august 26, 2013 play by play 12 play by play august 26, 2013 automotive executive dave sarmadi has...

AUGUST 26, 2013 PlAy By PlAy 1

Vol. 9, No. 12, August 26, 2013Vol. 9, No. 12, August 26, 2013

2 PlAy By PlAy AUGUST 26, 2013

A utomotive executive Dave Sarmadi has recently joined Elliott Automotive Group in Staunton and it appears to be a perfect

match. Dave has nearly 35 years in the industry and has established a glowing reputation with thousands of car owners during that time. Owner William Elliott and his son Ryan welcome someone of Dave’s experience and integrity as the Staunton dealership’s new president and general manager. Elliott Automotive Group has been part of the Shenandoah Valley landscape for more than 50 years and now features six outstanding franchises under one umbrella – Chevrolet, Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Chevrolet and Cadillac have been among America’s most famous automotive brands for more than a century – and newer models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler, Chrysler Town and Country minivan, Chrysler 200, Dodge Dart and Ram trucks have earned the right to join them. These are automobiles you can trust. Elliott has a huge inventory of new vehicles and offers great deals, great service and great people to work with. We also have a wide array of pre-owned vehicles as well as a service department and a body shop staffed

with employees with extensive experience. We offer a free in-spection to all owners of our automobiles. Elliott has established a valuable name of its own during its half-century of business, and Dave Sarmadi only adds to that image. Maybe it’s time you take a short drive up Interstate 81 and allow the team to introduce themselves to you. It might just be the perfect match. Come see why the Elliott team is a group you can trust.

1100 Greenville Avenue, Staunton • Just off Interstate 81 at exit 220 (less than 90 minutes from Roanoke) • Call Dave Sarmadi at (540) 293-4620

Dave Sarmadi joins Elliott Automotive Group!

Dave Sarmadi,President

William (left)and Ryan Elliott


Articles Kyle Keister has Made his Mark at Bridgewater ............................ 10 Football: Evolution of an American Tradition ................................. 12 Beating the Bushes for Basketball Talent .........................................13 How a Full-Time Mom Became a Triathlete......................................14 Sox Make a Late-Season Push for the Top ........................................15 Danny Karbassiyoon, a Legend of the Games ..................................18

Extras Playmaker Spotlight .......................3 Ask A Ref ...........................................6 From the Bookshelf........................8 Snapshots of the Season ...............9

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Sponsored by:

PLAYMAKERSpotlightThe Hidden Valley sophomore captured

the Bob McLelland Metro Invitational golf tournament in mid-August , catapulting to an early lead with a tournament-record performance. Hearp, 15, shot a 9-under-par 62 at Ole Mon-terey on Aug. 14, then carded a workmanlike 73 at Blue Hills on the second day. Her two-day total of 135 was five shots ahead of runner-up Lyndsey Hunnell. Hearp’s individual title helped propel the Titans to a seven-shot victory in the team competition over Cave Spring and Franklin County, who tied for second.

Hearp’s previous low 18-hole score was 68. Roanoke Times scribe Randy King la-beled Hearp’s 62 as “one of the greatest per-formances in Roanoke Valley high school

Kristin Hearp, golfer

The former Virginia Tech track star won her first-round heat in the 100-meter hurdles at the World Athletic Championships in Mos-

cow Aug. 16. Harrison posted a time of 12.95 seconds. “I think my name definitely plays a part in my personality, makes me who I am,” Harrison said. Harrison, who graduated from high school in Richmond, was a Play by Play cover subject in Septem-ber of 2008. Harrison com-peted in the 2008 Olympics in Bei-jing, the first Tech female athlete ever to compete at that level. She was three times named All-American.

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Opinions Todd Marcum ......................................... 4 Mike Stevens .......................................... 5 Christian Moody ................................... 6 Bill Turner .............................................. 7 Mike Ashley .......................................... 19

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golf history.” She had nine pars and nine birdies. Hearp’s 62 came just 48 hours after she shot an 81 in the Heritage Invita-tional played at London Downs in Lynchburg.

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Kicking off and catching back upTODDS AND ENDSby ToddMarcum

Players in this Issue

P.O. Box 3285, Roanoke, VA 24015 (540) 761-6751 • E-mail: [email protected] the Web: www.playbyplayonline.net

and at www.facebook.com/playbyplaysports©Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. No part of Play by Play may be reproduced by any means or in any form without written permission from the publisher. Play by Play is published every

fourth Monday. Deadline for submissions for the September 23 issue is September 9.

Publisher/Editor John A. Montgomery

Graphic Designer Donna Earwood

Contributors Mike Ashley Rod Carter Leslie Coty Donald Earwood Brian Hoffman Sam Lazzaro Bo Lucas

Todd Marcum Gene Marrano Joyce Montgomery Christian Moody Mike Stevens Bill Turner

Cover photographs by Brian Hoffman; collage by Donna Earwood

Now with color

on every page. Call

John Montgomery

at 761-6751 to

place your ad.

