By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The spread of the corona virus resulted in the closure of Fluvanna county public schools for the final two plus months of the 2019-2020 school year. As a result, Fluco athletes who compete in spring sports lost their season. For the senior class, this meant that their high school careers sadly were cut short by a year. They will hopefully be off to college in 2020-2021. Also lost were the very happy signing ceremonies for seniors who have committed to continue their sports participation at the college level.
Athletic Director Scott Morris and the various coaches have provided the following list of Fluco athletes who are going on to play at the college level and who no doubt would have had signing ceremonies if not for the closing of school. Interestingly, all but one is staying in state.
Fluco pitcher and outfielder Andrew Ward has committed to play baseball at the Division 1 level at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Ward was an outstanding pitcher and hitter for the Flucos Class 3 state championship team. He will be traveling east on I-64. VCU is located in downtown Richmond; the school competes in the A-10 conference. Ward’s baseball teammate, shortstop Cameron Shields, will be continuing his game at Hampton Sydney, which is a small Division III liberal arts school located in a bucolic setting outside of Farmville.
Nevaeh Ivory, the leading scorer on the girls’ basketball team this past winter, will be going out of state. She will be shooting her hoops at Washington Adventist, which is located in Tacoma Park, MD., a Washington, DC suburb. This is an NAIA Division I school. The NAIA website states that NAIA Division I schools compete on a level comparable to NCAA Division II.
Hampton Sydney is also going to be the destination for Emory Davis from the boys’ soccer team and Trevor Wade from the Fluco football team. Two more baseball players from the Fluco Class 3 state championship team are going on to the next level. Wyatt Dansey and Christian Telgron are slated to play for Ferrum College. Ferrum is a small Division III school in rural southwestern Virginia.
Fluco football player Justin Sullivan will compete for Bridgewater College, which is a Division III school located just south of Harrisonburg. The Fluco girls’ basketball team will have two players moving on to compete in college. In addition to Ivory, Mya Wright will go to Eastern Mennonite located outside of Harrisonburg. Interestingly, Hampton Sidney, Ferrum, Eastern Mennonite and Bridgewater all compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).
Finally, baseball coach Joel Gray said that he expects Trey Lyons, who probably would have been the Fluco catcher this year, to be a walk on at Christopher Newport.
