Danville’s familiar foe

The matchup for Danville’s game in the first round of the All “A” Classic later this week has a familiar ring to it. The Admirals will play Newport Central Catholic in the last of eight first-round games Thursday in Richmond. NewCath defeated Newport 53-47 in the 9th Region final on Saturday night, 24 hours after Danville defeated Burgin 77-67 in the 12th Region final. (Follow these links to Marty Warren’s story and my sidebar from Sunday’s Advocate on Danville’s win, and this one to Terry Boehmker’s story from kypost.com on NewCath’s win.)

If it sounds like a game better suited for the football field, that’s because the two schools have faced each other in three of the last nine Class A championship games in football, with Danville winning in 2000 and ‘01 and NewCath winning in 2006.

All of those football games were close, and their basketball game this week could be as well, as the two teams are separated by less than 10 points in most power ratings. The game will be at 9:30 p.m. Thursday at Eastern Kentucky University’s McBrayer Arena (though prior experience at this tournament tells me it won’t start before 10:00). Click here for the entire All “A” bracket in a .pdf file.

KSD playing for title

It’s a big moment at Kentucky School for the Deaf tonight as the school’s boys basketball team plays for the championship of the Mason-Dixon Tournament.

The conference tournament is the high point of KSD’s schedule each season, but the Colonels have won it only twice in 56 years (1985 and ‘88 ) and have reached the championship game only six times, most recently in 2000.

After wins over Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf and Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in the first two days of the tournament, third-seeded KSD plays top seed Alabama School for the Deaf at 8 p.m. at Thomas Hall.

In addition, former KSD athletic director Paul Smiley will be honored with a distinguished service award from the conference before the big game.

If you can’t go but want to follow the action, visit this page at Deafnation.com during the game for live video and/or statistics. You can also get up to speed with scores and stats from previous games at this page from the same site.

Sallee loses battle with cancer

Ralph Sallee, the girls basketball coach at East Jessamine and a former coach at Burgin, died Friday after battling cancer for about 10 months. He was 54.

Word of Sallee’s death spread Friday night during a basketball game at Burgin, where he coached the girls team from 1989-91. He had coached at East Jessamine for the past five years, and he previously coached at Lexington Christian.

He was diagnosed with cancer in March 2008, less than one month after leading East Jessamine’s girls to their first district championship.

Sallee was a graduate of Mercer County and a longtime resident of Garrard County, where he preached at Scotts Fork Christian Church for almost 30 years

Funeral arrangements are pending at Ramsey Funeral Home of Lancaster. The service schedule and obituary are at this page on the funeral home’s Web site. According to a letter by East Jessamine principal Janet Granada posted on the school’s Web site, the funeral will be held at Southland Christian Church, which is on U.S. 68 in northern Jessamine County. (Update: Visitation will be Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday before the 1 p.m. funeral.)

KSD’s big week

It’s Christmas morning at Kentucky School for the Deaf, and all of the presents are basketballs.

The basketball tournament that officials at KSD have been planning for a year, the 57th Mason-Dixon Boys Basketball Tournament, tips off this morning at Thomas Hall with the first of 17 games over three days.

It’s the most important event on the KSD basketball schedule each year, as the Colonels compete against 10 other Southern schools for the deaf. And as the school hosts this event for the first time since 1998, its players would like nothing better than to keep the championship trophy from leaving town.

The KSD boys, 7-6 and winners of four of their last five games, are bona fide contenders for the championship. They have a veteran team and are seeded third in the 11-team field. The Colonels have only two titles in 56 years, in 1995 and ‘98, and they haven’t made the semifinals since 2004.

The Colonels play their first game at 4 p.m. today against the winner of an earlier game between No. 6 seed Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf and No. 11 seed Mississippi School for the Deaf. A win would put them in Friday night’s semifinals with a shot at the Saturday night championship game.

The basketball tournament is the largest part of an event that also includes shooting and cheerleading competitions, as well as time for the players and cheerleaders from the schools to meet and mingle. (KSD athletic director and former boys basketball coach Billy Lange, a 1981 graduate of Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, first met wife Amy at a Mason-Dixon tourney.) KSD has done a first-rate job hosting this event in years past and will certainly do its best to make its visitors feel at home this weekend.

If you’d like to check it out, admission is $5 per session — there are usually at least two games per session but sometimes just one — or $35 for the entire tournament.

While the KSD boys get to stay home and play, the school’s girls team will play in their version of the MDT in Spartanburg, S.C. (KSD will next host the girls tournament in 2012.) The girls team, which is 0-9 this season, is seeded 11th and plays No. 6 seed Louisiana School for the Deaf at 8:45 a.m. today.

Read more on the Mason-Dixon tourneys and the conference at its Web page and follow the action from Danville and Spartanburg at their respective sites. Both pages have rosters and detailed schedules:

• The boys page, which promises live video feeds and scoring from each of the 17 games.
• The girls page, where scores will be posted regularly on the scores page.