I ’M juST BACk FROM VACA-tion; while kicking back on the beach I’ve had a few things

cross my cranium and a few inter-esting items hit my e-mail inbox that I thought I would share: Since I moved to Roanoke some three decades ago, I have always had an interest in the Hokies. First, when I got here, they were very similar to the Marshall foot-ball team I had rooted for; the powerhouse Virginia Tech teams of more recent years were hardly a dream. I followed them through the Bruce Smith era and the glory days of Michael Vick, but only casually. Yet I’ve always rooted for them except when they play Marshall, my alma mater. One of my mantras as a businessman is that there is no profit in pulling against Virginia Tech if you do commerce in the Star City. A trio of factors have taken my interest up a notch. First my son, Trenton, is enrolling as a fresh-man at Virginia Tech this fall. Second, although he’ll most likely

redshirt, former Patrick Henry quarterback David Prince is join-ing the team. I’ve known David for a while and he’s the kind of guy you like to cheer for. Third, I think the Hokies will surprise a lot of people and have a chance to be an ex-c e p t i o n a l team in 2013 — not nation-al champion-ship caliber, but certainly a contender in the ACC and maybe a

candidate for a BCS berth. I think the offense will click with a re-committed Logan Thomas and all that talk of him leaving Tech early for the NFL behind him. They simply can’t be as bad as they looked last year. I think a 10-win season is a possibility, nine wins a probabil-ity, and the wild Costal Division crown could be in their grasp. The keys will be coming out of

the opening game against Alabama healthy and the team must avoid getting too cocky against better-than-advertised ECu and Marshall teams, probable competitors for the East-ern Division of Confer-ence uSA’s top spot. The schedule lines up nicely to allow the Hokies to enjoy a successful season with a showdown versus Miami the real stumbling block. Two Virginia Tech out-of-conference games will feature players that will ring a bell with area high school football fans.

Brandon Sparrow, a former Lib-erty High School product, has become a force on Marshall’s defensive line at 6-foot-3 and a solid 305 pounds. There has been some talk that a solid senior campaign could put him in posi-tion for a look in the NFL. Former Richlands Star Devon Johnson has become a tight end for the Herd. The ECu Pirates are likely to give considerable playing time to former Patrick Henry standout Ryan Revia, whose solid spring has made the 6-6 redshirt fresh-man a top reserve. Revia has got-ten rave reviews for his willing-ness to hit the weights hard and he has the frame to make good use of the extra muscle.

* * * Attention! Calling (fellow col-umnist) Mike Stevens and the Salem sports promotion ma-chine…I just noticed that we are getting within range of celebrat-ing the 100th anniversary of Sa-lem Municipal Golf Course. Ok, it’s still about five years away, but I would love to see a pro tourna-ment to celebrate the course as it

hits the century mark. In truth, I just want to see how pros would handle the sand greens.

* * * The Roanoke Rails, a summer baseball league featuring area players who are playing colle-giately, has shown steady prog-ress. In just their third full season, the Rails competed for the Car-olina-Virginia College Summer League Championship crown. While they came up short, it’s great progress for a team that won just six games in their inaugural season. Bradley Mattox (William Byrd High School/Roanoke Col-lege) was a finalist for Carolina Virginia College Summer League Player of the Year while Michael Minch (Lord Botetourt/Alderson Broaddus) and Carter Brown (james River (Richmond)/Vir-ginia Tech) were both finalists for Pitcher of the Year. I hope to do an in-depth feature on the Rails as the baseball season approaches next year.

* * * A couple years ago in Play by Play I would feature area resi-dents’ “brushes with fame” and I ran into a good one recently. Sam Phillips is a Roanoke CPA spe-cializing in working with Virginia nursing homes. He’s a witty guy. We were chatting one Sunday af-ter church and he mentioned that he used to play pickup basketball against NBA Hall-of-Famer Da-vid Robinson during their high school years in Manassas. While the modest Sam would not describe himself as an ath-lete, he says he did Ok against “The Admiral.” So how did a wiry accountant go toe-to-toe with a 7’1” two-time NBA MVP? Robin-son was a rare person who grew profoundly as he got older. In middle school, he was a fairly average 5’9” and gave up organized basketball. He took a growth spurt in high school and was added to his high school team as a senior, but was still only 6’6” (tall to be sure, but hardly the stuff of NBA star centers). Robinson scored 1320 on his SATs and entered the Naval Acad-emy as a math major, with little

See MARCUM, Page 16

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PH grad David Prince is expected to redshirt


‘Fitness Evangelist’ attracts followersOPEN MIKEby MikeStevens

WHEN AnTHony FeR-guson decided to hold a Fitness Festival inside the

cavernous, upstairs retail area at Tanglewood Mall that has been vacant since Steve and Barry’s filed for bankruptcy in late 2008, a lot of folks thought he had dropped a barbell on his head. “We didn’t have any margin for error when it came to financing this type of event, but it was something I had always wanted to do to connect fitness professionals and fitness businesses in the Roa-noke Valley,” he says. “My goal was to give people interested in fitness a different experience.” Ferguson, who along with his wife, Johanna, own Ferguson Fitness, likened the expo to neighborhood church events that are designed to bring in both believers and non-be-lievers and expose people to what’s important with-out shoving it down their throats. “We didn’t want to ‘church’ anybody or preach at them, but we wanted to show them that there are a lot of good-hearted, family-friendly busi-ness people in the fitness community who are will-ing to help them get in better shape,” he says. Merchants ranging from traditional retailers like Belk and Play It Again Sports were represented along with non-traditional socially conscious organizations like Mission 5 Million. That company uses the sales of its nutritional sup-plements to feed malnourished children around the world. Regionally, it is being championed by former Northside and university of Virginia football standout Jon Copper. Altogether, 31 vendors and more than 600 people, includ-ing those in body-building shape to those completely out of shape, attended the first Blue Ridge Fitness Festival despite the fact that it was held inside on a beautiful sunny, summer afternoon in july. “Tanglewood Mall gave us two thumbs-up and their folks were pleasantly surprised that it exceeded their expectations and brought in more traffic and business to the mall than they imagined it would,” he says.

