The start of something special by Adrian curry
Tonight I kicked off my preseason tour by going to the quad scrimmage over at Africentric that featured Africentric, Westerville south, Whitehall and northland. The scrimmage was a round-robin with 3 games for each team. In some cases it was their first time playing someone other than themselves. It was a great atmosphere as it felt more like a mid-season game than a scrimmage. The four teams all have high expectations for the season including Westerville south and Whitehall looking to make deep runs into March. The theme over at Westerville south is tradition starts here as they start with a brand new coaching staff that demands hard and intelligent play. Was very impressed with Westerville south’s roster as it looks deeper and more talented than a year ago. You can depend on Aja, anyssa and gabby to score but if you find another scorer will be tough to stop. Still need to work on defense but the offense is usually ahead of the defense 2 weeks into the preseason. I was looking forward to watching Whitehall and Alexia Mobley. What I saw was a very aggressive defense and will have no problem turning teams over with their press and trapping style. My only concerns are they are not very deep and teams that have size especially at the guard position could be a problem for Whitehall. This shouldn’t happen in the conference. Still very impressed with Whitehall as a whole. Northland played as solid as they could despite the injuries especially to their best player who suffered a concussion last week. Expect northland to be heavily favored to win the city league north once at full strength. Azariah binford will be a major force for northland this season. Then Africentric showed why they are the defending state champs for a reason dominating a pretty good Westerville south and Whitehall teams. Just made northland in one half looked way overmatched. It will take a very special team to beat them this season and prevent them from 3-peat. They may actually be better from a year ago as sakima walker is only scratching the surface of her potential. Also the starting backcourt is in its 3rd year together in Alexia smith and nyam Thornton. Maybe the most underrated backcourt in the area. Also have some players that played small complimentary roles last year will play a bigger role this year. Mark down December 7th where Hamilton heights (tn) plays Africentric in hoops for harvest. The stars will be out for that game with treasure hunt and kamilla Cardozo for Hamilton heights and sakima walker along with Alexia smith and nyam Thornton.