Another great group of games and a nice assortment of memories coming in from this year’s 2019 HAECO Invitational Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center…
Plus we have to give out some kudos to the Southeast Guilford Falcons girls basketball team, now at (12-0), and the only unbeaten team left/remaining in Guilford County….SEG girls coming off of their Championship at the Eastern Guilford Christmas Holiday Tournament….
Back on the HAECO, we had the chance to talk with Kim Strable, from the Greensboro Sports Commission and the Greensboro Sports Foundation, and we were talking about back in the day, when we broadcast the 1994 AAU Basketball 10-and Under National Basketball Championship Game, from the Greensboro Coliseum…I was doing the play-by-play for the radio broadcast, and Kim Strable was on color commentary…Kim’s son Zach Strable was on the team and Freddy Johnson, the head coach at Greensboro Day School, his son Robert, now one of Freddy’s assistant coaches at GDS, Robert was on that team too…And Robert Johnson and Zach Strable were 10 year-olds playing in that AAU National Championship Game….Some neat memories from that day/game…
(Vic Sapp, now deceased, was covering our freight on those AAU radio games, back in the day.)
And new memories related to those days back in ’94 coming sometime down the road, when Robert Johnson’s young sons Cross Johnson and Worth Johnson, will get ready to play for their G-pappy, Freddy Johnson….Those kids make me think of sports agents/sports lawyers, with Worth Johnson, hearkening back memories of attorney Worth Holleman and Cross Johnson, ready with his cross-examination…..It won’t be long until we see Worth and Cross in Bengal uniforms…
And the current Greensboro Day School Bengal and 2019 HAECO Invitational Tournament Men’s MVP Brock Williams reminds me of an ACC basketball player from the past and that player would be, Simpson “Skip” Brown…The visual came into my mind this morning…I had seen this Brock Williams somewhere years ago, and then it hit me….Skip Brown, the Wake Forest Demon Deacon point guard from 1973-1977…Brock Williams sort of resembles Skip Brown, and Skip Brown could throw it down for the Deacs of Wake Forest back in the day, along with Jerry Schellenberger and Rod Griffin…This new kid in town this season, reminds a lot of Skip Brown and maybe he reminds me some too of Mike Gale, who played for Elizabeth City State back in the day….
Sort of a New Day for Greensboro Day, as the Bengals have several new faces in several new places this season, and the kids can produce…Got to give it up to Bryce Harris and Jaydon Young, to go along with the new kid Brock Williams, and for GDS to be doing what they are doing and for Carson McCorkle to not be available, that is impressive…
From the Smith Golden Eagles camp, we may have seen Smith fall 62-57 to the GDS Bengals in the men’s final of the HAECO, but that was the best basketball I have ever seen Silas Mason play…Over the two-day stretch of Friday and Saturday, Silas scored 40 points, with 24 on Friday in the semis, and then 26 on Saturday night/afternoon, in the Championship Game…Maybe there were times in the past where Silas would lose his focus, but not on Saturday night….You go 16-16 at the free throw line, you are locked in and focused on the front part of that orange rim…It was a “Silas Night”, Holy Mackerel Night on back-to-back nights for Silas Mason, as he was leading his Smith Golden Eagles, in what we could call the “Golden Game”, as the HAECO Tournament Title was on the line, last evening in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center….Mason was facin’ some tough odds, but he and his Eagles made a great run, and Mason was just six points away from being the HAECO men’s MVP…
That was a well-played men’s title game, with excitement throughout, and you have to give a ton of credit to Smith coach Derrick Partee and Greensboro Day Coach Freddy Johnson for the job they did, in leading their teams into what is the unpromised land…It seems like it is the Promised Land, but there are no promises that you will end up the Championship Game…
We send out another vote of confidence to Northwest Guilford coach Lee Reavis, who did an super job orchestrating his team to the men’s Third Place victory…Coach Reavis juggled his lineup and the way he did things on Saturday gave his team a major boost, after their loss to Smith on Friday night…..NWG and Coach Reavis came up with some very solid lineup changes, and it worked out to the positive for the Vikings..
