The traditional Lion Dance performed by Chris Spoon and Johnny Hsu from the Shaolin Martial Arts Academy in Roanoke marked the conclusion of the Lunar New Year Celebration at Roanoke College on Jan. 26.

The Lion Dance at the conclusion of Roanoke College's Lunar New Year Celebration is performed by Chris Spoon and Johnny Hsu from the Shaolin Martial Arts Academy in Roanoke. Photo by Carrie E. Cox

A Korean student delegation from Wonju, Korea, Roanoke’s first Sister City, and teacher Jinny Kim joined in celebrating the Year of the Dragon. The middle school students were here for three weeks, staying in homes throughout the Roanoke Valley.

“It’s the next best thing to traveling,” said Salem resident Jeanette Hayes.

Her family, which includes 7-year-old Audrey who was with her and older children Jordan, 15, and Skyler, 13, hosted Hei Ri, who is 15 the way Koreans count years, or 14 in American years.

Dr. Bob Roth was active in Roanoke’s Sister Cities program after returning from 10 years as a medical missionary at Wonju Christian Hospital. Roth and his wife, Dot, were at the celebration.

Roanoke College students studying Asian culture and language took part in the event. Students in Japanese 102 sang two songs.

Adrian Gillem, a freshman from the Virgin Islands, and Xavier Chance, a freshman from Roanoke, enjoyed their first Lunar New Year at the college. “It is a big cultural thing on this campus. I’ll be coming here every year,” Gillem said.

“It got pretty ugly,” said Stewart. “We dominated the third quarter and made some substitutions. At one point we were up 21, but they cut it to 15 by the end of the quarter and then got as close as eight before we made some free throws to put it away.”

Kayla DeHart catches her breath before shooting a foul shot for the Highlanders.

Kayla DeHart led Glenvar with 12 points and Jessi Strom and Tanisha Wiley had 11 each.

“We beat them pretty good at our place, and sometimes when that happens the kids get a little lackadaisical when you play them the second time,” said Stewart. “And we always seem to struggle at Radford.”

The win gave Glenvar an 18-4 overall record to finish the regular season and an 8-2 record in Three Rivers District games. Both district losses were to Floyd County, the state’s top-ranked Group A team, but last Thursday in Floyd the Highlanders gave the Lady Buffaloes a scare. Glenvar led for most of the game before falling, 76-67.

Glenvar jumped out to a 12-0 lead at the outset and had the Buffaloes on the run. Floyd whittled the lead to 18-14 by the end of the quarter but Glenvar still led 36-31 at the half. Then Floyd roared back in the second half and it was tight down the stretch, unlike the first meeting when the Buffaloes pulled away.

“They made some shots, but they didn’t shoot like they did in the first game,” said Stewart.

Glenvar’s poor foul-shooting hurt the Highlanders down the stretch, making just 14 of 27 for the game and six of 14 in the fourth quarter.

“You can’t do that against a quality opponent,” said Stewart. “It was that kind of game. If we had gotten one or two more rebounds or one or two fewer turnovers, we could have won the game. It was a great atmosphere. Our girls like playing in that environment.”

Strom led the Highlanders with 26 points, just one off her career high. Wiley played a great floor game against the tough Floyd press and Morgan McKee played tough defense in the middle.

“She doesn’t get a lot of credit because she doesn’t score much, but she does what we need her to do and does a great job,” said Stewart of McKee.

With the win Floyd needed just one more victory to clinch the district, and that was expected to come Tuesday against Auburn. Glenvar will go into the tournament as the second seed, but that won’t start until the week of February 13.

“We’ll give them a couple days off, and coach (Billy) Wells is going to get a team together to play us a couple times to keep us sharp,” said Stewart. “I hate to go two weeks without a game. I was hoping we’d get a couple snowed out so we could play some makeup games next week.”