The numbers were strong enough to inspire the Fergusons to secure the space for another festival in 2014. Next year it will return to Tanglewood Mall, but on April 26, the same weekend as the Blue Ridge Marathon. “I don’t think we can ever

get enough people into the Expo who need to be churched, if you will,” he says. “My goal is to pack it with people who are looking for answers, but have no idea where to start when it comes to making themselves healthier because things in the past haven’t worked for them.” Ferguson was born in Fayetteville, N.C., but grew up in far Southwest Virginia. just a couple of days after graduating from Marion High School in 1995 he enlisted in the Marines. His dad was an Air Force man, so fit-ness and discipline were always part of his upbringing. In fact, when he misbehaved as a teenager his punishment usually consisted of 100 pushups or chopping a pile of firewood. By his own admission he was a scrawny kid growing up and barely weighed 130 pounds when he entered his first body-building show at the age of 16. He now tips the scales at a very solid 200 and at the age of

36 still competes in a handful of events such as the one he attended this summer at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But the bulk of his time is spent trying to get others focused on fit-ness. His travels this summer to places like Vegas and Myrtle Beach opened his eyes wider than ever to the grow-ing problem of overweight and often obese people, those who don’t know seem to know what to do to improve

their plight. “johanna and I actually feel re-sponsible to do something be-cause the amount of people out there who are not feeling as good

as they should and worry-ing so much about illness

and going back and forth to the doctor

due to a lack of physical activity is just sad,” Ferguson says. “When I was growing up I remember hearing people say, ‘Oh well, I am

going to die anyway, so I can eat what I want.’ I don’t hear that kind of talk now, instead it’s more that people

have tried a program, failed and don’t want to try again.” The Fergusons’ Star City Boot Camps and P90X classes,

group workouts held in Roanoke for people of all fitness lev-els, are not only forcing many folks to try again, but allowing them to see success and results. “I think in a lot of cases people have lost confidence and trust in the system and in products because they haven’t had success, and that’s why having an accountability partner is so important,” he says. Recent studies, including one conducted at Virginia Tech

with walkers, have consistently shown that men and women are two times more likely to have success working out and im-proving their overall health if they have some accountability

with either a partner or a group. “There has to be some type of challenge factor or group ac-

countability to make it work,” he says. “People going down in their basement and working out through the winter and emerging in the spring 40 pounds lighter just doesn’t happen too often.”

The Fergusons spread their fitness message with a unique blending of styles. johanna has a master’s degree in Exercise Science and teaches at the jefferson College of Health Sciences and Anthony has the hands-on experience of training people in fitness centers from coast-to-coast

and even in the Marines. “She’s the one with all of the factual in-formation and I’m more like the BS-er,” he says. Make that the Fitness Evangelist. (For more information, go to fergusonfit-ness.com).

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Bodybuilders pose during the July competition held at Tanglewood Mall. More than 600 people came out


Effects of realignment become reality

Ask A Ref This month Play by Play contributor Christian Moody expends on rules changes coming to high school football this year. In the last issue of Play by Play, the “Ask A Ref” feature looked at two rules changes in high school football. There is another change in both high school and college football that could affect a game. keep in mind that local recreation leagues use high school rules and this rule change will be in effect at all levels.

See MOODY, Page 16

FROM MY VANTAGE POINTChristian Moody

Beginning this season a player whose helmet comes completely off during a down cannot continue to participate in the play. In their considerable efforts to reduce the rate of concussions in football and make the game safer, both the NCAA and the NFHS in-stituted rules last season that required a player to leave the game for a play if his helmet came completely off, with the exception being a case where an opponent caused it to come off by committing a foul, such as grabbing the facemask, chinstrap or helmet opening. The rules committees at all levels were seeing players intention-ally wearing helmets improperly fitted so those helmets could fly off on impact and have a dramatic visual effect. This rules change allows for an actual penalty to be handed down to a player who might be inclined to play in a manner that puts him at risk. Where the new rule gets a little sticky is the interpretation of how much a player can do once a helmet comes off. The NFHS Rules Book (high school and rec) says: “It is illegal participation for a player

WHAT TEAM WILL WIN the River Ridge District this year? How about the

Pioneer? Blue Ridge? Guess what — it doesn’t matter. How about the Western Valley District? Oh wait, that no longer exists. A new day has dawned in Vir-ginia. The reclassification of high schools by the VHSL is now in place and there isn’t much that’s the same. We now have six classifications instead of three, 1A-6A. (Every state uses a system similar, labeling the levels with various numbers of As. But I have no idea what the ‘A” stands for. Why not just 1-6?) Gone are the regions. We now have conferences. But here’s the thing: conferences matter in every sport except football. In all other sports, there will be conference tournaments leading to state playoffs, so essen-tially, every team makes it in every sport except football, where nearly every team makes the playoffs but that’s determined by a point system that’s somewhat akin to the derivation of an Einstein Field Equation, only more complicated. The conferences are based on two things, enrollment and geographi-cal grouping. Conferences are for schools of the same classification, pe-riod, end of story. They were also made as geographical areas that do not overlap. If two far-flung schools are in the same conference, then any school in between them is also in that conference. They are not drawn piecemeal. For that reason it will probably be better to get to know the teams in your conference, more so than your district. Districts mean nothing.The VHSL stopped at nothing to come up with exciting names for each

