Published: 03:53 PM, Thu Jul 01, 2010
High School Notebook: E.E. Smith girls win at State Games
Earl Vaughan Jr.
E.E. Smith's Dee Hardy doesn't want to knock a state championship, especially since her team won it, but even she admitted it was hard to get terribly excited about her squad's victory in the recent girls' basketball State Games.
The reason for Hardy's disappointment was only six basketball teams in the whole state took part in the tournament held at Carolina Courts outside of Charlotte. One of them was Smith's county rival, Westover, the team Smith wound up beating in the title game.
Other schools taking part were Middle Creek, Hickory, South Caldwell and High Point Andrews.
"We were looking forward to it being a packed field,'' Hardy said. "But it was still nice to win it.''
The teams were split into pools of three each, with each team playing the other teams in its pool twice.
After that, the two pool winners met for the title. Smith beat Westover 58-36 in the championship game.
Jovanah Graham and Kia Payne-Green led the Smith scoring with 14 points. Hardy's daughters, Avae' and Alecia, added 12 and 11 points respectively.
Hardy is excited about the upcoming high school basketball season, with four of five starters back from a Smith team that won the Mid-South 4-A Conference regular-season and tournament titles last year.
"I've said all along, this group reminds me of that group we had from 2003-04,'' she said. That same group won a State Games title in 2003.
Adding to Hardy's excitement for the upcoming season is that if Smith is fortunate enough to make the Eastern Regionals this year, they won't have to make the long trip to Greenville.
Fayetteville is now the home of the tournament, and getting a chance to play for a regional title at home would be fine with Hardy.
"We don't want to look too far down the road, but it would be to our advantage to make it to the regionals,'' she said.
Softball rules changes
Some fairly minor changes were announced for high school fast-pitch softball rules next season.
The changes were made recently at a meeting of the National Federation of State High School Associations softball rules committee.
One of the biggest adds a penalty for submitting an incorrect lineup card. The first mistake will draw a team warning. For a second error, the coach will be restricted to the dugout for the rest of the game.
A change was made to the interference rule involving a runner who has scored or been called out.
The word "intentionally" has been taken out of the rulebook, so that a player's intent no longer matters if she interferes with a defensive player's opportunity to make a play.
Softball players will now be subject to the same concussion rule that has been added in other sports. It lists concussion-related problems for which a player can be removed from the contest by the officials, and requires the athlete must be cleared by a healthcare professional before returning to play.
The last big change was the new pitching distance of 43 feet becomes mandatory this year, although North Carolina already made the switch last season.
South View High School's Alya Shaw has signed to play basketball and volleyball for Brunswick Community College.
Shaw averaged 6.8 points and hit 20 3-point field goals for the Tiger basketball team.
In volleyball, Shaw was seventh in the county in assists with 209.
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.