He joins his Heavenly Father with his beloved father and mother, James (Jim) Foster and Virginia F. Paitsel. His surviving family includes his two devoted daughters, Robyn Foster-Newcomb and Michelle Foster Carper and husband, Bobby; grandchildren, Lisa Jorgensen and husband, Jason, Brooke Caldwell, Zachary Carper, and Brandon Carper; great-grandchild, Ashley Jorgensen; sisters, Genevieve Hannah, Jeanette Huffman and husband, Leslie, and Barbara Huffman and husband, Charles; special friend and companion, Francis Foster and family; and many special nieces and nephews.

James S. Foster

James originally lived in New Castle where he raised his family and worked at Lawrence’s Bestway as a meat cutter and state meat inspector. He was later employed by Malone & Hyde as a foods coordinator.

From there, he worked with Valley Rich as an inspector. Educationally, he studied ministry at Ferrum College. The family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to physicians Dr. David Wyatt, Dr. David Buck, Dr. Mike Boyd, Dr. Matt Skelton, and the staff at Carilion Thoracic Intensive Care and Springtree Rehabilitation Center.

A funeral service was held on Jan. 26 at New Castle United Methodist Church. Interment followed at Huffman Memorial Park. The Rev. Lorraine Taylor and the Rev. Penny Wilson officiated.

Donations made in James’ name may be sent to either the Craig County Rescue Squad, 184 Paint Bank Rd., New Castle, VA 24127 or Salem Rescue Squad, 201 South Broad St., Salem VA 24153. Online condolences to the family may be made at www.johnmoakey.com.

The Highlanders thrilled a packed house with an 83-74 upset of Floyd County last Friday. Floyd came in as a top 10 team in the state Group A rankings and having beaten Glenvar in the first meeting by 14 points.

Glenvar's Tyler Crockett rides a Buffalo on his way to the hoop in Friday's win over Floyd County.

Floyd jumped to a 36-27 lead by halftime of Friday’s game, but the Highlanders came storming back with 56 points in the second half to race to the win, including 31 in the fourth quarter.

“We’re a second half team,” said Glenvar coach David Redding. “I can’t say enough about our kids responded in the second half. It was a heck of game. It was a shame someone had to lose.”

If someone had to lose, Redding was happy that it was Floyd. The win moved the Highlanders ahead of the Buffaloes into second place in the Three Rivers District standings. Coming into the week Radford was on top at 7-0, Glenvar was 7-2, and Floyd County was in third place at 6-2.

The Highlanders were home to Radford on Wednesday night and an equally rowdy crowd was expected. It was “Senior Night” and “Glenvar goes Green Night,” with special green shirts and discounts for bringing recyclable items to the game. Last Friday’s game with Floyd also had a festive atmosphere.

“Give Martha Hooker some credit,” said Redding. “She did a great job getting everyone excited.”

Still, most of the excitement came from the play on the floor. Tyler Crockett had 24 points for the Highlanders while Jeremy Williams had 22. Karlyn East had 19, Shaq Bonds had 10, and Chris Hodges had six and did his usual yeoman job on the boards.

Caleb Tanner lit up the gym with 36 points for Floyd, including five three pointers. He had 19 points in the fourth quarter as the two teams combined for 55 points in that quarter alone.

“We did everything but tackle him,” said Redding.

Yesterday’s game ended the regular season for the Highlanders, and they’ll have almost two weeks off before the Three Rivers Tournament. The win over Floyd lifted Glenvar to 15-6 just two years removed from a winless season, and that seems like almost ancient history.

“It was so much fun,” said Redding. “A lot of the alumni came up to congratulate us after the game, and that’s special. They said, ‘coach, you got Glenvar basketball back’.”

On Tuesday the Byrdmen played another nail-biter, coming out a few points short. Byrd dropped a an 83-78 game at Northside after coming from way behind, going ahead, and then falling shy at the end.

Byrd's Zach Doss scores over Northside's Todd Dunbar in Tuesday night action.

“Been there before,” said Byrd coach Kevin Tuck. “We’ve had a lot of games just like that.”

Byrd trailed 22-8 after one period and it appeared the Vikings might be on the way to a blowout. However, the Terriers cut four points off the lead in the second quarter, outscoring Northside 24-17, and trailed just 39-32 at the half.

