From the Northeastern Corner

The Northeastern Coastal Conference is comprised of three 3A and four 2A teams. 2A Northeastern High School of Elizabeth City made it to the #8 spot on the iHigh poll last week with a 10-1 record, but since then has lost two in a row, once to 3A Manteo and again to 3A Hertford County. For most of its 35 year history Northeastern High was the only 4A school in the far northeastern corner of the state, but with the new Pasquotank High School opening a few years ago it dropped to 2A. During its 4A years it saw a lot of success in football and produced a first-team high school basketball All American in Kenny Williams in the late eighties.

Probably the team to watch in the conference is Pasquotank which has beaten both Hertford County and Manteo, the top two teams of the conference last year. Pasquotank is an improved team with a lot of quickness and they face Northeastern on Tuesday night. If they win over Northeastern, look for them to move into the top ten in the rankings.

Manteo lost two all-conference forwards to graduation along with their very solid center, and their weakness is up front. However, they have a pair of three-point shooters that would stand up against any pair of guards in the state. Senior Catlin Pruitt is last year’s conference MVP and after a questionable start in the early season is coming on strong. He scored 28 against Northeastern on Tuesday and made the all tournament team over the holidays in the Charger Invitational in Cary. Manteo made it to the finals and lost to 4A Riverside in a close game. Travis Winstead is shooting the three as well as Pruitt and the two often combine for about 80% of Manteo’s points.

The top team in this corner of the state is fifth-ranked 1A Plymouth which has beaten both Northeastern and Pasquotank. They are extremely quick and made it deep into the state tournament the last two years. Their major loss to graduation was Damien Linson who is at Central Michigan on a football scholarship.

Last year’s 1A state runnerup, Perquimans has been depleted by graduation, but are playing pretty will. 1A Camden County has a lot of quickness and should do well in the Atlantic 7. Their pre-conference schedule has been primarily against the larger schools of the area.

The newspaper coverage in this area is spotty and poor overall. In today’s paper version of the Elizabeth City Daily Advance, there was a good article on Pasquotank’s success, yet the Northeastern-Manteo game of Tuesday was not covered at all, not so much as a score. And even the Pasquotank story is not covered on the internet version of the Advance. The Daily Advance is the only daily covering the counties of Pasquotank, Currituck, Perquimans, Chowan, and Camden. Dare County (Manteo) has two papers and neither are daily. Of the two only the Outer Banks Sentinel has a web site. Sometimes game coverage is not published for three or more days.

From the Outer Banks Sentinel

Article on next year's realignment

 

I left with about a minute left and Pasquotank was beating Northeastern by 20. Pasquotank is looking better and better. Lots of quickness and real tough defense. Not much height at all but they had no problem handling Northeastern's superior height.

 

Article from the Daily Advance:

http://www.dailyadvance.com/sports/...ts/2004/01/21/1074696887.26609.4313.2599.html

 

Thanks Tommy...great post. Who needs those fishwraps when we have you

 

Pruitt scores 28 as Manteo tops Currituck

http://obsentinel.womacknewspapers.com/articles/2004/01/23/sports/2mhs.txt

The player in the photo, Woody Carver, is a freshman and is really playing well.

 

How's this for coverage? The following link is from the Daily Advance of Elizabeth City. What conference is left out? The Northeastern Coastal Conference, two of the teams being in Elizabeth City. However, they see fit to include Eastern Plains Conference which is about a hundred miles away.

http://www.dailyadvance.com/sports/content/sports/prepbkbstandings.html

 

That's amazin'.....:huh: