Kind of crazy, but I ran into Cunane, Elissa Cunane, tonight at the Brassfield Center Chick-fil-A…
You know Elissa Cunane of Northern Guilford girls basketball fame…She helped lead her team to a (25-8) record as a sophomore last season, in a year where the Nighthawks finished second in the state in the NCHSAA 3-A girls tournament, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Elissa stands at 6’5 and she can play basketball at a very high skill level…Scoring, rebounds, free throws and blocked shots, she can do it all…One of the most fun parts of her game is just to sit back and watch her shoot free throws…
And the colleges are taking notice….In the past couple of weeks she has talked with Wake Forest(Coach Jen Hoover), Georgia and the South Carolina Gamecocks and coach Dawn Staley are due in town to talk on Friday of this week…
Beyond her basketball game, Elissa is smart and she is now a junior at Northern Guilford and the young Nighthawk is just 15 years old….Makes you think back to when the G-Man Mike Giminski entered Duke, as a 16 year-old freshman back in the late 70’s…..
Had a chance to talk to Elissa and her dad at Chick-fil-A tonight and the craziest thing of all in seeing them there was when I placed my order at Chick-fil-A, the young girl behind the counter asked if I liked basketball and I said yes and she said she did too and that her dad and sister were good players, but she liked the game, but was still trying to master the game…I asked her where she went to school and she said she attended Northern Guilford High School…
I was just about ready to go up and ask the young lady behind the counter if she really liked basketball and since she was in school at Northern Guilford, and if she wanted to really go for a major basketball challenge, she ought to take on Elissa Cunane…I was going to tell her if you want to play some real serious basketball, take on, or challenge Elissa Cunane….
And just a few minutes later, who walks into that Brassfield Center Chick-fil-A, Elissa Cunane and her dad and you talk about one of those miracle moments….I was stunned and I was just thinking the kid/chick behind the counter at Chick-fil-A vs. Elissa Cunane….The big tall chick vs. the smaller chick at Chick-fil-A and you just never know what kind of encounter you may run into at the checkout counter, at Chick-fil-A…
A very interesting encounter of the Cunane Kind with the Cunane kid in the House at the Chick-fil-A on Battleground, at the Brassfield Center…
Pretty neat huh, and Elissa Cunane always projected that key word when you would ask her about the Big Game and her basketball experiences….”What was the experience like”, we would ask Elissa and she would reply, “Exhilarating”…..
Like I told you the kid is smart and she is a 15 year-old, exhilarating young basketball player, that will make her Nighthawks and her dad proud this season and she will one day make a Division I women’s college basketball program very proud too….
Elissa’s high school coach Kim Furlough can crank up practice this Friday per new NCHSAA rules if she so desires, but some teams might wait a little longer, but one thing is for certain, it will be a very fun upcoming season for the young ladies at Northern Guilford and it also promises to be Exhilarating….
Elissa Cunane’s #’s last season(2015-2016) for the Northern Guilford Nighthawks:
18.4 points per game…14.6 rebounds per game…169-224 free throws:75%…29 games…
With practice starting this Friday, who are some of the top newcomers we should check out this coming season in Boys & Girls Basketball?
With Brandon Lamberth, was at Dudley, now at Southwest Guilford now on hand for the Cowboys the SWG-NWG boys games will among some of the best in the state with the Langleys and Lamberth at SWG and NWG with Jalen Spicer, Tre Turner, Reggie Davis, David Funderburg, and Thomas Hennigan, NWG will be tough to handle, just like SWG…
NWG vs. SWG boys will be the tops in the County and the Wesleyan Trojans have picked up Aaron Wiggins and he is a star on the rise, as he leaves Grimsley and goes to WES….
There is so much returning talent, that will be the key and any players that might have been around before, but now have changed teams, that is something to keep an eye on…
The new point guard for NWG coming in from NWG Middle will be a good one and there is so much returning talent on most girls teams just like the boys, the new kids won’t be the main factors unless some kid moved in here from out of town…
NG girls are loaded and have a five that can go with any team in the state, SWG girls have pretty much everybody back and they should a have a slight edge over NWG right now….Lashonda Monk at SWG could end up being the top female PG in the state if she wants to work toward that goal and with NG you have Elissa Cunane, who is among the top post players in the Southeast United States and you have a super big in Elizabeth Kitley at NWG too and Cayla King at NWG is among the top guards, mainly a two-guard but can run the point and King is among the top guards in the entire state of North Carolina and she is just a sophomore….
The Johnson girl at Dudley is another outstanding point guard and she throws her whole body on the line all of the time….The kid at Northeast Guilford(Nichelle Jefferies) is going to be among the top scorers in the state and she was last year too…
The returning players are the key for this year and if you find somebody that can beat out any of the players that I have mentioned above, call me….
NWG and SWG boys loaded with NG and SWG girls loaded too….Those four are your run away favorites right there and plenty of time to get ready, with practices going on, but the first games not until mid-November…
That is two months of pre-season practice and that might be too much, we shall see….
I know some people are really excited for basketball fans especially those like Northern going through a tough year in football but pump the brakes. No practicing going on this Friday. Football playing schools can’t start practice until October 31 and schools without football can’t start practice until October 17. Sorry still got over a month to go.
http://nchsaa.org/sports/basketball
I wonder if this designation is the same for both girls and boys basketball…Doesn’t seem having football would have anything to do with girls practicing basketball, but maybe this deals with volleyball for girls, but that is not specified in the rules…
There are probably several girls basketball teams where they have basketball only players and they are not playing a fall sport…
Must be more than meets the eye here, because we have been hearing about rules changes for basketball…The middle of September does seem a bit early, but for workouts of players with the coach in groups, such as five-player groups, maybe that is now allowed…
We will check on more, something has changed and there is more than meets the naked eye here….
Official practice does not start until October 31st. Schools can start workouts today. Well, the schools that follow rules start today. But that’s another topic.
NWG vs SWG will be tops in the county? Come on man.. The best coached team and the best team in the county, state and a huge national contender right here in our own backyard is Greensboro Day School. Coach Johnson return’s 8 players from last years team that were key contributors. I don’t care who they are playing, it will be worth the ticket. Come on man, you have to be kidding me..Will Dillard, John Newman.. Two of the best returning Juniors in the country..
Yes NWG vs. SWG is the top matchup in the county if we are talking public matchups…We didn’t say anything about the GDS because they are on the private school level…Not sure if the GDS-HPCA matchup will be as hot as it was last year but it was a good one last year, but again this it is going to SWG-NWG on the boys side and that one is going to draw the crowds…
Back on Greensboro Day, they are an Elite team and there is really no challenge for them around here…They will have to outside this area to get a push and I am hoping for another contest with NWG-GDS at the Haeco Tournament in December, to see how far NWG will have come vs. GDS this as opposed to NWG vs. GDS last season…