The Byrdmen really started finding the range in the third quarter, outscoring Northside 30-20 to take a three point lead. They were dialing long distance as Zach Doss hit two threes and Jaylen Board, Joe Barton and Tyler Goodman had one each. Byrd was also seven-for-seven from the line.

“When you get 15 points on threes and seven points at the line you should do okay,” said Tuck.

The fourth quarter was nip-and-tuck, no pun intended, as the game wound down to another exciting Byrd finish. The Terriers had the ball down two with inside a minute to go but couldn’t get one to drop and Northside’s Todd Dunbar was intentionally fouled. He made one of two, leaving the door open for Byrd as Tuck called timeout with 13 seconds on the clock and three behind.

Byrd’s Barton got the ball with the option to shoot or pass, and he decided to shoot. Barton hit a last-second shot to stun Lord Botetourt last week, but this time the ball didn’t find the mark and Northside made two foul shots for the five point differential at game’s end.

“We knew the defense would come to him,” said Tuck. “He had the option and he took the shot. We had a chance.”

Barton finished with 27 points for game-high, one more than Dunbar. Doss had a season-high 17 and Board had 11. The Terriers hit eight three-pointers from five different players.

The loss dropped Byrd to 2-5 in the district and 5-15 overall, but they’re still in a great position to advance to the Region III, Division 4 tournament. The top three teams in the district, Rockbridge, Northside, and Alleghany, are all in Division 3. Two of three Division 4 teams advance so Byrd has to only beat out 7-12 Lord Botetourt or 2-18 Staunton River to make the regional.

Byrd is home this Friday for a “big” game with Staunton River, and being a border rival makes this an interesting game none the less. Next Tuesday the Terriers wrap up the regular season with a trip to Rockbridge.

Last Friday at Alleghany the Terriers got hammered by the Mountaineers, 78-56. Zac Hill led the team with 14 points, but the Terriers don’t match well with Alleghany.

“They go 6’8”, 6’6” and 6’5” and we’re guarding them with 6’3”, 5’8” and 5’7”,” said Tuck. “At one point Joe(Barton) was guarding a guy a foot taller and 125 pounds heavier than he is. And Joe is one of our heavier guys.”

The Byrd girls scored 182 points to easily outdistance second place Rockbridge, who was 101 points beind with 81. Lord Botetourt was third with 77, followed by Alleghany with 62 and Northside with 26.

The William Byrd girls won the Blue Ridge District swim championship at the Gator Center last week. Top row, left to right: Coach Martin, Paige Crocker, Courtney Heck, Annie Lane, Emily Heck, Mackenzie Lingle, Kali Edsall, Coach Terrell. Middle row, left to right: Brittany Ritter, Jess McGuire, Sarah Vipperman, Kacy Edsall. Bottom row, left to right: Amee Creamer, Hailey Mills. Girls not pictured are: Spencer Biggs, Lauren James, Megan Liptak, Morgan Liptak, Briea Miller and Taylor Zimmerman.

“It was such a great night… the culmination of lots of hard work and dedication for these athletes,” said Martin.  “We had tons of best times.  It’s really rewarding to look back at where some of these swimmers started this year and then see where they end up.  I was also really proud of their team spirit on deck. The girls’ win was a real team effort and Coach (assistant Kyndal) Terrell and I are so proud of them.”

Girls champions included Kacy Edsall in the 200 Free and 100 Free and Kali Edsall in the 500 and 50 Free, breaking Erin Tudor’s school record. Kali swam a time of 25.05 to beat Tudor’s mark by .07 seconds.

Annie Lane won the 200 IM and 100 Breast while Mackenzie Lingle won the 100 Fly and 100 Back. The girls also won three relays with Lane, Lingle and the two Edsall girls sweeping to wins in the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay. In the 400 Free Relay the foursome of Courtney Heck, Paige Crocker, Emily Heck, and Brittany Ritter was first.

In the boys meet Lord Botetourt was the team winner for the ninth straight year and coach Ashley Stoneham was the district boy’s Coach of the Year. Zac Dehli from Staunton River was the boys’ Swimmer of the Year.