conference. There are 48 conferences, eight in each classification, and they are named — hold on to your hats — Conference 1, Conference 2, and so on, up to Conference 48. Not surprising, considering they replace the regions that had the rousing names of A, B, C, D for Group A; and I, II, III, IV for Group AA. At least Group AAA was a little creative with Northwest, Northern, Central and Eastern. That’s not much, but they’re words, so it appears to be an effort. I think we should bestow nicknames to the conferences. They will be unofficial, of course, but it would be fun to call them something and see if it catches on. Conference 31 should be the Blue Ridge Conference. It’s a seven-team conference and six of the teams are in the Blue Ridge District. All six schools are 3A. William Fleming, a 4A school, is not in that conference, but Magna Vista is. So replacing Fleming with Magna Vista is the only difference between the Blue Ridge District and the Blue Ridge Confer-ence. That’s what I’m calling it from now on. There should be a naming contest for Conference 24 because I’m sure someone cleverer than me can come up with something. It’s like the Leftover West conference. Made up of the eight 4A schools farthest southwest, it’s going to be a heck of a conference to find a decent place for tournaments. Carroll County is the last 4A school in the state heading southwest. Pulaski County, then Salem and Fleming are part of it, too. But don’t think it stops there. Go south to Bassett, east to Lynchburg to get jef-ferson Forest and E.C. Glass, then south again to GW-Danville. Glass to Carroll is 136 miles. Imagine playing every postseason tournament in every sport with those two teams in the field. It’s happening, and I hope someone thinks of a great name for the conference. With the demise of regions, I wonder if there will be all-conference players. Some districts will have postseason awards, some won’t. I’ve never understood the big deal around postseason honors. I can-not tell you how many times a coach or a parent has offered a lengthy opinion about the injustice — real or perceived (usually perceived) — suffered by one of their players who did not receive the proper recogni-tion as an all-district performer. Who got Player of the Year? How was it decided? What diabolical forces were at work to deny the deserving recipient their just reward, in-stead giving that honor to a less talented but more favorable candidate? I’ve heard it all and never understood it. I guess honors are honors, and if they’re given, a competitor might as well want to win them. And it’s also true that I was never close enough to being an all-district per-former that I even thought about them. I didn’t know such awards ex-isted until I started working in the media and I’d get calls from adult men asking, “When are they going to release the Region III first team?”The what? “I need to know if so-and-so made first-team all-region. He bet-ter have, but those schools in (some far-off district) don’t like (our lo-cal high school) and they will not vote for players from (our local high school), just to send a message.” Fill in those parentheses with any number of school or district names. I’ve heard the same thing said from so many that I wonder how it is that there is a conspiracy to job players at every school with a sports pro-gram. If there are still districts, why will some districts have no more post-season district honors? Because some districts have been so drastically changed that there are district members who are vastly different in sizes. For example, the Piedmont District has a 6A team, Franklin County, and a 2A team, Martinsville, and others in between. That’s right, a 6A school and a 2A school in the same district, but they don’t have to play

See ASK A REF, Page 16


Luke Hancock will never forget 2013

See TURNER, Page 16

TURNER’STURNby Bill Turner

IT WOuLD BE HARD TO AR-gue that it’s been a life-chang-ing five months for Roanoke

native Luke Hancock. His spec-tacular play and leadership that helped Louisville capture the 2013 NCAA basketball champi-onship in April was followed by being the toast of the town, hav-ing new opportunities in his basketball career and experiencing an emotional roller coaster that unfolded in his personal life. Hancock’s name had skyrocketed in national media attention after the unforgettable and gruesome injury to teammate Kevin Ware in Louisville’s Elite-8 22-point win over Duke, after Hancock rushed to Ware’s side as his Cardinal teammates and a na-tional television audience looked on in horror. The following week, Hancock pulled a couple encores out of his hat, first scoring 20 points off the bench to lead Louisville in a 72-68 comeback win over Wichita State in the Final Four semi-finals. Two nights later, he went on a 14-point scoring surge late in the first half, including four straight 3-pointers, as Louisville dispatched Michigan to win the coveted title. Hancock was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player as his parents, Van and Bill Hancock, looked on from row one behind the Cardinal bench in the Atlanta Dome. These showcase performances got the atten-tion of college coaches, and Hancock was given the opportunity to try out for the uSA team in the World university Games scheduled for july 6-17 in kazan, Russia. The tryouts were set for the third week of june in Colorado Springs. Hancock finished his junior year at Louisville in May and returned home to Roanoke where he appeared on local radio and television. He was also honored by the Roanoke Valley Sports Club with a special “Luke Hancock Night” held at Roanoke Country Club on june 17. Former coaches that had coached Luke at Hidden Valley High School were on hand and Hancock spoke to the club about the road he had traveled from the Southwest County basketball courts to earning Sports Illus-trated cover status. One week later, Luke left for the Colorado tryouts, and while chang-ing planes in Dallas, got the phone call he had hoped not to receive. His dad had passed away after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Hancock recently recalled those moments, understandably with some difficulty, and the plan he and his father had already addressed. “Dad and I had talked about it,” Luke told me a few weeks ago. “I promised him if anything happened, I would continue to Colorado and try to make the team. It wasn’t easy to keep going, and it became a very emotional journey with a lot of tough moments. When I arrived at the tryouts, they had over 25 guys there looking to make the team. I had never met any of them before, so there was nobody to lean on.” In spite of the challenging circumstances, Hancock made the first 16-man cut, then survived to earn a position on the final 12-player uSA roster days later. “It was so gratifying to make the team,” Hancock noted. “It meant so much to me to wear that jersey, especially after going through so much.” Based in Colorado Springs, uSA basketball is a non-profit organi-zation and the national governing body for men’s and women’s bas-ketball in the u.S. As the recognized governing body by the Interna-tional Basketball Federation and the u.S. Olympic Committee (uSOC)

, uSA basketball is responsible for the selection, training and fielding of uSA teams that compete in FIBA-sponsored international competi-tions. uSA teams are the current men’s and women’s champions in the Olympics along with several world championships in various FIBA age groups. They are currently ranked No. 1 in all five FIBA world rankings including combined, men’s, women’s, boys’ and girls’. With a passport and special visa in hand, Luke embarked with the rest of the uSA team, coaches and traveling party to represent the unit-ed States on one of the biggest athletic stages half-way around the globe. kazan, Russia is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, and one of the largest economic, scientific and cultural centers in the country. With a population of approximately 1.2 million, kazan has some histor-ical significance as the city celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 2005. It is also one of the largest student-centers with over 200,000 students

enrolled at numerous institutions of higher learning. The World university Games are far more than just a basketball tournament. The competition consists of nearly 11,800 athletes from 160 countries that compete in 18 different sports over 12 days. There is a spectacular opening ceremony at kazan Arena that offered a special and totally unexpected opportunity to Hancock. He carried the united States flag to lead the u.S. delegation.

