The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 86

BR AND ON S E MONE S

C URTIS STAPLES

All-American and All-ACC at
Duke. All-state at Cave Spring,
a McDonald's All-American and
MVP in the 2002 McDonald's AllAmerican game. Was a Scout.com
5-star recruit, the No. 2 shooting
guard in the U.S. Led Cave Spring
to a state title as senior when he
missed most of the first half of the
season, leaving the Knights as an
average team. Upon his return, CS
dominated. He holds the NCAA
3-point record and is Duke's alltime leading scorer. Broke Roanoker
Curtis Staples' NCAA 3-point
record (set in 1998). He was drafted
as the 11th pick in the 2006 draft
by the Orlando Magic. He has since
played with Milwaukee, the L.A.
Clippers and Philadelphia (now).

LEE SUGGS

13. Brandon Semones

Brandon Semones of Glenvar
High (class of 1993) and outstanding
Virginia Tech football player holds
most of Glenvar's rushing (5,000
yards) and scoring records and was
also an outstanding defensive player
with 500 career tackles. He finished
a close second to Tiki Barber as
Timesland Player of the Year. He
was Virginia's defensive player of the
year as a senior. Semones started three
years on Virginia Tech's defense and
was second team All-Big East twice,
All-Academic three times. He won
three state wrestling championships.
He made the All-Beamer (Tech
coach Frank Beamer, his uncle) third
team when Beamer retired after 33
years. He's an insurance agent in
Blacksburg these days.
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MAY/JUNE 2018

14. Curtis Staples

Curtis Staples, Patrick Henry
High class of 1994, led PH to a
Virginia state basketball title as
sophomore. His University of
Virginia jersey was retired in the
first John Paul Jones Arena game. He
has coached basketball at Virginia
Episcopal School in Lynchburg,
winning state titles in 2011 and
2014. He resigned at the end of the
2017-2018 season to seek a college
coaching position. Staples set the
NCAA 3-point record in 1998 (later
broken by Roanoker J.J. Redick of
Duke. Redick, who attended a
Staples basketball camp at one
point, called himself "a big Curtis
Staples fan"). Scored 1,757 points at
Virginia, ninth all-time. He played in
the National Basketball Association
Developmental League two seasons
for the Roanoke Dazzle. He was
drafted initially by the Chicago Bulls
and played in Lebanon, Europe and
the Philippines.

15. Lee Suggs

L ee S uggs was a W illiam
Fleming (class of 1998), and Virginia

A quick look at the top 20 athletes in the Roanoke Valley over
the last 25 years doesn't offer many obvious surprises. The athletes'
credentials are quite good. But look again. Thirty percent of those
selected from thousands of athletes are women.
That likely would have been unheard of 10 or 20 years ago,
but it is a natural progression today, primarily because of the
passage of Title IX  of the United States Education Amendments
of 1972 -two generations ago-when just one girl in 27 played
any organized sport. That's 3.7 percent. The number now is two
in five, 40 percent.
None of the players on this all-star team was born when Title
IX changed the playing surface and went fast-track. Female
athletes had always suffered second class citizenship-things
like not being able to run distances because they were thought
too delicate-but Title IX offered entry into the real world of
competition and the girls (and their families) embraced the invite.
"I wasn't aware of [Title IX]," when she played at Patrick
Henry High (class of 1996), says former soccer star Carrie Moore
O'Keeffe, who has two young daughters of her own now. "I just
played what was available. Girls' soccer wasn't even available
before I got to PH. The [female] athletes are a lot more serious
now," though she admits that "I took sports more seriously than
anybody else at PH."
Girls are are more serious at least partly because there are
so many of them competing and so many more opportunities.
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association,
participation by women athletes in college is 10 times what it
was when Title IX was passed. It's not all milk and honey, though.
Girls enter sports a year later than boys and drop out in higher
numbers in middle school.
"There's work to be done for the younger ages," says
Catherine White, a former Northside (class of 2007) distance
runner who had a remarkable 15 state championships and
was a five-time All-American in high school. "There is not the
access." She recognizes that "female sports are not super popular
and I can see why resources are allocated toward male sports,
which produce revenue." She anticipates doors opening for her
daughter and "I hope sports continues to be fun. My parents
always did a good job making sure I had fun."
O'Keeffe, asked if she were satisfied with where girls' sports
are now, said, "I don't think 'satisfied' is the word I would use. To
me, 'satisfied' sounds like we're finished with our work. I love that
girls have all the opportunities that they have today. I think that
more than ever girls are encouraged to be involved in sports. But
I also think that we still need to be active in making sure these
opportunities continue. I'm not confident that we're to the point
where we can take our hands off, step back, and just watch." -DS

TheRoanoker.com

BRANDON SEMONES: COURTESY OF BRIAN HOFFMAN

Title IX and the
Tidal Wave of Girls
http://www.Scout.com http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker - May/June 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - May/June 2018
