Kayleight and Lexi hemp from Buffalo Gap enjoy time together in the state championship

Swoope – When Buffalo Gap beat Brunnswick on Friday night, winning a place in the class 1 state championship game, the first teammate Kayleigh Hemp to hug was his little sister, Lexi Hemp.

“It’s great,” Kayleight said. “I love playing with her. He is the first person I ran because we have experienced (this season) together and I can’t wait to play in the state championship with her.”

This is the first year that the sisters have played together in the university team. Kayleight is a junior, but Lexi is just a first -year student.

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His father, Andrew Hemp, said he probably spent eight or nine years since the two were in the same team. That age difference of two years has kept them at different levels, but this year, with Kayleight a headline established in Buffalo Gap, Lexi made the university team and has been valuable, especially at the end of the season, leaving the bank for the bison.

“It’s something that my wife and I have been waiting for a long time,” Andrew said. “Just to see them, how they feed each other, they support each other. They are the best friend of the other. It is great to see them together there.”

The family can see them once more together in its Buffalo Gap uniforms when Gap plays George Wythe (Friday at 12:30 pm) in Richmond at the Siegel center of the University of the Virginia Commonwealth.

After the season, the family will move to Florida, so this is just a one -year career for the sisters as teammates of the Bison University team.

Andrew already moved to Florida, plans to return to Virginia to see the championship game on Friday, but said they did not want to take the sisters to Florida until the season ended. Kayleight and Lexi helped ensure that this was as long as possible, which took the gap to the final game.

“Being able to leave, last season in Buffalo Gap, state championship, leaving that brand, that legacy, is incredible,” Andrew said. “That’s what they are waiting for.”

The imminent departure of the type of hemp makes Friday’s game even more important, if that is possible, for a program that has reached state semifinals in the last two years and the state championship in 2022. This is the fourth consecutive year in the state tournament.

If it does not happen on Friday, return next year becomes increasingly difficult. GAP has had to replace last -year students for each of those careers, but next year, coach Phillip Morgan will have to replace four headlines: Kayleight Hemp more older people Hannah Coffman, Karah Richie and Rachael Carter, and five of his seven best players.

“I hate losing them,” said Morgan. “It is not something, when I heard the news for the first time, that I was excited at all. Not yet jumping up and down, but I’m glad that they could have been part of this program. I’m glad that they have helped us to succeed and I wish you the best of luck when they go down there, but we definitely miss them.”

Riverheads to Buffalo Gap

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The hemps have not been raised as Buffalo Gap Bison. In fact, they were raised as rivals of the bison, Riverheads Gladiators. The two smaller schools in Augusta County Historically have the greatest rivalry of all schools.

Andrew Hemp is a legend in Riverheads. He was a 1,000 -yard corridor both in his Junior and Senior football seasons and helped take the gladiators to his first state championship. He was appointed first team All-You twice in football, but it was also an athletic star in Riverheads. It was included in the School Hall of Fame in 2008.

The family moved to the Buffalo Gap school district three years ago, just before the first year of Kayleight. Andrew said it was strange to encourage the black and gold of his former rival, but when they are his children he becomes a second nature to support them.

“Everyone in the Gap community made him very cozy,” he said. “The first thing we did was go out and buy gap sweatshirts. We jumped with both feet.”

Kayleight Hemp played Junior university basketball in Riverheads before making the movement and winning a place in the university team in GAP in its first year.

“I feel that I connected with them as soon as I got here,” he said. “And I loved playing with them since then.”

Kayleight entered the season already a proven player. She was a return holder and the second leader of the team this year, a member of the second team throughout the district.

“Kayleight has been a great factor not only this year but in the success of the last three years,” said Morgan.

It was his first year when Morgan realized that Kayleight could be a large part of this team in the future. He had a headline with a brain shock and another loss for the season with a torn acl. He inserted Kayleight into the initial alignment, changing all his defense. It was in defense that she first shone for GAP and has continued to make a difference.

“She simply clicks on the top of that defense, made him go,” said Morgan. “She was not a scorer then, but now, especially the last two or three weeks, she has really stood out as the scorer who thought it could be.”

Kayleight is averaging 15.8 points per game in the postseason race.

“She has been a really integral part of the offensive and defense we have had,” said Morgan.

Unlike his sister, Lexi has had to demonstrate his worth at the university level as a first -year student. Basketball is not even his first sport. Lexi is a cheerleader, even traveling with the team this year when GAP participated in Porristas nationals in the world of ESPN sports in Walt Disney World.

However, on the basketball court, she has been a valuable player from the bank, playing the whole season well, but she climbed a little during the playoff race. Against Colonial Beach in the state quarterfinals, he scored 12 points in his career. In the semifinals against Brunswick, Lexi connected a huge 3 in the last minutes of the first half, part of a 12-3 race that gave GAP a part-time advantage of 10 points.

“The first games that I didn’t hit many shots because I didn’t have much confidence,” Lexi said. “But now, after a lot of practices and the elderly and my sister who help me, I have much more confidence.”

Morgan said that Lexi’s role has grown as the season advanced.

“Especially defensive,” Morgan said. “She is very fast defensive. It is aggressive defensive.”

The coach has also seen his offensive, specifically his 3 -point shot, improve at the end of the season.

“It’s as if she and Kayleight warm up at the same time,” Morgan said. “It’s as they said: ‘Ok, let’s go to Florida, but we don’t want to go before what we have to do it.”

Now the two have one more opportunity to play together as a bison.

“Our parents have told us about it, how great it would be,” Kayleight said about playing for a state title. “It’s very exciting for the whole family.”

– Patrick Hite is a news leader reporter. The ideas and advice of history are always welcome. Connect with Patrick (he/she) at [email protected] and on Instagram @hitepatrick. Subscribe to us in Newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared in Staunton News leader: Kayleight and Lexi Hemper help lead the Buffalo Gap female basketball to the state championship game