“The head of the uSA athletes came to me when we first arrived and told me there was something special lined up,” Hancock recalled. “I had no clue it was going to happen. I was tremendously honored.” The 12-day experience in his first visit to Rus-sia made a lasting impression. “It’s very beauti-ful in kazan and it was a great setup in what was compared to an Olympic village. We were told it was just like the Olympics. We had ev-ery kind of food imaginable, from that of ev-ery country to McDonald’s. The trip was awe-some and absolutely a great experience.” The united States men’s basketball team opened its qualifying five-game pool play round with wins over the Czech Republic, united Arabic Emirates and Sweden. The

win over uAE was by a whopping 94-point margin. Later in the pool round, the u.S. eventually fell 93-84 to Australia in a game that fea-tured 11 lead changes and the u.S. leading by five points heading to the final quarter. In the final pool matchup, Canada defeated the united States 94-85, preventing the u.S. from advancing to the medal round. The u.S. officially finished in ninth place after subsequent wins over Norway, Germany and Finland. “It was quite a variety of teams,” Hancock acknowledged of the com-petition and the swings in margins of victory. “Several teams had pro basketball candidates. Most players were in great shape and overall it was great competition.” Hancock downplayed his contributions. “I had a good tournament, but I don’t like to point to how I played; I judge on the team outcome. I played my best, but I don’t like to lose.” Overall, the united States made a good showing, winning 40 medals (11 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze) in eight of 18 sports. The u.S. swim-mers won 20 medals and the women’s hoops team captured the gold medal. The uSA total medal count was seventh, behind Russia, China, japan, korea, Belarus and ukraine. After returning to the united States, Hancock joined his Louisville team on july 23 as they visited the East Room of The White House at the invitation of President Barack obama. The Cardinals presented Obama with a Louisville jersey and red Louisville Slugger baseball bat.

Luke Hancock made the 12-man national team and then emerged as the team’s No. 2 scorer. He also carried the flag

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From theBookshelf

Well worth the laughs and the tears “How Lucky you Can Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer,” by Buster olney, Balantine Books (Random House), 224 pages, 2010. $25. Jim Valvano famously said it was a good day if you laughed, if you cried and if you were provoked to thought. I thought of him as I finally got around to reading “How Lucky You Can Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer.” And I say it that way because I had coaches telling me for years this was a must read. I think the little book has something of a cult following among basketball coaches, maybe beyond even basketball now, because Don Meyer’s story is truly remarkable. In my defense, I have learned to often take what coaches tell me with a practiced bit of skepticism. In this instance, though, they were telling me the truth. Page after page, I found my-self laughing or crying and al-ways thinking, particularly about the many coaches I have met, so many who have sacrificed their personal lives in pursuit of their goals with their teams and within their sport. Maybe you know someone like that? Don Meyer did, and he saw him every day in the mirror. But in 2008, on a remote road outside of Aberdeen, S.D., where Meyer coached Division II North-ern university, Meyer had a reck-oning in a wreck that nearly took his life. Instead it took one of his legs and set him on an arduous rehabilitation that had him re-think and re-appreciate what al-ready had been a remarkable life. Meyer would win the Arthur Ashe Award for courage — the one Valvano made famous — at

the 2009 ESPN awards, the ES-PYs, and he tears up when talk-ing about how lucky — even with the auto ac-cident — he had been in his life, simply to coach. Ironically and poignantly, the doctors repair-ing his body found that he

also had terminal cancer. Meyer also considered himself fortunate that the horrific ac-cident revealed the disease and gave him time to connect with his family and the people around him that were special as he be-gan, literally, the battle of his life. Before the accident, Meyer was that driven coach, determined to make his team better, and fo-cused more on that process than just wins and losses. But, oh the wins came. Meyer passed Bob Knight’s record of 902 victories in his 38 years at Hamline, Lip-scomb and then Northern, and he became men’s basketball’s all-time leader in victories be-fore Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski claimed the mark in 2011. Meyer’s simple techniques for bringing out the best in his play-ers as athletes, and as people, have long been an industry stan-dard in college hoops. Start with his three rules for his program: 1. Everybody takes notes. 2. Everybody says, “Yes, sir,” “Yes, ma’am,” “No, sir,” and “No, ma’am.” In other words be cour-teous to everybody. 3. Everybody picks up trash. Oh there’s a lot more to what makes this great coach tick and a lot more to this story and the lives he touched and the way his

family, friends, fans and players responded when he needed them most. Buster olney, now known more for his baseball reportage, was a sportswriter in Nashville and covered Meyer’s NAIA na-tional championship team at Lip-

scomb. He has a deft touch, and an insider’s take on this story, bringing a small college coach to a big stage. Well worth your time to get to laugh, to cry and to think.

