East-West rosters a little disappointing outside of football

The North Carolina Coaches Association e-mailed me the boys and girls basketball rosters for the East-West All-Star Games over the weekend.

That means the only roster I've yet to see is girls soccer for the mid-summer extravaganza to be played in Greensboro in the third week of July.

The Wilson Times readership area is well-represented in football with SouthWest Edgecombe's Raymond Cobb as the East head coach of a staff that includes Southern Nash's Brian Foster and Greene Central's Kenneth Grantham. Furthermore, there are five area players on the East roster — Fike's Rashad Parker, Southern Nash's T.J. Batchelor, SouthWest Edgecombe's Marquis Hines, Greene Central's DaRon Tripp and Beddingfield's Jumal Rolle.

That's a generous, but well-deserved, representation for our area for the football game, scheduled July 22 in Grimsley High School's Jamieson Stadium. However, I'm a little disappointed that no players from this area made the basketball or soccer teams.

As I stated, the girls soccer roster hasn't been released (but it should come out this week), but I've been told that Fike senior Tramicka James, a two-time all-state selection, wasn't on it. Neither was Golden Demons star Jeremy Atkinson a member of the boys basketball team nor was Beddingfield standout Shaniqua Clay on the girls basketball team.

I don't want to criticize the East coaches in those sports because I'm sure their job is tough, trying to assemble a roster from all the senior players in the eastern part of the state. Still, I think those three should have merited some consideration, which for all I know, they did.