AC at CH West
I went to see Tasha Cannon play and came away duly impressed. There will be a story on her and her team in Saturday's edition, along with the normal preseason material.
I got there for the last 10 seconds of the second quarter and saw the varsities play for the equivalent of a half. Cannon was very obviously the best player on the floor and AC was nearly as obviously the better team, but West didn't look bad in the time that I saw. Junior guard Sarah Ricci his a couple of long threes, and she has a nice stroke when she gets her feet set. Lindsay Kerr used her body well on the boards and Angie Wilmer is one of the best all-around athletes in the entire area, though I'm guessing basketball is her third sport behind lacrosse and soccer.
Looking at Wilmer and Cannon made me think: basketball is probably the team sport that's most difficult to excel at without specializing. Great athletes can be great soccer players for three months and then move on to something else, or great lacrosse or softball/baseball players. But you look at a kid like Wilmer and just know that as athletic as she is, she'll never be the hoops player Cannon is, and would have had to specialize a long time ago to change that fact. There are a lot of multi-sport stars playing basketball and there are a lot of great basketball players around, but the groups are almost mutually exclusive. There are a few very good players who excel at other sports -- like Kennedy from Heights, Gallagher from CC and Dawson from Eastern -- but by and large, unless you're playing basketball nine months of the year, stardom is out of the question.
I'm finishing the preview stuff tonight and I'll take most of the day off tomorrow. The plan is to post the Preseason Top 20 in this space sometime tomorrow night, so check back if you like. After that, I'll be covering six games in the next seven days, including two Sterling games:
Fri. - RV-Willingboro
Sat. - Sterling-Cherokee
Sun. - Gami-Wilson
Mon. - Eustace-Holy Cross
Tues. - Cumberland-Deptford
Thurs. - Sterling-Heights
That schedule is subject to change, of course, but I'm looking forward to it.
I got there for the last 10 seconds of the second quarter and saw the varsities play for the equivalent of a half. Cannon was very obviously the best player on the floor and AC was nearly as obviously the better team, but West didn't look bad in the time that I saw. Junior guard Sarah Ricci his a couple of long threes, and she has a nice stroke when she gets her feet set. Lindsay Kerr used her body well on the boards and Angie Wilmer is one of the best all-around athletes in the entire area, though I'm guessing basketball is her third sport behind lacrosse and soccer.
Looking at Wilmer and Cannon made me think: basketball is probably the team sport that's most difficult to excel at without specializing. Great athletes can be great soccer players for three months and then move on to something else, or great lacrosse or softball/baseball players. But you look at a kid like Wilmer and just know that as athletic as she is, she'll never be the hoops player Cannon is, and would have had to specialize a long time ago to change that fact. There are a lot of multi-sport stars playing basketball and there are a lot of great basketball players around, but the groups are almost mutually exclusive. There are a few very good players who excel at other sports -- like Kennedy from Heights, Gallagher from CC and Dawson from Eastern -- but by and large, unless you're playing basketball nine months of the year, stardom is out of the question.
I'm finishing the preview stuff tonight and I'll take most of the day off tomorrow. The plan is to post the Preseason Top 20 in this space sometime tomorrow night, so check back if you like. After that, I'll be covering six games in the next seven days, including two Sterling games:
Fri. - RV-Willingboro
Sat. - Sterling-Cherokee
Sun. - Gami-Wilson
Mon. - Eustace-Holy Cross
Tues. - Cumberland-Deptford
Thurs. - Sterling-Heights
That schedule is subject to change, of course, but I'm looking forward to it.
posted by SMc. @ 7:10 PM
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