By Richard Carrier
Contributing Writer

I have to admit I’m really geeked. It’s only the second week of the county’s high school basketball season and I’ve already witnessed a season’s worth of highlights. If this keeps up for the entire season, I’ll be a wreck.

Where to start?

I cover, in person, home games for all four varsity squads in the county on a rotating basis. This gets the home standing JV squads some coverage at the same time. Monday-before-last I had an opportunity I may never have again. Due to some off-the-wall scheduling conflict Blessed Sacrament and Richmond Christian had to schedule all four teams in one afternoon/evening/night format. That’s a lot of hoops to cover in one day, but I put my head down and charged forward.

Game one was a 40-point blow-out for the BSH varsity girls who were so surgically precise and balanced the game was almost boring. Richmond Christian turned the tables on BSH’s JV girls in a 20-point win, which was boring. Then the JV boys took the court and the fireworks started. Now read this carefully: in the first quarter the RC kids ran off to a 16-6 lead. One made free throw and seven consecutive three pointers accounted for all of the remaining points. There were four different 13- and 14-year-old kids firing in lasers from downtown. Blessed Sacrament never recovered, but at the end of the game the Knights’ Brian Clark had scored 18 points,’ all on 3s. These events would be pretty spectacular for a varsity squad or even a good college team, but these kids are just that — kids.

The BSH boys varsity’s football players showed a lot of rust, particularly on offense, but pulled out a 10-point win over the RC varsity. Richmond Christian’s point guard, Otis Williams, dominated the game pouring in 26 of his squad’s 64 points. Williams fired in 3-pointers and pull up jumpers, slashed down the lane for scores and, late in the game, drove a very crowded baseline to score over the Knight’s 6’3” Ethan Sill. Williams is 5’6” tall. He is also a freshman.

I wasn’t able to catch up with Powhatan’s Steve Washburn until after the Indians had two games under their belts — one win and one loss —  until the day before the Indians opened District play at Bluestone. Coach Washburn was concerned, as usual, about getting his football players, at least half of the team, into basketball shape and that, once again, the Indians star, Shawn Minor would be the target for special defenses designed to stifle his offense. But he was very exited about the possibility of his taller than usual front court being able to control the pace of the games in a year in which defense would be even more stressed than usual. The Indians controlled the pace at Bluestone and took the slow-down win by 60-54, but close to being overlooked was the performance of senior Ellis Moore. Not his point production (15) but his rebound total. The coaching staff had to go back over the game to convince themselves that Moore had indeed pulled down an amazing 25 rebounds. I don’t know where this accomplishment scores for either the Virginia High School League record (couldn’t reach any one at VHSL before deadline) or those of PHS, but it truly is an outstanding achievement particularly when we consider the high school game is only 32 minutes.