Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee • 17

I sidelines Allen Gregory Sports Writer Denton has impressive ARCA debut JI lLl Kelly Denton has joined 1 the fast lane Building on his success in the Late I Model division the 22 year old Bristol resident made an i impressive debut on eb 11 in the I ARCA 200 in Daytona whole experience was a Denton said worked hard put in a lot of hours and then it seemed like everything just came Denton earned the No 23 starting spot in the 42 car field with a second round qualifying time of 182 mph Denton adjusted to the draft and wind gusts in his 1995 ord Thunderbird built for an intermediate size track and then barely escaped a multi car wreck en route to a 12th place finish were definitely Denton said goals were to qualify in the top 40 and finish in the top 20 The car was pretty good in the draft but it was hard to find a Chevrolet who wanted to hook up with us We learned how to steal air off cars and which lines to run for Denton who once raced WKA Go Karts at Municipal Stadium in Daytona enjoyed the high speeds get really fast until after our qualifying session when we found some problems in the rear Denton said four laps in the race we were going 185 to 190 Denton was surprised to learn that Benny Parsons and the ESPN crew of announcers placed part of the blame on him for the spectacular wreck at the end of the race lot of people including ESPN said it looked like the 1 wreck was my fault but evidently they didn't look at the whole said Denton who had Winston Cup regular Brett Bodine as a spotter watched the replay of that wreck about 300 times I went into the corner and the car in front of me almost i 1 stopped I had to practically stand i on the brakes My car got kind of loose but I never touched i Denton his loyal brother crew chief Ron and the Denton team had to work overtime just to get to Daytona 1 snow hurt us bad but weI were determined to race and we prepared for the Denton I said able to get some of our parts delivered to Bristol and we had to take our hauler up to Exit 6 a couple days before we left for Daytona just so we could make it to interstate Then we had to deal with an ice storm all the way to North Carolina Once we got to Daytona we were taking air filters sheet metal and all sorts of things back to the motel to work The weirdest part of week in Daytona happened away from the track were driving down the road in Daytona when this other car noticed our Virginia tags and drove up to Denton said turns out that the guy (Rick Wells) was from Kingsport We had been trying to reach Rick for a week because we have a sponsor We were getting depressed but we were able to reach a sponsor deal with Rick and his Engineered Denton plans to compete in the ARCA event in Atlanta in early March along with races in I Talladega and Charlotte Michigan and Pocono are also possibilities excited about future races because our car is more suited to 1 Bristol Herald Courier Bristol Virginia Tcnncsscan PORTS King of charity Larry Sharrett makes his free throws 2C Wednesday ebruary 21 1996 Jeff Byrd named to new position at Bl By GEORGE STONE Sports Editor Jeff Byrd a 23 year sports marketing ex ecutive was named as vice president and general manager of Bristol International Raceway Tuesday in an announcement made by Speedway Motorsports Inc chair man Bruton Smith Byrd 46 comes to Bristol from RJ Rey nolds Tobacco Sports Marketing Enterprises The Wake orest University graduate has served in various roles at Sports Marketing Enterprises since joining the company in 1973 The new position came totally unexpected to Byrd you told me three weeks ago that I was going to end my career with RJ Rey nolds to run a racetrack I would have had you locked said Byrd who will assume his new position on March figured retire go to the beach in South Carolina and open up a bait and tackle During his most recent assignment as vice president of business development Byrd helped set up Sports Marketing Enter outside client business Prior to join ing RJ Reynolds he was motorsports edi tor of the Winston Salem Journal bringing a person into the Speed way Motorsports Inc family that has a rec ognizable presence in US Smith said has had an instrumental role with a company that is responsible for the tremendous growth of NASCAR Win ston Cup Sports Marketing Enterprises president Wayne Robertson gave his blessing on the new appointment hate that Jeff is leaving our company but wish him well in his new Rob ertson said is some consolation that he is remaining in NASCAR Winston Cup racing and will be able to continue to help the sport Please see BYRD Page 2C The life of an official Calling hoops not as easy as it may appear By BUCKY DENT Bristol Herald Courier lot of people think all you do is throw the ball