Goin’ the extra mile

“Do they usually look like that?” a little girl perched behind the scorer’s table in Highland’s small gym asks.

“Nope, he usually has on a suit and so does he,” the scoreboard operator seated at her left replies pointing first at Culpeper High School boys basketball coach James Thompson and then at Liberty coach Pat Frazier.

Thompson and Frazier abandoned their usual posts in front of their respective benches and traded their suits for referee’s whistles Wednesday as the Blue Devils picked up their second win in as many weeks in a summer league featuring CCHS, Liberty, Highland and Fauguier.

“These games are important because it’s full-court basketball and there’s some structure,” Thompson said. “We’re trying to build chemistry and every game and every quarter is helping.”

The Blue Devils have been working hard this summer and their improvement has been obvious. After finishing last season winless, Culpeper topped Liberty 66-63 after getting the best of Highland’s summer squad last week.

Rising sophomore Josh Majors picked up right where he left off, leading Culpeper with 29 points and four rebounds.

“After last year, we’re not used to winning,” Majors said. “So this is a great experience because winning now is giving us a lot of joy and getting us ready. So going into next season, it’s going to be automatic.”

The Blue Devils were without many of their returning starters because they were either participating in football conditioning or out of town, but junior Justin Smith and senior Larry Ralph were in attendance, and they didn’t disappoint.

Smith finished with 10 points and Ralph added five points and five rebounds. They also showed off their chemistry when Ralph bounced a no-look pass around a defender to Smith, who was cutting to the basket late in the first half.

“You can really see a difference in him (Smith) and Larry in terms of strength and size,” Thompson said. “They’ve really been taking their conditioning serious.”

Thompson went on to say Smith has probably had the best summer of all of his players.

“His decision-making has improved and he’s become a lot more coachable,” said Thompson, who is entering his third year as the Blue Devils’ coach. “He’s doing what he’s told and if I stick Josh (Majors) at the two slot, he can run the team. He’s really focusing on basketball now.”

The Blue Devils only had two seniors — Spencer Allen and Cameron French — on the team last year, and they’re going to be almost as young this season with Ralph and Cortez Rollins being the only seniors starters slated to return to the court.

But there could be a silver lining to Culpeper’s youth-laden cloud because some talented youngsters have been hitting the hardwood this summer and bringing some much-needed size with them.

“A lot of kids say they want to try out for varsity but I tell them they have to show me,” Thompson said. “You can either be a 6:00 player or a 7:30 player, and if you want to be a 7:30 player then this is where you’ve got to be, working on your game every day.”

Nik Stewart — a rising freshman who stands 6-foot-2— has brought some offensive firepower to a team that struggled to score at times last year. He finished Wednesday’s game with 18 points and six rebounds.

Also taking the court at Highland was Chris Miller — a 6-foot-1-inch sophomore — who put together four points and four rebounds and rising freshman Malik Summers.

“Chris (Miller) doesn’t mind mixing it up under the boards,” Thompson said. “Nik (Stewart) is more of a finesse player. He’s not a guy I have to tell to get more aggressive offensively because he’s not afraid to shoot, but I would like to see him mix it up a little more on defense.”

Hitting the road
The summer-league games aren’t all the Blue Devils have been doing to improve on their disappointing final season in the Cedar Run District and get ready for their debut in the Battlefield.

They’ve also been hitting the weight room and the team’s top three guards — Majors, Smith and Bobby Zajkowski — have been on the road visiting some high-profile basketball camps.

Majors and Smith had the opportunity to attend the University of Virginia’s elite camp in June.

“It was a really good experience to play with some of the top players from around the state,” Smith said. “Learning from college coaches and older players who were trying to get recruited by colleges was a great benefit. They’re knowledge is incredible.”

The duo got the chance to glean some knowledge from U.Va. coach Tony Bennett, several of the Cavaliers’ players and the Memphis Grizzlies strength coach Mike Curtis. They also competed against many of the state’s top 100 recruits such as Courtland’s Josh Hairston.

“The camp had a big impact on me because I was playing against players who were way faster and better than me,” Majors said. “It was tough because I had never played against guys who are that good, but I know it’s going to make me better because I got to learn from college coaches.”

Majors also traveled to Indianapolis in June to compete in a tournament against players from all over the world and made the trek to Chantilly July 6 to display his skills for college coaches as part of the Hoops Magic Showcase.

“It was really cool to play against teams from all over the world,” Majors said. “And I liked Hoops Magic a lot because the college coaches were giving us hints on how to improve our games.”

Zajkowski also got into the act, heading to the Morgan Wooten camp in Baltimore June 21 through 25.

“It was a great experience,” Zajkowski said. “There were players from all over the country there and it showed me that you really have to work hard to get what you want.”

With basketball becoming a year-round sport, Liberty’s Pat Frazier says its no secret that what basketball teams hitting the court during the summer months want is an edge.

“You have to put in work because there will come a time when winter will ask what you’ve been doing all summer,” he said.