Friday, September 11, 2009
Cave Spring’s Henderson gets UVa offer, reschedules trip
Salem’s Barnette (or Barnettes) worth a look
Doug Doughty
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Cave Spring basketball standout Josh Henderson, originally scheduled to take an official visit to Virginia this weekend, has postponed his UVa trip until Oct. 9-10.
So, where is Henderson going this weekend?
To Charlottesville, of course.
Henderson’s mom, Carol, said Friday that Josh is going to Virginia unofficially today and will attend the Cavaliers’ football game with Texas Christian.
UVa’s strategy isn’t exactly clear but the Cavaliers will be entertaining 6-9 James Johnson from San Diego on an official visit and may not want to divide their attention between the two big men.
Virginia, with two scholarships still uncommitted, has decided to use both grants on frontcourt players. Henderson and Johnson both have been offered scholarships and one is not contingent on the other.
The offer to Henderson was made during a unscheduled midweek trip to Charlottesville during the first week of September.
Henderson already had been invited for an official visit at that point but had not been offered a scholarship.
“They were on me about seeing film from last year,” said Cave Spring coach Billy Hicks, whose Knights won the Group AA Division III state championship. “So, I sent them a film and they watched it and they decided they were going to offer him, but they wanted him to come up there. They called him immediately.”
“So, he drove up there with his parents and they offered him a scholarship, which they hadn’t done previously. It was kind of crazy because UVa was in his final four and they hadn’t offered him.”
Davidson coach Bob McKillop had his home visit with Henderson this Wednesday night. That was the same night that UVa coach Tony Bennett called and said he wanted to reschedule Henderson’s official campus visit.
Henderson, who is 6 foot 11 and possibly not done growing, was at Vanderbilt for an official visit last weekend and will be at Wake Forest next weekend. He is scheduled to go to Davidson on Oct. 2.
“I think the bottom line is, Virginia would like for Josh to make them his final visit,” Hicks said.
Counting the midweek trip to Charlottesville when he got the offer, that would make three official or unofficial visits to UVa this fall. He also was at Virginia for a camp this summer.
MY THIRD PREP FOOTBALL assignment in as many weeks will take me to southwest Roanoke County and Dwight Bogle Field tonight to cover a pair of surprising 2-0 teams, Northside and Cave Spring.
I was impressed by Northside linebacker Nick Sigmon when he was a junior last year and, just this week, a Division I-A assistant expressed interest in him.
Cave Spring has put up some big numbers since going to a “spread” offense with junior quarterback Josh Woodrum at the controls, although I’ve become skeptical of spread offenses in the aftermath of last week’s exhibition in Charlottesville (described as an “atrocity” by former UVa fan and notorious bandwagon-jumper Doug Wright).
Earlier assignments have taken me to the Floyd-Christiansburg opener on Aug. 28, followed by Salem’s opener Sept. 4 at Lord Botetourt. The best player I saw in either of those games was Salem cornerback and wide receiver Stephen Barnette.
Barnette plays basketball for the Spartans and, at 6-3 and a listed 157 pounds, more closely resembles a basketball player than a football player. But, this is not just some guy whom they dragged out of the gym.
Barnette has been playing football since he was a second-grader in Carrboro, N.C., and said he is amenable to playing football in college if the offers are better in that sport. He has a twin brother, Reggie, who was injured and did not play at Lord Botetourt, but Salem sports editor “Hoop” Hoffman tells me that Reggie is as good as Stephen.
Stephen said that Salem’s football team camped at James Madison this summer and that a Dukes’ assistant said he would be marketable as a safety if he gained weight. Barnette told me that he runs a 4.6 40, but he looked like a blur running past the Lord Botetourt on a 68-yard interception return.
Barnette also had a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown and had a 44-yard reception that set up another TD. I hear he’s a good student and, at a time in the recruiting process when coaches are looking for sleepers, he’s as intriguing as ever.
Another player that caught my eye was Chase Vaughn, a 6-3, 268-pound senior defensive lineman from Floyd (although he was listed as an offensive lineman on the Floyd roster, which identified 18 offensive linemen and no defensive linemen).
Vaughn had three sacks against a Group AA Christiansburg team that was as big and athletic as any team the Buffaloes will find in their own Group A Three Rivers District. If it were up to me, I’d give Vaughn a second look.
I also wouldn’t rule out Christiansburg linebacker Zach Weller.
HANK SAWYER, THE 11TH-YEAR coach at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk, said that star linebacker Travis Williams has eliminated Virginia Tech and Virginia from a list of finalists that currently numbers six.
“It’s just the style of what they do,” said Sawyer, referring to the Cavaliers and Hokies. “He’s looking for a team that has a little more speed on defense.”
Don’t accuse me of tooting the Hokies’ horn but who ever thought of Tech as slow on defense? And, while Virginia hasn’t had as much success as Tech in recent years, the UVa defense hasn’t been half bad. The Cavaliers were 42nd in Division I-A in total defense last year after finishing 23rd in 2007 and 17th in 2006.
Sawyer said that Williams (6-3, 205) is considering Miami, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Penn State and LSU. Tennessee and LSU trail the other four schools.
Williams, who missed Lake Taylor opening game with a strained ligament in one of his elbows, entered his senior year with 59 career sacks and had 35 receptions for 595 yards as a junior. Sawyer is the Lake Taylor track coach and says that Williams run a 4.38 in the 40.
Virginia Tech, in particular, has signed a lot of good players out of Tidewater. The Hokies got linebacker Purnell Sturdivant out of Lake Taylor, but Lake Taylor hasn’t really been a Tech school. Wide receiver Terrell Golden (Penn State) and linebacker Marvin Mitchell (Tennessee) are two of the most notable Lake Taylor products to leave the state in recent years.