— Mike Ashley

“eleven Rings: The Soul of Success,” By Phil Jackson and Hugh Delahanty. Penguin Press, 392 pages,, $27.95. If you’re looking for a blow-by-blow autobiography from long-time Bulls and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson on how he won all those NBA titles, “Eleven Rings” isn’t it. Instead as he recounts his 11 championships as a head coach (six titles with Chicago, five with Los Angeles), jackson gives us the dish on leadership and his Zen philosophy — how medita-tion and visioning helped him prepare for battles on the basketball court. Buddhism, Eastern mysticism and Na-tive American cus-toms are all part of what makes jackson tick. Some of the more humorous parts of “Eleven Rings” deal with jackson’s at-tempts to introduce quiet time to his players, having them sit in silence, envisioning the game to come. He also would pick out books for his players to read over the summer, titles he pains-takingly tried to match with their personalities. Some were just amused by the book assignments, some actually read them. jackson, seemingly retired now but the subject of every ru-mor mill when a choice position comes open, truly had a storied career. A college star in North Dakota, he also earned two championship rings as a player with the New York knicks in the early ’70s. jackson was sidelined with a back injury during the knicks’ 1969-70 title run, but act-ed as a de facto assistant coach,

More philosophy than hoops talk

sitting alongside Red Holzman and taking it all in. Hired to replace Doug Col-lins and with no head coaching experience, he became the final piece in the puzzle for Chicago, helping lead Michael Jordan and company to six world champion-ships. After a brief time way from the game it was on to Los Angeles and more success in Tinseltown. (All 11 of jackson’s championship rings are featured on the book’s front cover.) What right does a mere hoops coach have to talk about leader-

ship? Try winning 11 rings while dealing with the egos of divas like Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Shaquille o’neal and Michael Jordan. Or having players slightly out of step with the rest of the NBA world, like Ron Artest (Metta World Peace) and the heavily tattooed Dennis Rodman. jackson actually

saw Scottie Pippen as the soul of those great Bulls teams in many ways and exhibits much respect for the Hall of Famer in the book. But “Action jackson” also made heroes out of role players like Steve Kerr, John Paxson, Bill Cartwright, Toni Kukoc, Bill Wennington, Rick Fox and Derek Fisher. Simply put, where he went teams won and won of-ten. “Eleven Rings” may not be the defining autobiography that chronicles an amazing basket-ball life but those who want to know a bit more about the inner workings of Phil jackson should enjoy this book.

— Gene Marrano


Snapshots of the season J.J. Redick Foundation Golf TournamentA full field, including many sports celebrities, participated in this year’s tournament held at Ballyhack Golf Club Aug. 10. Joining Redick (left) below is fellow Duke Blue Devil basketball alumnus Seth Curry. Other notables included former Baltimore Oriole Al Bumbry (immediate right) and Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry (far right). No word on whether J.J. and Stephen, two of the most celebrated 3-point shooters in basketball history, played H-O-R-S-E.

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Legend AwardRoanoke Valley Sports Club past-president Dave Ross (above right) presents the Legend Award to North Cross icon left Jim Muscaro at the club’s July 22 meeting on UVa night.

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Bill Turner Chip SullivanAlthough he stubbed his toe with a first-round 84 in the PGA and didn’t survive the cut, Hanging Rock club pro Chip Sullivan (above) can still be proud that he was one of a handful of club pros (among several thousand eligible) who competed in the New York tournament in early August. Just a few years ago, in 2007, he indeed was the low club pro in the country.

7 Turning ProFormer Hidden Valley High School golfer Meredith Swanson (left), who graduated from college this past May after being a member of the Univer-sity of South Carolina women’s golf team, announced Aug. 7 that she will turn pro and enter qualifying school in an attempt to earn her LPGA card.Bi

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RVSC Welcomes Scot Loeffler, Honors Knights SoftballThe new Virginia Tech football offensive coordinator spoke July 29. Pictured above, from left, are: Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler with son Luke, Ethel Waldron, Joanne Perry and Larry Perry. At the same meeting the RVSC honored the Cave Spring state champion softball team. On hand, from left below, were: assistant coach Scott Hodge, Pami White, Cassie Parulig, Kylie Kent, Cortney Cooper, head coach Nick Sharp, Hailey Sitze, assistant coach Scott Sharp and Taylor Asimakopoulos.

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Making ProgressThe Roanoke Valley Aquatic Associa-tion involves a very large number of participants every summer, including Ninth District Congressman Morgan Griffith (right), who is part of the Stonegate team.

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by Mike Ashley

Overachiever Keister has left his mark at BridgewaterBRIDGEWATER COLLEGE’S

Kyle Keister certainly wasn’t any 98-pound weakling com-

ing out of Cave Spring High School in 2010, but he wasn’t quite big enough to turn heads in Division I football. His only schol-arship offer was a partial from Divi-sion II Glenville State in West Vir-ginia, and he was probably headed there or for james Madison before he had a change of heart thanks to the university of Virginia. kyle’s father, Martin, was a Wahoo, although he didn’t play football there, and the keisters were regulars at Scott Stadium for

years as kyle grew bigger than his dad but followed in Martin’s foot-ball cleats at Cave Spring High School. The younger keister was second team all-district his senior season for a knights’ team that

won the Region IV championship before bowing to eventual Group AA state champi-on Northside. “I was maybe going to go (to jMu) and walk-on but I didn’t want to do that because I knew I wouldn’t play,” says keister. “So it was really between Bridge-water, Emory &

Henry and Randolph-Macon. The visit is what did it for me — the guys, the coaches, the atmo-sphere — it was just so much bet-ter than the other schools.”

