All-Star Game Good For Valley

All-Star Game Good For Valley
– By PHIL D’ABBRACCIO | Daily News-Record Mar 17, 2018

HARRISONBURG — Community members and college coaches started to reach out to Don
Burgess earlier and earlier, inquiring about the date for his Shenandoah Valley All-Star Game.
“It’s pretty cool to see how the all-star game word has reached out as a quality event and how
the local community has made it a quality event,” the Harrisonburg basketball coach said
Thursday.
The third annual Shenandoah Valley All-Star Game, an event for high school seniors created
and organized by Burgess, is Sunday at HHS.
The girls contest is slated for a 1 p.m. tipoff, followed by a 2:30 p.m. boys game and a more
competitive 4 p.m. boys showdown.
“Overall, I’m very excited about it. Each year, the event continues to grow,” Burgess said.
Burgess, after his standout playing careers at Harrisonburg and Radford, spent 13 years on
Division I coaching staffs and then led Bridgewater College’s program for seven years.
During the 1990 HHS graduate’s 20-year span at the college ranks, regional all-star games
were frequent recruiting stops.
The Harrisonburg and Shenandoah Valley area never had anything like that.
“What’s happened in Virginia, and I don’t know about other sports, all-star games have become
very regional,” 13th-year Spotswood coach and former BC player Chad Edwards said. “Northern
Virginia is known for their game and Richmond and the 757 game is a big game.
“But because of that, our region was lacking something similar for years and when he was at
Bridgewater, he and I would bounce ideas off of each other and some sort of all-star-something
we both felt was needed. Now that he’s at Harrisonburg, he’s been able to put it together.”
In 2016, soon after Burgess’ first season coaching his alma mater, he held the inaugural
Shenandoah Valley All-Star Game at HHS, intending to provide local players exposure to non-
Division I college coaches and also one last time to wear their uniforms.

“Our community is blessed that he’s taking the time to do it,” Edwards said. “I think his
experience as a college coach and recruiting those types of events have allowed him to put
together such a legitimate, respected all-star game and event in such a small amount of time.
“I just look for it to continue to build momentum and attract quality players and college coaches
to come in and watch our players because we’ve got some good basketball here in the Valley.
But our location, a lot of times, schools from the South stop in Richmond and a lot of schools in
the North stop in D.C. and there’ve been years where I think the talent in the Valley’s been
short-changed a bit.”
Burgess said he expects coaches from a majority of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference
teams to be in attendance, as well as D-II programs such as Glenville State and Shepherd
University.
The Division III men’s tournament championship scheduled for this evening in Salem also allows
for northbound coaches to stop by Burgess’ event Sunday.
“A lot of these kids are talented, but some may not have gotten the looks they wanted to get and
they get another opportunity to be seen by college coaches,” said Burgess, who served on the
staffs at VMI, Coastal Carolina, Central Florida and High Point.
In Sunday’s Subaru girls game, Team Crosstrek — led by HHS coach Durmount Perry and East
Rockingham coach Paul Comer — will include Harrisonburg’s Lene Andrawas, Constance
Komara and Marissa Madden, ERHS’s Meredith Dean, and Broadway’s Sarah Wimer.
Team Outback, guided by Spotswood’s Chris Dodson and Wilson Memorial’s Jackie Bryan,
features SHS’s Chloe Brooks, Casey Irvine, Blair McGloon and Meredith and Brooke Vetter.
The city/county has four boys players in the 4 p.m. Navigator boys game: East Rock’s Austin
Beaghan, Turner Ashby’s Eli Roeschley, and Harrisonburg’s A.C. White and Steven Gilbert.
They are all on Team Bergey, which will be coached by retired Streaks coach Roger Bergey and
his former player, ex-SHS coach Jim Kramer.
HHS’s Santana Brown and Stedman Clark will appear in the 2:30 p.m. Lincoln boys contest.
Burgess said he’s excited about the talent he’s reeled in for the event and that more high
schools are sending players to it.
“Almost all of the student-athletes that participated last year and their respective families and
their coaches that were in attendance, they were very impressed with how the local

Shenandoah Valley community came out to the game, and that was pretty cool,” Burgess said.
“That’s what it’s all about.
“The word leaked out and there’s quality kids coming out, but the local Shenandoah Valley fans
is what makes that event so special.”
Burgess said Bob Wade Autoworld’s sponsorship of the event this year will help offset the costs
of official fees and gifts for the players.
Burgess added a boys game to the event last year, and he envisions spreading it into an all-star
weekend in the future.
The HHS coach said he hopes to implement youth-league games for grades fourth through
seventh and teams both locally and outside of the Harrisonburg area on the day before his
event’s high school games.
“Then they come back on Sunday to come and take pictures with the all-stars and come watch
the games,” Burgess said. “Just a way to get the Shenandoah Valley youngsters excited about
the all-star weekend.
“So that’s the vision I have to make the Shenandoah Valley not just a one-day event but in the
future make it a two-day event, all-star weekend.”
Although Edwards does not have any seniors participating in Burgess’ event this year, he
certainly planned to be in attendance.
“This event allows the Valley to be exposed to college coaches and I’m appreciative for the
colleges to come up for a day,” Edwards said, “and because Don has put all the best players on
display on one day, colleges are willing to come watch, so I think it’s a great thing. I can’t wait to
watch it.”