up and says David Gannaway officiating is much more than Basketball is perhaps the hard est sport to officiate for several reasons the quick pace of the game and the proximity to the court being the two most obvious ones Working with different part ners is another adjustment as are the changing mechanics in volved in the three man system that has become common in Southwest Virginia and North east Tennessee Gannaway Lewis oreman and Chuck Moffatt face a challenge on a ebruary riday Their des tination is Richlands where work a Southwest District game between old rivals Rich lands and Graham They meet in Abingdon at 4:30 pm then drive for an hour and arrive at Richlands Middle School about 30 minutes before the start of the JV game They are directed to their dressing room a coaches office as are most dressing rooms in the area and waste no time preparing After changing from suits and ties to their striped shirts Gan naway and Moffatt gather around oreman the lead ref on this game as he pulls out a mag netic board to diagram rotations and how vari ous inbounds plays should be The Ap palachian Of ficials Association has changed mechanics going to a system that requires two men to be on the same side as the ball much like the NBA and college The goal: Better more efficient court cover age oreman is into details though not overly so as he hurries through pre game His last words deal with the importance of get ting their night off to a good start have a good JV game so that things can go he says as the trio leaves their dressing quarters and heads for Please see RES Page 2C note This is the second of a two part handled senes on basketball officials IHHM ivfvvM 11 Ayl vW Herald CourierJoe utia Dave Gannaway knows for a fact that officiating basketball is more than just throwing the ball up Herald CourierJoe uta V' 5 KKsr fl all I WUl' haMPuHHAIHHi SfeC? Ln John Jon Hall reaches from behind Brandon Matheny (30) in an attempt to steal the ball Holston claims win over Trojans in Hogoheegee By ROBERT ANDERSON Bristol Herald Courier DAMASCUS One streak con tinued and another one ended Tuesday night Holston extended Southwest Vir longest string of wins to 11 games as the Cavaliers registered their first Hogoheegee District tournament victory in seven years with an 81 78 first round decision over John Battle The triumph moved Holston (17 4) into Thursday semifinals against second seeded Lebanon but the season nearly came to a close instead Battle (7 15) recovered from a nine point deficit in the fourth quarter to take a 76 75 lead with less than a minute to play However Travis Owens put Hol ston ahead Justin Campbell made a crucial steal and Jeremy De Busk and Johnny Widener each converted two free down the stretch to allow the Cavaliers to escape told my kids after the game your heads up because you von but you need to get back to Holston coach Todd Coleman said played not to lose John Battle played twice as bard as we Battle coach Doug Mitchell have been disappointed in his near win after the Tro jans lost both regular season meet ings by at least 20 points Mitchell said had some sluggish moments but our kids did everything we asked them to do and did everything we asked them to do to prepare to play this There were big efforts turned in by a number of players on both clubs senior tandem of center Jon Hall and forward Jason Brum mitt combined for 55 points with Hall scoring 21 of his game high 31 in the first half Holston was led by center John ny Widener with 25 points and the 6 foot 3 senior was joined by Owens Campbell and DeBusk as major factors in the victory John Battle led for much of the second and third periods as Hall and Brummitt repeatedly found gaping holes in interior defense However the Cavaliers appeared ready to put the game away after Brandon Matheny hit a stickback Campbell drilled a 3 pointer and Widener hit from the Please see CAVS Page 2C Burton freezes I Vikings By BUCKY DENT I Bristol Herald Courier APPALACHIA An 8 2 run is one thing but 36 what JI Burton did to Powell Valley Tuesday night' break open a one point game and turn it into an 84 50 laugher in the first round of the Lonesome' Pine District Tournament In the other games No 2 Kelly disposed of seventh seeded Pound 66 48 while No 3 Ap palachia got by sixth seed Clint wood 65 63 The No 4 Raiders (11 10) got off to 8 2 runs to start the first two i quarters but led the No 5 Vi 1 kings just 36 35 with 6:36 left in the third quarter after Todd trey from left of the key 1 thought we were looking good and we were in good said fl Powell Valley coach Jimmy Mitch ell that I explain what What happened was a complete i meltdown The Vikings turned colder than a meat locker missing 11 of their last 12 field goal tries in the third quarter i Meanwhile Burton mercilessly