This one was closer, as LB had 108 points to 84 for Staunton River and 76 for Byrd. Rockbridge was next with 65, followed by Alleghany with 54 and Northside with 40 points.

Byrd had two boys’ champions over three events. Drew Vipperman won the 200 IM and 500 Free and Luke Gerig was 100 Breast champ.

This weekend the Region III tournament will be hosted by James Madison University. Competition begins at 3 pm Saturday, February 4. Byrd swimmers in the regional include Sarah Vipperman, Shane McGuire, Kacy Edsall, Drew Vipperman, Annie Lane, Paige Crocker, Corben West, Kali Edsall, Courtney Heck, Emily Heck, Luke Gerig, Mackenzie Lingle, Brittany Ritter, Andrew Crocker, Cole Inman, and Michael Reid.

This is such an exciting time of year with all the championship meets,” said Martin.  “Districts was a great kick off for Regionals and States.”

Botetourt scored 108 points to win the boys’ championship, outdistancing second place Staunton River by 24 points. William Byrd was third with 76, followed by Rockbridge with 65, Alleghany with 54, and Northside with 40.

Tyler Bailey and the LB boys won the Blue Ridge District swim championship last week.

Tyler Bailey won a district championship for the boys with a first place finish in the 100 Fly, finishing with a time of 1:00.92. He also swam on the first place 400 Free Relay team. The boys 200 Medley Relay team also finished first with a time of 1:57.85.

Other events where LB boys qualified for regionals included the following: Boys 200 Free-6th Brandon Pierson 2:29.69; Boys 200 IM–2nd Ben Brinkley 2:35.35, 5th Ben Miller 2:54.24; Boys 100 Free-5th Robert Switzer 1:03.39, 6th Austin Smith 1:03.86; Boys 100 Back-2nd Devon Jackson 1:09.08, 6th Hal Bailey 1:28.67; Boys 100 Breast-3rd Matt Simpson 1:19.37; Boys 500 Free-5th Brandon Pierson 6:54.39; and the Boys 200 Free Relay took second.

William Byrd cruised to the girls’ title with 182 points, and LB edged Rockbridge, 80-78, to grab second. Alleghany was fourth with 62 and Northside had 26 points.

The 200 Medley and 400 Free Relay teams were both second and other events where LB girls made the regionals were as follows: Girls 200 IM-2nd Cassidy Jackson 2:29.07, 4th Anne Chappell Barkett 2:49.49; Girls 100 Breast-2nd Cassidy Jackson 1:17.81, 3rd Kristen Blanchard 1:22.46; Girls 100 Back-3rd Rachel Wrotniewski 1:10.36; Girls 100 Fly-4th Rachel Wrotniewski 1:11.79, 6th Anne Chappell Barkett 1:20.72; Girls 500 Free-5th Marissa Schade 7:11.76; Girls 50 Free-6th Kristen Blanchard 28.41; and the Girls 200 Free-6th Julia Bailey 2:36.93.

The Region III meet is at James Madison University this Saturday.

“If we win and also defeat Highland on Friday, that will force a play-off with the Cougars for the regular season championship,” said River coach Dan Bowser. “This is a big game for us. One of our goals at the begining of the season was to be district champions and now we have the opportunity to make that happen. We are looking forward to the challenge and hope that our fans will come out to support us.”

River comes into the game at 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the district, having lost only at Covington in Pioneer District play. Last week the Knights had little trouble with Craig County and Bath County as they beat both to set up the big game with Covington tonight.

The Knights beat Craig in Buchanan, 57-30. River was up 29-13 at the half and coasted to the win, with everyone on the team contributing.

“It was good to get everyone some playing time,” said Bowser. “Reanna Hamm got back into the lineup with a little playing time after being sidelined with an ankle sprain.”

Taylor England led River with 13 points and Morgan Hufford had 12 points, and six steals. Ashley King had nine points, Hamm had six, Ceira Webb had five and Cassandra Shaffer and Kaye Woods both had four points. Kaitlyn Barger and Libby Rhodes each had a bucket.

