Yadkin Valley Conference and Rocky River Conference basketball standings

Here are the updated basketball standings for the Yadkin Valley Conference and the Rocky River Conference through Wed., Feb. 8, with one regular season conference game remaining.

The 1A/2A Rocky River Conference standings have the 1A teams indicated in Bold.

Please note that the North Rowan boys have earned at the least a share of the YVC regular-season title pending Friday's results. The North Stanly girls and the Cuthbertson boys have won the RRC regular-season titles outright.

Yadkin Valley Conf. Basketball Standings

(through Feb. 8)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

CC 13 2 15 6

SD 13 2 16 6

WM 12 4 12 6

NM 9 5 11 8

NR 9 5 9 11

SS 4 11 9 13

GS 3 12 6 13

A 3 12 5 14

EM 2 12 3 15

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

NR # 14 1 19 3

SD 13 2 19 4

A 12 3 14 5

CC 9 6 12 10

WM 7 9 8 13

EM 6 9 7 12

NM 3 12 3 17

SS 2 13 5 17

GS 1 15 1 19

Friday's Games

Chatham Central at Albemarle

South Stanly at South Davidson

North Rowan at North Moore

Gray Stone at East Montgomery

Rocky River Conference Basketball Standings

(through Feb. 8)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

NS # 13 0 22 0

FH 10 3 15 8

M 10 3 16 7

C 7 6 10 12

P 6 7 7 15

WS 4 9 5 18

CA 2 11 3 17

UA 0 13 0 18

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

C # 13 0 22 1

FH 11 2 15 7

M 9 4 13 9

P 8 5 11 11

UA 5 8 9 10

CA 3 10 7 14

NS 2 11 2 20

WS 1 12 5 18

Friday's Games

North Stanly at West Stanly

Forest Hills at Monroe

CATA at Union Academy

Cuthbertson at Piedmont

# regular-season champs

Here are the Yadkin Valley Conference and Rocky River Conference standings through the games of Tuesday, Jan. 31.

Yadkin Valley Conf. Basketball Standings

(through Jan. 31)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

CC 12 2 14 6

SD 11 2 14 6

WM 9 4 9 5

NM 9 4 11 8

NR 8 5 8 11

SS 3 10 8 12

GS 3 10 6 11

A 2 11 4 13

EM 2 11 3 14

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

NR 13 0 18 2

SD 11 2 17 4

A 10 3 12 5

CC 8 6 10 10

WM 5 8 6 11

EM 6 8 7 11

NM 3 10 3 15

SS 2 11 5 15

GS 1 12 1 16

Rocky River Conference Basketball Standings

(through Jan. 31)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

NS 11 0 20 0

FH 9 2 14 6

M 8 3 13 6

C 4 6 7 11

P 4 6 5 14

WS 4 7 5 16

CA 3 8 4 14

UA 0 10 0 17

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

C 10 0 19 1

FH 10 1 13 6

M 7 4 10 9

P 6 4 9 10

UA 5 6 9 8

CA 3 8 7 12

WS 1 10 5 16

NS 1 10 1 19

Updated Yadkin Valley Conference and Rocky River Conference Basketball Standings

Here are the standings for the YVC and RRC through Wednesday night's basketball games:

Yadkin Valley Conf. Basketball Standings

(through Jan. 27)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

C. Cent. 11 1 13 5

S. David. 9 2 12 6

West Mont. 8 3 8 4

N. Moore 8 4 10 8

N. Rowan 6 5 6 11

S. Stanly 3 8 8 10

Gray Stone 3 9 6 10

Albemarle 2 9 4 11

East Mont. 1 10 2 13

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

N. Rowan 11 0 16 2

S. David. 9 2 15 4

Albemarle 8 3 10 5

C. Central 7 5 9 9

East Mont. 6 5 7 9

West Mont. 4 7 5 10

N. Moore 3 9 3 14

S. Stanly 2 9 5 13

Gray Stone 1 11 1 15

Rocky River Conference Basketball Standings

(through Jan. 26)