And there was another thing that made him an Ea-gle — Bridgewa-ter’s bucolic Har-risonburg campus reminded keister of the grounds at Thomas jeffer-son’s academi-cal village. “I love the university of Virginia campus, and that’s what it reminded me of, all the columns, and the way it was spread out,” says keister. “You have Mckinney (Hall) on the far end and you’ve got the long lawn.” So keister was sold on his visit, and hasn’t looked back, although he does love looking at the view from Nininger Hall, the Eagles’ athletic building, across that lawn at Mc-kinney. He was a starter at right tackle by his sophomore season and then moved to the vital left tackle spot last year where all he did was earn All-ODAC honors, allow-ing just one sack in 673 plays and regularly leading the Bridgewater linemen in knockdowns. He says he has done it without a chip on his shoulder pad despite being overlooked by bigger schools. “Ever since I was in high school, my head coach there, Tim Ful-ton, always told me that the big-ger schools wouldn’t look at me just because I was 6-1 ½,” keister recalls. “If I wasn’t 6-4 or 6-5, they wouldn’t look at me. And that al-ways frustrated me because if I can play just as good as someone else, just because they’re 6-4, that shouldn’t make a difference.” Bridgewater provided a more level practice field for the 6-2, 245-pound keister. He pushed himself in the weight room and merited more minutes on Satur-

days. “I think left tackle is where you put your best offensive line-men,” says BC offensive line coach Scott Lemn. “Hands down, I think you could ask anybody on our staff or even the other guys that he plays with, and they’d agree that he’s our best guy up-front.” “Once I got to Bridgewater, ev-erybody’s about the same size so you don’t have to be 6-5, 300 pounds and it’s all about skill-level,” says keister. “That’s how I pushed myself. I wasn’t mad (about being under-recruited) but it has always been on my mind. I’ve always strived to be the best player I could be. It doesn’t mat-ter if I’m at a bigger school or a D-III school, I’ve always loved the game and I’m going to be hard on myself and work hard.” Gearing for his final college football season, keister has been working out five days a week in Roanoke, often lifting at Cave

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Kyle Keister

Keister was considered too small to be a Division I lineman out of high school, but he has beefed up to 6-2, 245 lbs.


Overachiever Keister has left his mark at BridgewaterSpring High School, some-times up to two hours at a time. He also gets in some cardio work running as he hears his college career clock ticking. “That’s the big-gest encouragement I could ever have to keep working,” he says. “People ask me if I’m sorry the sum-mer’s over or if I dread going to camp and this summer, no, not at all. I’m excited to get back. This is my last year to play, my last year to work hard and reach our goals.” Lemn loves keister’s drive and leadership qualities. “He leads us by example. When he talks, those guys listen. He doesn’t talk a lot but he’s got a powerful voice and I think that’s important. kyle has been an important player for this program since he walked in the door.” Lemn says keister consistently

grades out as the Eagles’ top

lineman. “We give an of-fensive line

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percent of our games last year,” says the coach. “He grades out in the high 80s, low 90s ev-

ery game and he con-

sistently leads our group in knockdowns.” So keister consistently knocks foes on their keis-

ter? Sounds about right. According to Lemn, who breaks down the film af-ter every game, keister has had as many as 11 knockdown blocks in a single game. “You fig-ure in a 70-play game,

that’s one of out every seven,” says Lemn. “That’s about [15-17] percent. If half the plays are drop-back passes, that means 35 (plays) are runs where you get a good chance for a knockdown. That’s more like 33 percent and that will get you in the Hall of Fame in baseball.” Hits are hits, right? But what makes keister so good — besides maybe a little orneri-ness that he says he has on the football field based on a lineman lineage passed down from his fa-ther and maybe even his grandfa-ther, who played at Graham High School in Bluefield? “He’s really gifted athletically,” adds Lemn. “He has good feet He has good body control. He has a strong lower body, some-thing I think is always necessary for good offensive linemen. He has really done a great job in the time since has come here of de-veloping his body and becoming a stronger player. He has an ex-plosive punch. When he gets his hands on you, typically that block is over.” keister has big hands and they’re good at pushing away de-fenders and hefting weight with his teammates. Last spring he

dead-lifted 520 pounds and he can do 14 repetitions with 225 pounds in the bench press, a regular BC drill. He can squat-

lift 475 pounds. But for keister, it’s been brains and brawn at Bridgewater. He credits two of his high school line coaches — current Lord Bote-tourt head coach Jamie Harless and Ricky Lonker, still at CSHS — with giving him a good funda-mental base on which to build. “They were the two coaches

that really pushed me in high school and encouraged me to get better for college,” says keister. “They were both from Emory & Henry and kept pushing me to go there but once I started looking for a college it all just worked out for me.” keister was talented enough, smart enough and worked hard enough to make it all work out. “He has a strong mental makeup,” says Lemn. “You can be pretty hard on kyle and it seems to motivate him. Most of that comes because he is so competitive. He really wants to win. You can really see that by the way he plays on Saturday. You can see that by the way he practices on Tuesday. He does not want to lose a single battle.” When he graduates, keis-ter wants to help others battle through physical ailments. He’s studying to be a physical therapist, to keep his big hand in sports and to maybe help

people up in the future rather than knocking them down all the time like he does now.

Keister was considered too small to be a Division I lineman out of high school, but he has beefed up to 6-2, 245 lbs.

