High school basketball practice began Monday without Rowan County’s most visible
player.West Rowan’s
Scooter Sherrill was sitting on the side, watching his teammates, a cast on his right
foot, courtesy of a broken bone in the joint of his big toe.
What’s more painful to area
basketball fans is that it happened in football, a sport many thought he should never have
played. Scooter committed to N.C. State in hoops in August.
“Everybody’s been
saying, ‘I told you so,’ ” shrugged Scooter Monday afternoon.
“I’ve been hearing it from everybody.”
The injury, which happened during
Week 5 against East Rowan — but undiagnosed until last week — will keep Scooter
out for three weeks and possibly the opener against Salisbury.
“I’ll be fine,” he
said. “I’ll go to practice and shoot on the side.”
“Not going to happen,”
interrrupted West head coach Mike Gurley. “The doctors said inactivity and it’s
going to be inactivity. If he’s well in two weeks, he’ll play. If it’s six
weeks, we’ll wait six weeks.”
Gurley isn’t worried about
Scooter missing the first few games.
“The state championship is
played in March, I think,” he said.
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Scooter remembers when the injury
occurred against the Mustangs, he just doesn’t remember how.
“It was the first play of the
second half, that’s all I know. I got up limping. I wasn’t at full-speed from
then on.”
N.C. State coaches found out but
Gurley said, “They understand it’s part of it.”
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With or without Scooter, the
Falcons are excited about a run at a state title. It should be quite a season in the
Gurley Dome.
West lost to Parkland in the 3A
championship last season and finished 28-3. When Scooter returns, he will join 6-foot-7
Donte Minter, 6-6 Frankie Williams and 6-3 Terris Sifford.
“They’re excited,”
Gurley said of his players. “These are the baby steps to hopefully sprinting at the
end. They’re ready to go. I’ve been ready to go.”
Gurley said cutting players is
something he hates.
“Basketball and baseball are
the hardest sports to coach,” he said, “You can be the fifth guy in the 800
relay or you can be that guard or tackle standing by the water cooler. But we have to tell
kids they can’t play this sport.”
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Want the toughest schedule in
Rowan County? Salisbury boys coach Drew Mathews says look no further than his.
Salisbury begins the year against
West, then plays Davie County and its front line of 6-8, 6-7, 6-6. Following the War
Eagles is Concord and its all-everything Marcus Cook.
But Mathews thinks his team is
ready for it. He has told Thad Pryor, a four-year starter, this is his team. Terry Johnson
should have a big year. And two players up from jayvees —Markeice Daugherty and
Randall Jones — should make an impact.
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New faces in basketball this
season will be on the bench doing the coaching: John Davis, who replaces Bob Parker at
South and Randy Bingham, who takes over for Gina Talbert at East.
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This year’s diaper dandies to
watch are South Rowan’s Katie Willett and North’s Amber Hill.
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Just like the scare Scooter gave
Gurley, West girls coach Angie Waddell said she too received a scare Monday from her star
player Kari Schenk.
“She told me today she
wasn’t playing,” said Waddell. “I laughed. We got a big kick out of
it.”
West is the team picked by the
Post as the preseason best in Rowan County. Waddell returns nine players, including Kate
Goodman, Sara Pieper and Kristen McNeely.
There are teams recruiting Schenk
but the four-year starter is apparently not interested, according to her coach.
UNC-Greensboro is recruiting her
and North’s Megan Honeycutt. Pfeiffer and several other Division II teams want Schenk
too.
“Kari has expressed an
interest in education first,” Waddell said, naming East Carolina, Appalachian State
and N.C. State as Schenk’s favorites. “There is no pressure on her. She is just
going out to have a good senior year.”
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One player who does want to play
in college is East Rowan’s Nicole Loggins, who said last week she is leaning toward
Western Carolina.
Winthrop and Wingate were also on
her list and she took an official visit to Wingate. But she added Western may be the place
for her. If so, she’ll join South Rowan star Janetta Heggins, who is in her freshman
season.
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Waddell said she had received word
that Jackie Wood, who transferred from North Rowan to South Rowan to — supposedly
— Greensboro Smith, is now in Charlotte.
Does anyone really know?
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And finally ...
The ACCdoes it. The South Atlantic
Conference does it. Why not the Post?
Here is the preseason All-Rowan
County first and second teams:
Boys first team: Scooter, Minter
and Scooter Dalton of West, Dre Byrd and Brian McCullough of North.
Boys second team: Salisbury’s
Pryor and Johnson, East’s Adam Cornelius and Justin Miller and North’s Mario
Sturdivant.
Player of the Year: Scooter
Sherrill.
Girls first team: East’s
Loggins, North’s Honeycutt, West’s Schenk and Goodman and Salisbury’s
Sherree Gillespie.
Girls second team: East’s
Brooke Misenheimer, West’s Sara Pieper, South’s Jennifer Morgan and Brittney
Gaddy and North’s Courtney Hill.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports
editor of the Post. |
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