punished every Powell Valley mis take Seemingly every timeytheV Vikes missed a three the Raiders got a long rebound and snow birded for an easy two When Powell Valley did" get back on defense Burton executed flawlessly as point guard Doug Campbell broke down the Viking defense at will scoring or either finding open teammates for good looks The result was 21 of 27 shooting by the top six players after halftime It left Burton coach Stan Wilson feeling good about his chances for a fourth straight LPD tourney crown seems like we all pick it up when tournament time he smiled as well as had I a team execute in years We I moved well without the ball had crisp passing and good team play And we caught Powell Valley in a bit of a ive Raiders reached double fig ures led by Isaac 20 In perhaps the finest all around ef fort of his career Adkins hauled in 15 rebounds and doled out five assists three coming on sharp outlet passes in the fourth quar ter Campbell added 19 points eight assists and six rebounds while Mark Sturgill was good for 16 points reshman Reggie Sen sabaugh and Ho Thrower kicked in 10 apiece knew deep down we could do said Campbell got into our offense like coach told us to and worked for the good shot It gets the first game jitters out of the The Burton zone also turned in an good job on Powell Thomas Jones who averaged over 20 ppg in the regular season but was held to six points on three of 15 shooting Sophomore post Matt Walls led the Vikings (9 10) with eight points all in the first quar Please see LPD Page 4C Vs mile Denton said of the ARCA drivers have factory help and work with Winston Cup teams but capable of competing with them When I raced Go Karts in Daytona we would always drive by the race track in the morning and wonder what it would be like to race there Notebook: The Abingdon based ood Country USA entry driven by Doug Heveron recorded a last place finish in the 300 Busch Grand National race in Daytona on Saturday after an early crash Heveron qualified 31st in the 46 car field The Liverpool NY resident replaced Rick Wilson in the Charlie Henderson owned ride just prior to the start of the season Marion tops alcons 68 51 By ALLEN GREGORY Bristol Herald Courier ABINGDON The Marion Scarlet Hurricane once ruled the Highlands District basketball tour nament winning four titles in a row at one point After a three year lull Marion is back in the Highlands hunt In its most complete perform ance of the season fifth seeded Marion dusted the No 4 Abingdon alcons 68 51 Tuesday night in the opening round of the High lands District tournament It was the first Highlands tournament win three years for Marion Action will shift to Gate City Middle School on Thursday and riday Marion will face top seed Gate City at 8 pm while second seed Lee High ill play No 3 Vir ginia High at 6:30 The title game is set for riday at 8 pm Marion (7 15) has been haunted by injuries to five players and close losses this season' However the Scarlet Hurricane zoomed out to a 11 2 lead Tuesday and then held on with crisp ball movement along with transition baskets ef fective inside play and pressure defense think we finally put every thing together and played like we are capable of said 6 foot 3 senior banger Todd Lincoln who bagged 10 points and was a force on the boards for Marion had a couple of losses at the beginning of the season that might have got our confidence down and then we lost a bunch of close ones spent a lot of nights in the locker room and on the bus won dering what went wrong We pulled together as a team in this game" Marion got production from sev eral areas Smooth six foot three freshman post Austin Dexter bagged 18 points alert 6 4 junior in Highlands Jake Hayes supplied 13 points fi ll junior guard Leon Rasnake added eight points and 6 2 senior wing Aaron Sage provided interior defense passing and smarts remember that Marion used to always play well in the district tournament and then advance into the said Sage still nursing a back injury wanted to continue that tradition and it was nice to win a tournament game after three years We've hus tled all year had good practices and then we had one of our best games all season Veteran Marion coach KW Lawson never lost confidence in his team which experienced much success on the junior varsity level ask for a better group of young men to work Law son said our 15 losses six were by five points or less The players just kept plugging and be lieving played good in spurts but this was our best over all After falling behind 43 24 in the third quarter Abingdon made a strong rally to close within 61 51 with 1:17 left to play The alcons could not complete the comeback however Please see MARION Page 2C Region volleyball starts tonight Page 2l I sidelines The life of an official note.