THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260748
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Great Bridge's girls tennis team opens defense of its Newport News Invitational title today at Huntington Park Tennis Center.
Should the Wildcats succeed, it could be the first of several titles they bring home this season.
The reigning Southeastern District champions return five of their top six singles players, including 1993 league champion Sara Guthrie and 1992 district winner Carey Stafford. Four of the top six are seniors.
And the group is smarting over how their season ended last year, when they were probably the second-best team in the Eastern Region but wound up in the same half of the regional draw as eventual champion First Colonial and were eliminated.
Cox, a team Great Bridge had beaten early in the regular season, earned the region's second berth to the Group AAA state tournament.
``The girls were disappointed at how things worked out last year,'' said Ginny Matish, who coaches the Wildcats along with Kay Stone. ``They definitely want to get out of the region and make it to state.''
Perennial Eastern District champion Maury, regional qualifier Booker T. Washington and Churchland are the other South Hampton Roads teams. Peninsula District champion Ferguson, Menchville, Warwick and Denbigh round out the eight-team field.
The tournament will feature eight flights of singles and four brackets of doubles. Play begins today at 8 a.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m.
BRAND-NEW LEAGUE: When the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy football team visits Atlantic Shores Saturday, the teams won't just be playing for bragging rights. They'll also be playing for first place in the new Colonial Football Association.
The CFA, which this season includes N-SA, Atlantic Shores, Norfolk Academy, Catholic and Hampton Roads Academy, is the area's first independent schools football conference since 1985. That year, the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools dropped football as an official sport because less than half the members played the sport at the varsity level.
New TCIS member Greenbrier Christian will join the CFA next season. The Gators are in the second year of two-year commitments regarding scheduling, which prevented them from playing a full conference slate this year.
The inclusion of Greenbrier in the TCIS brings the number of conference schools playing football to five, enough for the sport to regain official status within the league. But N-SA athletic director Randy Davis said the teams had committed to forming the CFA before Greenbrier came aboard, and will stick with the new league for now.
Norfolk Academy will begin CFA play Sept. 9 at Hampton Roads Academy. Catholic's first conference game will be Sept. 23 at Atlantic Shores.
COLLEGIATE TIPOFF: The second Norfolk Collegiate girls basketball tipoff tournament opens tonight and Oaks' coach Larry Bowman expects to crown a new champion.
Nansemond-Suffolk meets Catholic at 5:15 p.m. and Greenbrier Christian squares off with defending champion Norfolk Collegiate at 7:00. A consolation final will be held at Saturday at 1 with the championship game to follow.
``We lost a ton,'' Bowman said of his team. ``We are in a rebuilding period. We will be much better in October.'' The Oaks will start two juniors and three sophomores.
``I think Nansemond-Suffolk has got to be the pre-tournament favorite,'' Bowman added. N-SA returns nearly everyone.
Greenbrier Christian lost a pair of seniors but still has 6-3 forward Robin Smith.
TITANS SEEK COACH: Lake Taylor plans to begin interviewing for its boys basketball coaching job next week, even though Jarrell Wilkerson hasn't officially resigned. Wilkerson is expected to become an assistant at Hampton University.
Bill Chambers, the head coach at North Carolina Wesleyan, called Lake Taylor athletic director Bert Harrell from Belgium last week to express his interest. Chambers, who played at North Carolina and whose father, Bill Chambers, coached at William and Mary, was a finalist for the Norview job.
JARMAN JUMPS: Churchland's girls basketball team got a boost when Michelle Jarman, a 6-1 senior, transferred in from Great Bridge.
``Our weakness has always been rebounding and Michelle is a refined inside player,'' Truckers coach Duke Conrad said. ``I think she can average close to 15 points per game.'' MEMO: Staff writer Denise Michaux contributed to this story. by CNB