Last Friday at Bath the Knights won 45-30.

“We knew going in this would be a tough game,” said Bowser. “It was a close game until about halfway through the fourth quarter. We got several stops on defense and then converted from the foul line. We have been saying that sooner or later we would win a game at the foul line and that is what happened.”

The Knights were 13-for-16 from the foul line in the fourth quarter and 20-for-27 for the game. Hufford led River in scoring with 15 points and also had five steals and five assists. King had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Hamm just missed a double-double with nine points and 13 rebounds. England and Shaffer each had 4 points and Woods had three.

At 17-3 the Knights are now tied for sixth in the state poll of sportswriters and broadcasters among all Group A girls’ teams. Floyd County, at 19-1, is the top-ranked team in the state.

The one-day tournament, featuring eight of the leading basketball teams in the Roanoke Valley and state, will build on the Member One Shootout the Salem Kiwanis have showcased for several years. The event will be held on Saturday, February 4, at the Salem Civic Center, and Comcast has signed on as the presenting sponsor.

Roy Stanley, a friend and a fixture in the Roanoke Valley, died when a sudden illness claimed his life in April of 2002. He was one of the first African American broadcasters in the south. For almost 30 years he was on the air on WDBJ with an emphasis on high school athletics.

“This is a wonderful joint venture for the Salem Kiwanis Club,” says Brenda Giles, club president. “Roy was such an icon in the valley and we’re most appreciative for the opportunity to be associated with his memory.”

Since Stanley’s death, WDBJ through, the RSM Charitable Foundation, has awarded more than 50 scholarships to deserving high school seniors in the WDBJ viewing area. Following the completion of a successful tournament, the Salem Kiwanis Club hopes to join the RSM Charitable Foundation list of scholarship donors.

 “The shootout is a good fit for us in that it provides an opportunity for a civic club to make some money that can be applied right back into the community through charitable funding,” said Mike Bell, WDBJ programming and public service director. “The Kiwanis Club has a hefty list of organizations it supports that could benefit from this project and we’re going to do our part to promote the cause.”

Each year Salem Kiwanians raise thousands of dollars to give back to those in need in the Salem/Roanoke Valley. The club has supported such projects as Snack Buddies, a program that provides more than 4,000 mid-morning snacks to under-privileged students in elementary schools in Salem and Roanoke County; Challenger Little League, that gives physically and mentally challenged kids the joy of play the game of baseball; and scholarships for disadvantaged students to attend camp at Apple Ridge Farm and 4-H.

The tournament lineup features Salem versus Rockbridge(1 pm), Patrick Henry versus Waynesboro(3 pm), William Fleming versus Virginia Episcopal(5 pm) and Oak Hill versus Christ School(7 pm).

Tickets are $8 and are available through Ticketmaster or the Salem Civic Center box office. Tickets will be $10 the day of the event.

Last Tuesday the Rockets hosted James River, at Craig, and dropped an 80-55 decision to the Knights. Andy McCarty had 14 points and a game high 15 rebounds in the loss, and he continues to lead the area in rebounding. Derek Persinger had 15 points for the Rockets.

Zach Towers goes to the hoop against Parkway Christian. Photo by Regina DeVinney.

On Thursday the boys played at Parry McCluer, which has proven to be a tough place for the Rockets in the past. It wasn’t any better this time as the Blues took a 75-52 victory. McCarty had 21 and Persinger had 11.

“It was one of our better games at Parry McCluer,” said coach CJ Crowder. “We always struggle up there.”

The Rockets also played Parkway Christian in Vinton last week and dropped a 68-51 decision. Parkway was hot from behind the three-point-line in the early going and built a 30 point lead at one point. Craig rallied, but the Rockets found themselves in too big a hole to catch up. Josh Looney had 18 points and Zach Towers had 10.

The Rockets were scheduled to play at home against Highland on Tuesday, but results were too late for publication. On Thursday the Rockets are at Bath County and next week they have Parkway at home on Tuesday and a trip to Bath on Wednesday.

Craig comes into the week at 2-14 and 1-6 in district play.