All ‘A’ guarantee

We now know that there will be an area team in the boys All “A” Classic next week in Richmond. It will either be the first appearance since 1999 for Danville or the first appearance ever for Burgin, as those two teams will meet in the regional final Friday night at Burgin.

It will also be the end of an eight-year run for Somerset, which had dominated the 12th Region All “A” since Harrodsburg last represented this area in 2000.

Next week will be the 20th boys tourney since the event went statewide in 1990, and local schools have participated five times: Harrodsburg in 1990, ‘95 and 2000 and Danville in 1998 and ‘99.

The Danville-Burgin winner will play the 9th Region champion in the last of eight first-round games at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at McBrayer Arena. The top-rated All “A” teams from that region include Beechwood, Covington Holy Cross and Newport Central Catholic, but that regional has 10 teams and is still at the quarterfinal level. It’s championship game is Saturday night.

Friday’s game at Burgin is scheduled for 8 p.m., following the 6:30 girls final between Monticello and Somerset — which means we also know there will be no area girls team in Richmond.

Sallee’s story

The story of East Jessamine girls coach Ralph Sallee and his months-long battle with cancer was told in detail today in a story by Mike Fields in the Lexington Herald-Leader, and it should not be missed.

Sallee’s ties to our area run deep, as he previously coached at Burgin and is a longtime resident of Garrard County, where he has also preached in the same church for nearly 30 years. He’s a good coach and a far better man, and that’s something people who know him were saying long before he was diagnosed with cancer.

Fields’ story is both sad and uplifting. Take time to read it, and if you pray, take time to remember Sallee and his family.

Midseason hoops checkup

The halfway point of the basketball season came and went when I wasn’t looking, but it isn’t far behind us, so I’m taking the opportunity to assess the health of all 16 area teams with roughly 5 1/2 weeks of the regular season remaining.

Some teams have much more spring in their steps than many of us thought they would, while others are looking a little sickly. Here are the reports from my 16 house calls:

BOYS

In excellent health: No area team is in better shape so far than Garrard County, which shares the 12th Region’s best winning percentage with its 12-3 record and has been apparently playing some really good basketball. (In the interest of full disclosure, the Golden Lions are one of the few teams I haven’t seen yet, so I’m just reading the charts so far.) Burgin, which had the best record in the region until last night, also fits into this category even though district rival West Jessamine dropped 100 points on the Bulldogs last night.

And never mind losses like that one. Both of these teams are performing much better than the prognosis they were given in November, which is what I’m basing much of these ratings on.

Clean bill of health: Put Lincoln County in this category, as the Patriots seemed to have gotten back on track after catching a bug during the holidays. Mercer County belongs here despite its losing record, because many of its losses have been to good teams in close games, and for now I’m going to throw out last night’s beatdown by John Hardin. Kentucky School for the Deaf falls here, too, as the Colonels try to ready themselves for the upcoming Mason-Dixon Tournament.

Needing follow-up visits: Danville must be closely monitored, as the Admirals have been all over the graph so far with impressive wins such as its victories over McCreary Central and Adair County this week and lopsided losses to teams such as South Oldham and Lincoln County, which it had beaten two weeks earlier. The Ads have shown remarkable progress lately, but they’re not out of the woods.

In poor health: Boyle County has gotten better since losing its first seven games but is still weakened by a lack of consistent offensive production. And four of Casey County’s five wins have come against two of the region’s weakest teams, Monticello and Somerset, so these Rebels are in need of a shot in the arm as well.

GIRLS

In excellent health: It should be no surprise to find Casey County and Lincoln County under this heading. The two teams are combined 27-5, with barely so much as a hiccup so far as they prepare for a run at the regional title. Only one of them can win, and perhaps neither of them will, but both should be counted among the very bet teams in their schools’ histories by season’s end.

Clean bill of health: Players at Boyle County and Garrard County have taken their medicine, followed doctor’s orders and recovered considerably faster than expected. These two teams have combined to go 22-7, beating the teams they should beat and surprising some others along the way.

Needing a follow-up visit: Mercer County has managed 10 wins, but has also lost six games by an average of 18.2 points each. The Titans can look really good on some nights and really bad on others, and we’re really not sure what to make of that yet, so we’ll order further tests and bill the insurance company.

In poor health: It probably sounds more serious than it is to Danville, Burgin and Kentucky School for the Deaf to be listed here, but all of these teams simply lack the strength they need because they’re just too young. My advice: Eat your vegetables and get stronger. (I’m not a pediatrician, after all.)

Mercer coach recuperating

Mercer County boys basketball coach Nelson Cundiff continues slow but steady progress toward recovery after he was seriously injured in a Dec. 13 auto accident.

Cundiff spent 10 days or so in a Louisville hospital before being moved to a rehabilitation center just before Christmas, and he was moved from there to his home in Nelson County on New Year’s Eve.

He is still quite a ways from being up and around, but it’s a good sign that he’s back at home, and here’s hoping the news continues to be good.