Everette, McCallum earn
Player-of-the Year honors
By DAN BISER
Sports Editor
They both wear No. 31 and both are three-year starters. They have provided plenty of consistency and explosiveness at both ends of the floor for their respective teams.
For the second straight year, Chaz Everette, a 6-foot-3 senior guard for the West Columbus Vikings, has been named the Columbus County Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Paige McCallum, a 5-11 junior guard/forward for the Whiteville Lady Wolfpack, has been named the Columbus County Girls Basketball Player of the Year, following the footsteps of her older sister Shannon, who received the honor in each of the last three years.
Everette and McCallum lead the 2007 News Reporter All-Columbus County Basketball Teams.
In his senior season, Everette averaged 22.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, eight steals and four assists per game in helping pace Coach Michael Powell’s Vikings to a 22-4 record, including a runnerup regular-season finish in the Southeastern 1A-2A Conference and a second consecutive championship of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The Vikings advanced to the sectional semi-finals of the state 1A playoffs.
McCallum helped lead the way for Coach Dudley Revels’ WHS girls team, which won a third consecutive Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference championship and advanced to the Eastern N.C. 2A Regional finals for the second straight year. The Lady Wolfpack closed the season with a 25.4 record as McCallum averaged 24.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per outing.
Joining Everette on first team are teammate Mikey Bilal, the Vikings’s strong senior outside shooter; East Columbus High’s senior high-scoring duo of Jerry Moore and B.J. Patrick and Whiteville High junior center Nur Abdullah.
Moore has been named the first team for the second straight year after playing key roles in leading the Gators to back-to-back Waccamaw Conference regular-season and tournament championships. Coach Clarence Ganus’ Gators posted a 23-6 record and advanced to the sectional finals of the state 1A playoffs. Bilal was a second team selection last season.
Joining McCallum of the girls’ All-Columbus first-team are WHS teammates senior Talena Faison and Portia Baldwin, East Columbus High’s fleet-footed Jasmine Young and South Columbus 6-foot-3 sophomore Amanda Dowe. Faison, a four-year starter, is a third-time first team selection after getting picked to the second team as a freshman. Baldwin, Young and Dowe were second team selections last year.
East Columbus boys coach Clarence Ganus and Whiteville girls coach Dudley Revels have been selected to All-Columbus Coach of the Year honors after leading their respective teams to conference championships in their first seasons as head coaches.
Ganus had previously served as head coach at Hallsboro High, Southeastern Community College and Waccamaw Academy. Revels took on his first varsity basketball assignment this year after coaching the WHS JV girls squad.
Making up the All-Columbus County Boys second team are East Columbus senior center Jermaine Waddell, the South Columbus High junior duo of Derrick Clay and Bryant Edwards, West Columbus 6-foot-11 senior center Mario Cisneros and Whiteville High junior guard Aaron Clark. Clay was a first team selection last year.
Coach Karlyn Stephens’ East Columbus girls team, which advanced to the sectional 1A finals this season, has three players on the All-Columbus second team – T.T. Bennett, Taquanna Bress and Tabitha Moore, along with Whiteville’s Sarah Gore and South Columbus’ Kelly Strickland. Bennett was also a second team selection last year.
The News Reporter has been selecting All-Columbus County basketball teams since 1947. Player-of-the-Year selections were added in 1993.