BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

The Shrine Bowl notebook ...

CHARLOTTE — Anytime you put a West Rowan Falcon (James Francis), a North Rowan Cavalier (Jarrett Wishon), an A.L. Brown Wonder (Lee Basinger) and a Concord Spider (Z Smith) on the same Shrine Bowl team, you’re going to have some interesting conversations.

“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it was nothing but who beat who and who scored on who,” chuckled Wishon. “But it’s like I told my dad (Wes), after an hour or so, we were all close. It was like we had known each other for three weeks”.

“Yeah, we argued a lot about which school was better,” added Basinger. “But they’re all good guys. It was all in fun.”

Basinger did lose the battle over wearing No. 75 in the Shrine game, though. Smith, who at 290 pounds has a 45-pound edge on Basinger, claimed his familiar jersey number, while Basinger was relegated to No. 73.

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NUMBERS GAME: It was a shame Wishon didn’t get to wear the No. 64 he wore with the Cavs for four years. That would have been neat, because it was the 64th Shrine Bowl game. Wishon settled for the closest thing available — No. 63. Richmond County lineman Joe Parsons grabbed No. 64.

Francis was luckier. He was attired in his usual No. 40, although he probably didn’t care much for all that green on his jersey.

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COULDAUSEDHIM: Accidents do happen and there were quite a few mistakes in the Shrine program.

South Point DB Devon Lowery, for instance, blew up from 6-foot-1, 170 to 6-5, 370.

Then there was Jamel Jackson, the former Concord star, who was listed as a North Carolina defensive back.

Too bad that Jackson is now at Catawba. The North Carolina all-stars sure could have used him.

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TIRED BUTFULL: Francis said that Shrine Bowl practices were out of this world.

“We practiced hard,” said Francis. “They was like college practices. You practice and then you eat and you’re so tired that you’re ready to go to sleep. The best thing was that they kept feeding us and feeding us. You don’t go hungry at the Shrine Bowl.”

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RECRUITING: Basinger said he plans to take official visits to Davidson, Wofford and The Citadel.

“It look like 1-AA for me,” said Basinger, an excellent student. “None of the Division I schools have offered me so far, but hopefully this week opened some doors for me. There were a lot of college coaches at our practices.

Wishon says his future is also most likely in 1-AA and says that at least six schools at that level are excited about him and have offered visits, but he’s made no commitments. That’s because, like Basinger, he hasn’t completely ruled out D-1.

“I say a prayer every night that some D-I school will give me a chance in spite of my height,” he said.

Both Wishon and Basinger are in the 6-1 range and D-I schools are always looking for those 6-4 and 6-5 guys.

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NOEXCUSES: Asked for his assessment of the game, Wishon didn’t fool around.

“They just put it to us,” he said. “None of us thought it would be anything like that.”

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CHEERINGSECTIONS:All of the area athletes had fan support.

West coach Scott Young and defensive guru David Hunt led Francis’ rooters.

Wishon got roars from roughly 25 vocal North Rowan and Salisbury folks, including buddy Cass Jarrett, a former Cav baseball star, and girlfriend Jennifer Bauk, who plays soccer for Salisbury.

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MISSINGPERSON: Central Cabarrus’ Steve Knorr played tight end in the Shrine Bowl.

Central Cabarrus’ basketball team missed the 6-3 Knorr, who is a frontcourt regular for coach Scott Brewer, on Friday night. The Vikings hoops team fell to Sun Valley.

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ANOTHERDEION?One of the more impressive athletes in the Shrine Bowl was amazing South Carolina receiver Roscoe Crosby.

But Crosby’s no lock to play college football. He’s expected to be a first-round pick in the major league baseball draft this June and could command a signing bonus in the millions of dollars.