Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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28 UCW FEBRUARY 7-13, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS L-R: Madeline Shook, Amey Shook, Amelia Shook Photo credit: Carlton Hubbard Photography How would you like to conduct your own fantasy draft of North Carolina's best high school bas- ketball talent? For Jack Britt coach Ike Walker Jr. this wasn't a fantasy, it was reality. He recently helped choose the North Carolina All-Stars for this year's annual Carolinas All- Star Basketball Classic. e game is scheduled March 24 in the gym at Wilmington's Hoggard High School. Walker will serve as the assis- tant coach of the North Carolina team that will face a squad of South Carolina's top seniors. He and North Carolina head coach Lee Reavis of Northwest Guilford recently met in Greensboro at the offices of the North Carolina Coaches Association to select this year's team. e state's public school high school basketball coaches nominate seniors from their teams for selec- tion to the game. Phil Weaver, games director for the NCCA, for- warded the nominations to Walker and Reavis. Walker said the nominations include basic infor- mation like scoring and rebounding averages along with reasons each coach thinks his player should be picked. Beyond that, he had to do some homework. At Reavis' request, Walker did some checking on play- ers from the eastern part of the state while Reavis studied those from the west. "We talked to some college coaches and some assistants,'' Walker said. "I talked to some high school coaches in the area where the prospective nominees played. We used every avenue of informa- tion-gathering we could.'' e team has already been selected and will be announced soon. Walker said he's pleased with the 10 players he and Reavis chose. "We've got kids going to ACC schools and being recruited by ACC schools,'' he said. Walker has an advantage preparing for the game as he's been an all-star coach before. He led the East All- Stars to victory in the 2016 North Carolina Coaches Association East-West game in Greensboro. Walker said the biggest lesson he learned from his first all-star experience was to sell his team on the benefits of playing defense. "If you play good defense you can enjoy the game even more because you can rebound missed shots and get out and run in transition,'' he said. "If you just let kids score and don't take pride in defense, you're taking the ball out of bounds and playing offense against a set defense.'' Walker said he'll tell the players he coaches in Wilmington to respect the game of basketball. "Let's not do what we see the NBA guys doing, which is just showing up and not necessarily competing,'' he said. "We want to compete and respect our opponent, respect the game.'' e gym at Hoggard is named for Fayetteville native Sheila Boles. A Seventy-First graduate, Boles was on the first women's basketball team at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She went on to become the first woman in North Carolina to coach a varsity boys basketball team, leading Wilmington Hoggard to the state playoffs eight times. Her record in 11 seasons was 167-121. She became the first female to be named a high school athletic director in New Hanover County his- tory. She is a member of the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame. Amey Shook has taken the girls swim- ming program at Cape Fear a long way in just two seasons – all the way to the Patriot Athletic Conference championship. Shook, who went to the University of Miami on a swimming scholarship, has been a lover of the sport her whole life. "I just got back into teaching and coach- ing recently,'' she said after taking 12 years off to have a family. at family includes daughters Amelia and Madeline, who are both members of her Cape Fear swim team. She's used her daughters to help scour the halls and classrooms at Cape Fear for swimming prospects. "I'm looking for posi- tive kids, trying to find some well-rounded athletes who want to try something new,'' she said. e hard part is convincing them to get up at 5 a.m. for 5:30 a.m. practice. "Once they come and see it for a week or two, they get hooked and stick with it,'' she said. e Cape Fear girls team obviously stuck with it, led by the efforts of Amelia and Madeline Shook. Both girls swam on Cape Fear's 200 med- ley relay and 400 free relay teams. Amelia won the 200 free and 400 back while Madeline won the 50 and 500 free. Coach Shook said Madeline made sacri- fices this season for the benefit of the team. "She was willing to swim whatever it took to win the championship,'' Amey said. "She stepped aside for her sister so she could have an event to win.'' Madeline said it can be a little challeng- ing when it's 5 a.m. and time to get up for practice and your mom is the coach – but other than that, she said, swimming is swimming. "Both of my parents went to the University of Miami,'' she said. "I've always loved swimming and always been on a swim team. My parents have tried to keep us healthy and active.'' Amelia said her mother talks about swimming a lot and tries to push her and her sister a little harder because she knows what they are capable of. "She stands in the hallway (at school) and encourages everyone to join the swim team,'' Amelia said. "We went from having three girls on the team to 14 or 15. She tries to keep a positive attitude all the time and keep them on the team and returning.'' Coach Shook hopes to encourage athletes from other sports to give swimming a try. "We're a tremendous cross-training sport in the winter,'' she said. "I have soccer play- ers, baseball players, football players and volleyball players on my team. It helps their other sports. "At Cape Fear, I'm continuing to spread the word.'' Britt's Walker helps pick NC all-star team by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Shook has Cape Fear swimming on fast track by EARL VAUGHAN JR. EARL VAUGHAN JR., Sports Editor. COMMENTS? EarlUCWSports@ gmail.com. 910-364-6638. Jack Britt coach Ike Walker Jr.