The Lancers’ aggressiveness in the box finally paid off with two goals against Alleghany in the Region III quarterfinals at home on May 26.

“At first, it was hard for the guys to accept a girl to come in and try to be their coach,” head coach Tom McBride said. “But when they saw her play the position, and they started listening to her, it quickly dissolved.”

The arrests of a couple of star athletes wounded the community’s “Lancer Pride.” But reality can’t be ignored. And neither can the fact that these kids have only been charged with crimes and not convicted.

Amherst girls trailed by 1.25 points to Heritage coming into the 4 x 400 relay, the final event of the evening. First- and second-leg runners Allyssa Knight and Olivia Turner held the lead for Amherst. Heritage closed the gap and passed the Lancer’s third runner, Jessie Schurner, on the backstretch. Rustburg eased up as well, putting Amherst in third place as the final runner, Candace Davis took the baton.

“He’s laid back,“ senior pitcher Bianca Gilmore said. “He understands that we’re almost adults, and we like to play around a lot.“

Senior Ashton Paige initially earned his nickname, “Burn,“ as a tight end on the football field, but this spring it has translated to the baseball diamond.
“Big hitter, smash hitter, that’s what he is,“ senior right fielder D.J. Jones said. “That’s why we call him “Burn,“ ‘cause he burns balls up.“

“I had two teachers this week approach me about one child and how much she’d come out of her shell. I think that’s what we’ve seen with all of them. They just appear to be more confident, a little bit more self-esteem,“ coach Lesley McPhatter said.

On Thursday night the Amherst County School Board approved Cecil Phillips of King’s Fork High School in Suffolk. Phillips has worked as head football coach at King’s Fork since 2004.

“The best goal was the one this year against Nelson. We were 1-1, and we went into overtime. The first overtime we were just determined to win. We got the ball up to about the top of the 18 (yard box) and I just shot it and it went in,“ Lee said.

“We vibe off each other,” Knight said. “I always feel like my biggest competition is my team itself because we all do really good, and we try our hardest at practice.”

“We were in the game to the final,” Thomas said. “I told them I was proud of them because they never gave up, they kept battling.”

“You can only do so much in practice against your own team and have it be beneficial,“ Heeman said. “We just need to get into game play to make things work.”

“It’s my passion, and it’s the only sport I’m really good at. I’m not sure about college yet, but I’m going to play forever,“ Campbell said.

“We worked very hard against their flat-back four and tried to penetrate that,” Liberty coach Thomas Fox said. “I give them a lot of credit because they wouldn’t let us through the door.”
“In the past five years I’ve been at Liberty, Amherst and Liberty have been like a Redskins-Cowboys football game,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how good you are or how bad you are, it’s always a slug fest. And it was today.”

Junior Meagan Bell plays softball and volleyball for Sweet Briar College. She is an outside hitter in volleyball and centerfielder in softball. Bell, of Madison Heights, played softball, volleyball and basketball for Amherst County High School. She graduated in 2005.
The Vixen softball team is 8-19 overall, 1-7 in ODAC play. The next game is home against Lynchburg College on April 9 at 3:30.

“Being part of a team you learn things about life that you don’t get anywhere else such as making sacrifices for the team,“ Polaski said.

Change takes time, said the pro team, and this law is closely tied to society’s changing perceptions of women in sports, as well as other arenas.

2007 Recap: Last season the team was 8 - 6.
Key returning players: Russell Polaski, junior; Peyton Cox, junior; and Chris Tyree, senior
Newcomers: Ryan Polaski, Cody Stewart, Tyler Creasey, Cameron Bradley and Kitwan Peterson.
Coaching staff: first-year coach Roy Prior

2007 recap: 17-9 record, lost in regional quarterfinals to Cave Springs