the schools and the VHSL care about the cash from the district tournaments or their athletes’ overall experience? That’s the question at hand. Because if they care about the athletes, then they’d start to schedule things differently. But just to tack on while I have the time, what was done to the VHSL wrestling tournament
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“Maybe we don’t need so many regular season games and a fake postseason tournament.” was nothing short of cold blooded. In a sport where the postseason is truly the only thing that matters, getting a chance to place, a chance to lose one match and fight back to win, that very spirit of the sport was swiped from the competitors this year. There simply wasn’t enough time for consolation matches. Athletes were forced to compete in time periods that were unfair. Those that fell early were given no chance to dig out of the holes and place. It was shameful. Now to be fair, athletic departments that are running razor thin budgets that count on big gates to help make up for the shortage they are given from the state. But with all that said, isn’t it up to us, John Q. Taxpayer to vote? Let’s try with the wallet. When there’s something I see wrong, I make sure I don’t fund it. Let’s agree that when something like this happens again, we vote with dollars. The Jefferson District finals shouldn’t be packed when the Region semifinals aren’t. There’s something broken about that. ✖
Ryan Yemen,
CRE ATIVE EDITOR
back talk »
How would you fix the annual winter scheduling headache? Email: ryan@scrimmageplay.com
Success stories begin here.
Success Story: Lee Skinner If you’re going to the University of North Carolina, you’d be honored to be compared to any of the great players in the program like Michael Jordan or James Worthy or Phil Ford. If you headed to the University of Virginia, any comparison to Bryant Stith or Curtis Staples would be an incredible compliment. Fork Union product Lee Skinner, according to some articles, is drawing those kind of comparisons to his school Wofford’s own legend — Noah Dahlman, a two-time Southern conference player of the year and the player who led Wofford to its first two NCAA tournament bids in 2010 and 2011 who went on to an already successful professional career in Macedonia.
With a team-high 8.6 rebounds per game and an 11.2 points per game average in his junior season the comparisons were apparently justified. But most importantly, he helped lead Wofford back in the NCAA tournament and he repeated the feat this year. As a senior, his 10 points per game and 5.8 rebounds helped put the Terriers back in the big dance for a second straight year. He’s not the only Fork Union connection there either. Wofford head coach Mike Young played postgraduate basketball under Fletcher Arritt before suiting up for Emory and Henry and Radford. Skinner came to Fork Union as a talented forward. He left as a man on a mission, and now he’s helping power Wofford on to college basketball’s biggest stage.
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