The prep notebook ...
Salisbury girls coach Jennifer Shoaf lost as much talent as anyone this side of the North Rowan boys, but there’s no one any more anxious for next basketball season to hurry up and get here.
Shoaf’s already taken her girls to three summer camps — High Point, Northwest Cabarrus and N.C. State — and says she may make it four before the summer’s through.
“I’ve got 20 kids who want to play and are working hard,” said Shoaf. “That’s amazing. Some years I’ve had two or three that wanted to play in the summer.”
Shoaf says her highly touted rising freshman crop is as good as advertised and believes four of them — Tasha Gillespie, Shayla Fields, Krystal Connor and Patience Cuthbertson — are potential varsity starters.
Not someday. This year.
“That would be a little scary,” admits Shoaf. “But these kids are good. They’re small, but they would do OK.”
There are some prime genes in the group. Gillespie’s sister, Sherree, was a 1,000-point scorer for the Hornets a few years back, while Cuthbertson’s brother, Graham Hosch, was a football and basketball standout at North.
Talented freshmen can be successful. No one’s forgotten the sudden impact Jackie Wood and Megan Honeycutt had on the North program as first-year players.
Still, Shoaf says her youngsters have much to learn as they step on the floor with taller, older, more experienced players.
“In middle school, their talent alone was enough to win games,” said Shoaf. “I let them try that for awhile at the camps against varsity players. It didn’t take long for them to come over and say, ‘Hey, Coach, we got to learn some plays.’ ”
Shoaf says Anita Edwards has been the only senior at the camps. Other veterans who have been playing well are Terry Charleston and Jamie Seay. Unfortunately, Patricia Wilson tore a medial collateral ligament and needed surgery.
Shoaf is also enthused about sophomore Ashton Hanrahan’s return. Hanrahan, a member of the starting lineup early last season, is back in Hornet black, gold and red.
“Ashton lit it up at the camps,” said Shoaf. “She’s small, but she can really shoot and has gotten a lot of attention from coaches.”
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SO LONG:Salisbury’s three top girls players last year graduated.
All will be in college this fall.
Jennie Reilly, who was on her way to another all-county year when she tore an ACL, has only recently been cleared by doctors to participate in sports. That means she’ll get a chance to take advantage of a great intramural program at UNC.
Ternisha Charleston will attend North Carolina Central on an academic scholarship.
Ke-Ke Chunn, the quick guard who was last season’s Rowan County Player of the Year, is headed to Tusculum, one of Catawba’s SAC rivals, and may play basketball there.
“Ke-Ke fell in love with the school, but it was late when she visited and they didn’t have any scholarships left,” said Shoaf. “They want her to practice with the team and be a manager her freshman year and then hopefully get her some scholarship money the next year. We’ll just have to see how it works out.”
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HORNETREUNION: Four former Hornet basketball stars — Sherree Gillespie, Ellaevon Phifer, Robbie Jeffries and Terry Johnson — played last year at Clinton Junior College in South Carolina.
It looks like Gillespie’s going to be returning home to be part of Andrew Mitchell’s Livingstone College squad this fall.
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EASTHOOPS: Derek Kurnitsky came in with low expectations as the Mustang boys basketball coach. All he had heard was how East lost a lot.
Not anymore.
So far this summer, Kurnitsky reports that his team is 10-9. Five of the losses have come to Davie County, Winston-Salem Parkland and Marlboro County, S.C.
If Kurnitsky is anything, he is fearless. At the recent Pfeiffer University team camp, he lost to Marlboro, the reigning South Carolina state champion. When Pfeiffer coach Dave Davis asked about playing additional games, Kurnitsky said the Mustangs wanted to take on Marlboro.
“Coach Davis told me no one had ever asked to play them twice,” Kurnitsky said. “The first time, we lost by 20. The second time, we lost to them by eight.”
East finished 7-5 in the Pfeiffer camp.
“That’s not a bad job,” he said. “We’ve been playing pretty well and we haven’t backed down from anybody.”
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EASTCAMP: Kurnitsky will hold a basketball camp for rising sixth-through-12th graders July 18-21. There is a $60 fee. Call him at 279-7737 or 279-5232.
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WONDER WOMEN: Based on the Northwest Cabarrus camp, A.L. Brown’s girls are going to get a massive boost from freshman inside player Kim Milhouse and from a brand new Tomekia Powell, a 6-1 center who looks like she’s been in the weightroom every day since last season ended.
Guard Elise Stanback, who hurt a knee in last season’s state playoffs, also looked fine. Stanback, a senior guard, was bouncing around, blowing people away on fastbreaks and tossing lobs to the Wonders’ twin towers. She’s got D-I skills, but her size (5-foot-5) will probably make her a D-II recruit.
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RECRUITING UPDATE: Central Cabarrus’ lithe, left-handed guard Evan Miller, who is also a .500-hitting force on the Vikings’ softball dynasty, is being courted by a host of schools.
Miller, who can shoot, pass and handle — as well as hit and field — says UNC Greensboro is high on her list. A number of Southern Conference schools — including Furman, East Tennessee State and Davidson — are writing and calling.
Softball or basketball?
“It just depends on what I can get,” said Miller.
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READY TO RUMBLE: Tasha Pullen, who’s been named head girls volleyball and basketball coach at the new Robinson High School in Cabarrus County, was Doug Wilson’s hoops assistant at A.L. Brown last season. She’s taking on a tough assignment, as her school will have no seniors in its first year of competition.
Robinson will draw a mixture of students from Concord, Central and Northwest and Pullen says there are some pretty good players in there.
“We’ll be mostly sophomores,” she said. “We’re excited about it, but nervous.”
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READYTORUMBLE2: A.L. Brown has released its football schedule and you have to give coach Ron Massey credit.
There’s more leeway as to non-conference scheduling in the Wonders’ new seven-team league than there was in the old nine-team SPC, and Massey’s gone out and replaced the Hardings, Piedmonts and Sun Valleys with crowd-drawing heavyweights like South Point and Eastern Randolph.
The Wonders open with always exciting North Rowan and visit rival Concord on Sept. 21. The conference games to circle on the calendar are a home game with West Rowan (Oct. 5) and a clash at Mooresville (Oct. 26).
To prepare for all that fun, the Wonders will scrimmage the likes of Richmond County and West Charlotte.
Why those two? Apparently the Baltimore Ravens weren’t available.
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Contact Mike London or Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4256 or sports@salisburypost.com
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