On the girls/women’s side of the court, you have to give it up for the Northwest Guilford Vikings and first-year head coach Haley Hackett…The Vikings started a bit slow versus Ragsdale, but once the ladies got rolling they were on their way to the title…The three senior captains played a large part in the NWG Vikings success on Saturday…
Thalia Carter, the Women’s MVP, was a young lady of empowerment out there on the basketball court…Carter took charge and she was a team leader for the Vikes, and when you go with the combo of Carter and Kargo(Reagan), you can end up going a long way in any tournament….I remember Carter from all the way back in her days with the Northwest Guilford Middle School and they were playing for the Conference Championship over at Southwest Guilford Middle School, in “The Pit”…”The Pit”, at Southwest Guilford, is like a sunken court downstairs at the school and it gives you a feeling of being at “The Pit”, in Albuquerque, New Mexico…..Carter was getting it done back then and she is still getting it done today…(TC-MVP)
Reagan Kargo might be the best overall shooter of the Kargo Sisters, who for many years now have formed the “Kid Kargo Show”….You have Bailey, Campbell, and Reagan, and the first time we saw Reagan on the basketball court, was over at Aycock Middle, now Swann Middle and Reagan was there on that Monday afternoon at Aycock, leading her Mendenhall Middle School Mustangs to a win over the Aycock Lions…Best player on the court that day, without a doubt was Reagan Kargo…The youngest kid, in the “The Kid Kargo Show”, still getting it done today..Kargo on the HAECO All-Tournament Team and she started out Saturday ice-cold from the field, and she was hit with two personal fouls, so she sat down, but when she left the bench and re-entered the game, Kargo ripped off 10 quick points, she finished the game with a team-high 17 points….The kid, in the “Kid Kargo Show”, is still on the go…
How about 8 points, 16 rebounds and 7 blocked shots??? Big Meg/Megan Harkey would say, “Hey that was me”, and it was…The NWG post player was holding down her spot/post and she was doing this one thing I noticed, and she was doing it well for NWG…Harkey was causing disruption….That is a key word and on defense, with her long arms and long legs, Megan Harkey can be a “Disruptive Force” in the lane for Northwest Guilford, and that is what she was doing on Saturday…Harkey won 10 defensive rebounds and she gave Ragsdale fits with plan of disruption…In the classroom, the teacher will let you have it if you are causing a disturbance, but on the basketball court, you get extra credit for wrecking havoc….Jadyn Murray gives Megan Harkey a good backup for the post and the Vikings had their hands full, with the two strong post players from Ragdale in Palmore and Maros…Those two have been playing very tough this year…In the past two seasons, Megan Harkey’s physical skills have caught up with her mental skills, and this kid is living and loving the life of being 6’6, and making/developing herself a life on the basketball court…
Just one more NWG girls note…The play of little/small senior guard Hannah Baker, was a big plus in this tournament…This kid is giving the Lady Vikings a true boost off of the bench….Hard to believe Baker, the shot taker and the shot maker, is already in her senior year at NWG…And a back-tap back at Coach Hackett on her team’s title….You know her dad Joey Hackett, brother Jody Hackett, and uncle Dino Hackett, plus cousin Jax Hackett, all have to be sitting around smiling today and we are sure they are very proud, of Haley Hackett…..
From Ragsdale, a hard one to swallow for them after winning the title one year ago, and then falling in the Final this season, but Ragsdale graduated a couple of players that many had forgotten about, and that would be Faith Price and K.D. Walker…They both had big games in the final in 2018….I really do like that current Ragsdale backcourt of Nyah Stallings, the senior and the two juniors, Frazier and Monroe….Nyah Stallings spoke with us on Friday after Ragsdale’s semifinal win, and Nyah Stallings is a class act…Outstanding young lady and she will learn from the Tigers loss on Saturday, and the learning usually comes a few days later, after the other feelings wear off…To me this tandem of Frazier and Monroe, is almost like calling out the old Utah Jazz combo of Stockton and Malone….I can still remember Diamond Monroe and Mariah Frazier, from their days back at the Eastern Guilford Middle School…..Monroe would take most all of her shots from outside the foul line, and she was a three-point shooting ace….I saw her for the first time in a Middle School game with Eastern Guilford at Mendenhall, and unfortunately for Mendenhall, Reagan Kargo had already moved on to high school by then…Monroe would let it go, and it would go in, and usually it would be good for three points…
Frazier and Monroe and I would say Mariah Frazier has become one of the top defensive players in the state over the past two seasons….Frazier is a very tall defending guard and she usually jumps center to start the game, for the Ragsdale Tigers…Frazier has the length and she makes it work to her advantage….Frazier and Monroe….I wish Hot Rod Hundley was her to call it for us, and it would be like we had “Hot Rod” calling Stockton to Malone, all over again…..
Those Greensboro Day School girls are still trying to get over the hump and advance to the Championship Game and they seem to get a little closer every season….Coach Mara Montana has these Lady Bengals on the right path and their time is coming…With “Full Throttle” Fullwood, Hailey Blackwell, Caroline Wyrick, the new kid Paula Graichan, Drew Alexander and others, the time is not too far away…..It took the Northern Guilford girls several years to get to the Championship Round, but they finally got over the hump and with their new kids like Newsome, DeLisa, and Zlotkowski, those freshman with the fresh faces, those kids will have Northern back up there before you know it and little Harris, Jazzy Harris, is just one year away from being ready to play with the varsity Nighthawks..
Final note is a return note…..Good to see Reagan Maynard back near full strength for the Page Pirates…Maynard with 21 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds for the Page Pirates, in the Pirates’ win over Smith on Saturday…Reagan missed the first part of the season for Page, due to a knee injury…Now she is back and ready to go…
Maybe some more notes added in here later, but that is it for now……
Saw hampton catch a alley pass from half line and omg WOW best play of the tournament. Again can anyone jump anywhere near this kid? Best athlete i Guilford Forsyth in any sport.
That might have been the play where he caught that pass that was thrown behind him and he pulled the pass in as he caught it and then finished with an unbelievable reverse layup….
He also nailed some long three’s and one of those three’s came as a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter and Chris looks back at the clock the other way, looking behind him to check the time, then he let it rip from about 45 feet and nailed the three, to end the quarter…
Christian Hampton is just such an emotional player, he has to make sure his emotions don’t get the best of him and take him overboard in his reactions to his big plays….
He is a character and probably the most entertaining player, male of female, that we have playing high school basketball, in Guilford County…
The Hampton kid is some kind of athlete and I really often wondered what it would have been like, if he would have played football…Might have been a wide-open slot receiver….
He/Christian Hampton just received another college offer today/Monday, this one from Mount Olive College/University….