VIRGINIA BEACH The University of Virginia coaching staff will have reason to celebrate this holiday weekend after Bayside linebacker Henry Coley committed to the Cavaliers. Coley, 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, informed Virginia head coach Al Groh and assistant coach Latrell Scott on Thursday afternoon that he would be coming their way in 2010.

  VIRGINIA BEACH The University of Virginia coaching staff will have reason to celebrate this holiday weekend after Bayside linebacker Henry Coley committed to the Cavaliers. Coley, 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, informed Virginia head coach Al Groh and assistant coach Latrell Scott on Thursday afternoon that he would be coming their way in 2010.

Oscar Smith lineman Evan Hailes, one of the nation's top prospects in the Class of 2010, orally committed to Penn State. Hailes, 6-foot-1 and 303 pounds, finished with 81 tackles last season, including 20 for a loss. He also had 11 sacks and three deflections in helping to lead the Tigers to the Group AAA Division 6 state championship last season.

  For most high school football teams, they are an annual – and grueling – rite of passage each summer: two-a-days. But despite a recent recommendation by a leading trainers’ group that the sweltering practices be eliminated during the first week of August, two-a-days aren’t likely to go the way of leather helmets in South Hampton Roads.

 
female athlete of the year

MARLENA WESH | LANDSTOWN
Marlena Wesh overcame more than her competition to become the first female in Virginia High School League history to win the 100, 200 and 400 meters at the Group AAA state track meet. About 30 minutes before the 100 final, she suffered a sprained ankle, bruised right elbow and a bloody nose after a collision while warming up.

CHESAPEAKE A Chesapeake man accused of killing a popular I.C. Norcom High School football player at a house party last year pleaded guilty to lesser charges of second-degree murder on Friday. Jarrel Dufore Eldridge, 23, admitted to killing Ra-Shawn Finney, an 18-year-old Portsmouth high school football star known as "Peanut."

FOOTBALL

Tickets for Oscar Smith High's football opener against Venice High of Florida will be on sale June 29 to July 2 from noon to 4 p.m. in the school’s main office.

The school sold just under 2,000 tickets earlier this month and have about 2,000 remaining. Tickets are $10, and only cash will be accepted.

Ray Gatlin will try his hand at resuscitating Princess Anne High School’s football program.

Gatlin, a former Green Run coach, was hired recently to replace Juan Jackson, who went 1-19 in two seasons at Princess Anne. Jackson left to take a position on Warwick High’s staff.

James McAdoo, a rising junior at Norfolk Christian, is having quite a summer. After earning a spot on the USA Basketball Men's U16 national team, he won a gold medal. McAdoo scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the USA to a 101-87 victory over host Argentina in the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship.

  Recent Nansemond River graduate James Taylor didn’t win a national title Saturday, but he did make All-American in two events. Taylor was runner-up in the long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 3½ inches and ran 21.25 to place third in the 200 meters at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.