Thursday, January 4, 2007

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by Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
   Grundy looked strong. Franklin County was just a little bit stronger.
   Franklin County edged the defending champion Golden Wave by nine points, 261.5 to 252.5, to win the team crown at the 24th annual Agie Skeens Memorial Wrestling Tournament, Friday and Saturday, at Riverview Elementary-Middle School.
  Grundy sent 12 of 13 wrestlers into Saturday morning’s semifinals, placed six in the finals and came away with three individual champions.
  Freshman Ethan Owens (119 pounds) and juniors Kaleb Smith (145) and Josh McGowan (152) each picked up their first Agie Skeens titles.
  Brandon Hankins, Jerami Bartley and Josh Lee all reached the finals for the Golden Wave, while six teammates made it into the semifinals.
  The six who lost in the semifinals were beaten by the eventual champs in their respective weight classes: Andy Stiltner (275), Josh Ratliff (215), Morgan Owens (171), Jarrett Landis (135), John Dotson (125) and Billy Owens (112).
  Stiltner took third at heavyweight, while Ratliff and Landis each placed fourth. Dotson placed fifth, while Morgan and Billy Owens each finished sixth.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

HSE-Australia Team Wins Over Hearts of Basketball Community

by Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
   They came from a land down under.
   And while they were here, they won over quite a few hearts.
   HSE-Australia, a high school-age traveling basketball team from the Australian state of Queensland, made the first stop of its 2006 American tour at Twin Valley High School.
  The Bandicoots claimed second place in last week’s Coalfield Clash at Twin Valley High School. Their talent level was probably greater than most area teams, but HSE took the court as a team for the first time the day they opened play at TVHS.
  While they were getting acquainted with one another, they were meeting the Twin Valley community up close and personal.
  HSE, which stands for team sponsor, Horizon Sports Entertainment, travels to America primarily to showcase their skills to recruiters. But they also make an earnest attempt to have each team they send see and learn as much as possible in the host country.
  The team that visited here consisted of recent high school graduates, and it has an itinerary that stretches from Whitewood to Westwood. After leaving Twin Valley, the Bandicoots are scheduled to play in and visit the Carolinas, and sightsee in the Los Angeles area before flying home to Australia.
  “We all wanted to come over here to go to college, to hopefully pick up scholarships,” says HSE guard Simon Weigh, whose brother Stephen’s visit to America has already paid off. The older Weigh is a freshman starter at the University of Utah.
  “We want them to get exposure,” says HSE coach David Mitchell. “College coaches will see them. But we also want them to see as much of America as possible in a short period of time.”
  To that end, the Bandicoots stayed with families around Whitewood, Oakwood and neighboring communities, and they made quite an impression on local folks.
  “People just fell in love with those kids,” Twin Valley coach Brian Moore said. “They all seem to be great kids. We’re fortunate to have them here.”
  The Australians seemed to be equally impressed, and in some cases appeared to be overwhelmed with their treatment.
  “People here are unbelievable friendly,” Mitchell says. “We’ve been overwhelmed with how you guys accepted us and made us feel welcome.  
  “We’re not used to the colder temperatures, the climate and the landscape, the hills and mountains is different for us. But we’d love to come back here.”
  HSE players, most of whom will continue their playing careers, either in college in the U.S., or in one of several leagues back home, were treated like rock stars while in Buchanan County.
  “The attention here is definitely different,” Weigh said. “It’s taken us some time to get used to it.”
  “It’s a nice, quiet place,” added HSE standout Stewart Murray, who led his club in scoring in the Twin Valley tournament. “They love their sports here, especially basketball.
  “It’s different back home. It’s nothing like this, it’s a nice change. In (the Australian state of) Queensland, where we come from, basketball is not a mainstream sport like it is here. Here the crowds tend to follow their teams more.”
  The game itself is different in the U.S. than it is in Australia, too. 
  “The game is very much more structured here,” Murray says. “It’s much more patient here. There’s no shot clock. We’re used to a 24-second shot clock.
  Everyone’s very patient on the basketball court here.”
  “From (youth teams) right through to senior basketball, to a professional league, everything’s 24 seconds,” adds Mitchell. “Plus, there’s an eight-second rule in the backcourt. It changes the tempo of the game.”
  One thing America players and coaches share in common with their counterparts in Australia, where summer is just beginning, is the fact that basketball is a year-round sport.
  “Our main season is probably the same, basically from October to April,” Mitchell said. “But we really play all year round.
  “We have our National league and there are two other leagues operating in the off-season. Between all those leagues you can play all year around.”
  While the rest of the HSE squad heads home January 14, Simon Weigh will watch most of the rest of the American basketball season in Utah, where he and his family will spend another six weeks.
  “(Stephen’s) in his first year at Utah,” the younger Weigh explains. “I’ll go there and hang out with the rest of my family, do a little skiing and watch him play.”
  Stephen Weigh, Simon said, was once part of the Australian Institute of Sport. And he’s not the first Aussie recruited out of the AIS by Utah.
  “Kids usually just go straight to the AIS,” Mitchell said. “Basically your best junior kids in the country play for them.
  “Once you go there American coaches looking to recruit someone know any decent kid in the country goes there. That’s where all the (Australian) stars come from, like Andrew Bogut. He went there.”
  Bogut was drafted out of Utah by the Milwaukee Bucks as the top pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.
  Over the next week or so, HSE will try and soak up as much American culture as possible while honing their basketball skills in front of college scouts. They play hard, and they obviously love the game, but losing to Twin Valley didn’t seem to faze most of the HSE squad. Only two players hailed from the same school team, Murray and 6-8 post Quint Stendl. They really were, as the old American sports expression goes, just happy to be here. 
  “We don’t look at wins and losses,” Mitchell said. “We look at playing and having fun and the way the Twin Valley community treated us has been fantastic.”

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.