Especially when you consider the initial Associated Press football polls this year, which cast votes for Bear Grass High in the 1-A poll.

Only problem? No football team there this year.

No matter what high school girls basketball poll I've seen this year (except for the SWakeSports weekly rankings, of course), they've all snubbed Green Hope.

Preparation, on the part of other pollsters, is once again atrocious. Or awful. Or antagonizing to the Falcon fans that e-mailed me this week.

NCPreps.com released their first poll this week, and I immediately scanned it to see where the 14-0 Lady Falcons were.

Unranked.

Five total votes.

Behind six two-loss teams and eight one-loss teams in votes received.

MaxPreps.com, by comparison, put Green Hope No. 6 overall in the state.

Not nearly as bad, except this time the Falcons were below three teams with at least one loss including a three-loss team.

I guess beating Enloe (11-3), Athens Drive (12-2), Middle Creek (10-2), Millbrook (10-4) and Wakefield (12-2) isn't enough for some.

Green Hope went to 15-0 this week, and let's hope voters can straighten themselves out before the year ends.

Three Tri-Nine football. players were named to the All-State 4-A team by NCpreps.com.

Athens Drive's Robert Crisp, who was also named to the All-State and All-American, was one of the five offensive lineman selected to the squad.

Middle Creek junior Garrett Leatham, who threw for more than 4,000 yards this year including 451 in a game versus Apex, was named to one of the five "athlete" positions.

He was joined by Fuquay-Varina junior running back Cory Hunter, who ran for more than 1,900 yards including 463 in a game versus Panther Creek.

Not only was sophomore forward Kristen Gaffney leading the area in points per game entering this past week, she was second in the state according to NCpreps.com.

Now, not every team submits their stats to NCpreps.com, so it's not always an infallible list. Nonetheless, she was less than a point behind No. 1 scorer Katie Pashal from Williamston High and is 1.1 points per game higher than Western Harnett junior Ariel Bursey for the area's top scorer.

After this list was announced, Gaffney scored 26 on Tuesday night against Holly Springs in a 68-48 win to move her average down a tenth to 26.6.

Bursey turned up the heat, however, and poured in 40 in an 80-50 win over Fayetteville Seventy-First to improve her average to 26.8, thus taking hold of the area's top scoring mark.

Bursey's older sister, Trinity, is a senior on the UNC-Chapel Hill women's basketball team.

The Fuquay-Varina girls basketball team is young and inexperienced. But they don't lack talent.

Freshmen Camille Baker and Sebria Kersey have taken their games to a new level for the 2-10 squad.

The Lady Bengals nearly upset Middle Creek on Tuesday thanks to Baker's 26 points and Kersey's 11.

Over the last four games, Baker was averaging 17 points per game and Kersey added 15 points per game.