Girls

Conf. Overall

W L W L

N. Stanly 9 0 18 0

F. Hills 7 2 12 6

Monroe 7 2 12 5

Cuthberts. 4 4 7 10

Piedmont 3 5 4 12

W. Stanly 3 6 4 15

CATA 2 7 3 13

Union Acad. 0 8 0 15

Boys

Conf. Overall

W L W L

Cuthbertson 8 0 17 1

F. Hills 8 1 11 6

Monroe 6 3 9 8

Piedmont 5 3 8 9

Union Acad. 3 6 7 8

CATA 3 6 7 10

W. Stanly 1 8 5 14

N. Stanly 1 8 1 17

The Fuss over Steven Tyler's National Anthem

I never thought I would be writing something about defending someone's more creative singing of our National Anthem, but I'm actually shocked about the uproar regarding Steven Tyler's rendition of the song at the Patriots - Ravens game this past weekend.

As a PA announcer and sports DJ for 18 years now, as well as hearing the song in upwards of at least two or three times a week for seven total years here at the SNAP, I have heard a lot of good and bad renditions of the song.

I have never liked it when someone changes keys in the middle of the song because the "rockets red glare" is above their vocal range. If it is, then a singer should start in a lower key so that when the high notes come, they are more easily reached.

Having sung the anthem myself for Checkers games as well as locally, I can tell you that I make sure to start in a lower key so that when I get both to the high and low notes, I am not reaching for a note. Singing in public for me is gut-wrenching enough (I would much rather announce), so why add drama to it by reaching for a note?

You can find horrible versions of the anthem all over the Web and YouTube (just search for Carl Lewis and Rosanne Barr) but I don't think Steven Tyler's was all that bad.

He did get one word wrong, saying "As bombs bursting in air" instead of "The bombs bursting in air", but that is less of a problem to me then when singers sing "For the land of the Free" instead of our banner waving "o'er the land of the free" which sounds so beautiful.

Also, I'm not big on personalizing the anthem, unless you have a voice like Whitney Houston and can get away with it. Most singers that try to sing it like Whitney sound like they can't find the right note, or just don't a forceful-enough gospel voice to pull it off like she did at the Super Bowl.

Tyler hit every note spot on and the only personalization he did was give "land of the free" a little Tyler yell, which did not bother me at all.

I was more bothered by his Patriots scarf he had on, but since Aerosmith is a Boston-based band, I guess a Dolphins fan like me can let that go.

New Year's Resolutions

I am working on a story for next Tuesday's paper about New Year's Resolutions and I would like you to share with me your resolutions for 2012!

Please include your name, age, profession and city, along with a photo if possible, to charles@stanlynewspress.com and please use "New Year's Resolution" as your subject line of the email.

Thank you, my gentle readers / Twitter followers / Facebook friends!

Livingstone wins Hwy. 52 Shootout Title over Pfeiffer

The Pfeiffer men's basketball team led by as much as seven in the first half and rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half, but Livingstone's Nasir Austin led the Blue Bears to the Hwy. 52 Shootout Title on Saturday evening at Livingston College.

Austin finished with 22 points, including an emphatic dunk with just under a minute left in the game to secure the win for the Blue Bears.

Danny Smith led Pfeiffer (1-1) with 20 points, 15 of which coming in the second half.

The taller Blue Bears outrebounded the Falcons 37-27 in the game and edged Pfeiffer in shooting percentage 47 to 43 to win the title of the third-annual pre-season tournament.

A full story and pics will appear in the Tuesday print edition.

One last post!

Pfeiffer trails Duke 104-26 with 3:51 left in the game.

This will be my last post from the game. A short story on the game will appear on our website, www.thesnaponline.com, a few minutes after tonight's ball game.

Thanks for watching the blog tonight! For updates, columns, musing, late-breaking sports info or more, please check out my blog for updates, as well as our website!