Keister is not known as a talker, but rather as one who leads by example


Football: an American tradition evolves

A LONG WITH THE COOL mornings and the late Au-gust dew, football season

is here again. This great Ameri-can tradition captures the atten-tion and imagination of so many sports fans. American football is truly a great spectator sport. It seems like just about everybody is a fan of one team or another. When the topic of football re-cently came up around the Bo-tetourt Athletic Club front desk, longtime football fan Janet But-tram expressed it so well: “Hur-ray! Football season is here.” She elaborated, “I watch Virginia Tech and uVa. I always root for any Virginia team that is playing against somebody else.” Does janet follow any of the NFL teams? “I always watch the Redskins because of my friend, joan, who has been a big fan all these years,” janet explained. “That way I have something to talk about with her; I know what RG III (Robert Griffin) has done lately.” Collegiate mega-confer-ences and the NFL have ef-fectively promoted their football games into a multi-billion dollar industry. They have skillfully marketed their products into premier entertainment packages that virtually anyone can enjoy. College alumni and fans have cultivated their tailgate pic-nics into major events that ri-val the games themselves for pure entertainment value. NFL tailgate events are like massive football festivals. Although there are well-defined and enforced guidelines at these celebrations, basically anything goes that is not illegal or danger-ous, and doesn’t infringe on other fans’ right to have a good time.

Grills, coolers, tables and chairs are standard fare. Often fans take it to the extreme and provide food service with the likes of linen ta-blecloths, crystal and silver uten-sils and even waiters and chefs. The Redskins’ FedEx Field opens four hours before game time and allows tailgating in all of its parking lots. Heinz Field admits tailgaters five hours prior to the Steelers’ kick-off at over a hundred lots. That plus the top-notch NFL talent playing inside the stadium can provide an all-day extravaganza. Although there is no NFL team in Virginia, there are a few teams in nearby states that have a con-siderable fan base here in Virgin-ia. The Washington Redskins play their home games in Landover, Md., but practice in Richmond, Va. Baltimore, home of the Ra-vens, is about a 4-½ hour drive from this area. The Carolina Panthers play in the Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte, which is about a 3-½ hour trip. The close proximity of these stadiums enables local fans to travel to those host cities to enjoy a game and return home in a single day trip. Distance alone does not deter-

mine an NFL team’s fan base. You can find ardent supporters of any given NFL team virtually any-where in the country. But the game of football was not always such a structured and well-planned affair. The sport has

had over 140 years to morph into the sophisticated show that it is now. The origin of American foot-ball is generally considered to be the Nov. 6, 1869 game between Princeton university and Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.j. This con-test was more of a challenge game than it was a conventional inter-collegiate event. After all, nobody had official collegiate football

teams at that time. By the following year numer-ous Eastern colleges were stag-ing variations of this new kick-ing game versus other nearby schools. There were no formal rules yet so each of these chal-lenge games had its own collabo-rated guidelines. Generally home field rules took precedence. These contests were always very popu-lar, and spectator support for teams and special players grew rapidly. Those early games were quite different from the game that is played today. They played by an improvised combination of rules from rugby and soccer. Originally there were 25 players per side, and the field was much larger than the current standard. Each team was divided up into spe-cialized groups — 11 players who defended their own territory and 12 players who played in the op-ponent’s territory trying to score. Two players from each team posi-tioned themselves near the oppo-nent’s goal. The ball could only be ad-vanced by kicking it or batting it with the hands or other body

parts. The object of the game was to kick the ball into your op-ponent’s goal area resulting in a point. Running with the ball and throwing it were both prohibited. During the next two decades all aspects of this popular new sport grew by leaps and bounds. More schools fielded teams and more spectators attended games. Conferences formed and recog-

nized champions. Sports authorities and press organizations selected All-America Teams. Football was popular, fun to watch and newsworthy. The number of play-ers was reduced from 25 to 20 and then to 15 making the game more orderly. Field size was reduced proportionately. The

round soccer-like ball was re-placed by an oval ball similar to that used in rugby. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia formed the Intercolle-giate Football Association and set about to standardize the rules. Walter Camp, who was the cap-tain of Yale’s team, instituted some effective rules that helped popularize the sport. Camp was responsible for reducing the number of players to 11, and for replacing the scrum with the new concept of the snap to initiate a play. Walter Camp is recognized as the Father of American Foot-ball. Those ingenious Harvard foot-ballers grasped the advantage of running the ball, and regularly advanced several steps with the ball before they kicked it. Some other schools liked the concept of running with the ball and inte-grated it into their game. Gradu-ally it became commonplace, and defensive players were allowed to tackle the player running with the ball. The forward pass was introduced for the 1906 season

See FOOTBALL, Page 17

by Bo Lucas

Heisman Trophy winner RG III (Robert Griffin) has re-energized Redskin fans

Even youth can appreciate football principles

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‘Father of football’Walter Camp‘Father of football’Walter Camp


Looking for basketball stars in the Star CityCHAD MyeRS IS

on a mission. He wants to

make sure the top high school basketball play-ers in the Roanoke Val-ley have the same ad-vantages other young players have. For every J.J. Redick (page 9), J.R. Reyn-olds and Luke Han-cock (page 7), there are probably several more players who never got noticed and never got the right scholarship offer. Myers is teaming with a lot of local coaches to end that cycle. “I’ve thought, living in this area, that a lot of kids get missed because there’s only one Division I school that’s not a high-major school and that’s Radford,” says Myers, who played at William Byrd and then later coached at Radford. “There are no Division II schools and then just ODAC (Di-vision III) schools so a lot of guys get missed.” And Myers knows a thing or two about good college players. He coached at Hargrave Military Academy, where that type of play-er regularly paraded through, including one aforementioned Luke Hancock, and he more re-cently was 58-12 in a two-year stint as the head man at Massa-nutten. Last year’s MMA team was ranked No. 1 in the country part of the season, unprecedent-ed heights for the program. But Myers left that job to join Hoop Group, a New jersey-based basketball training and showcase operation as a coaching direc-tor. One of Myers’ chief tasks has been to spread the Hoop Group brand more into the South, and his hometown of Roanoke is a great place to start. The Spectrum Sports Academy will host one of the organization’s prestigious Top 100 showcases on Oct. 19, players from through-out the region and beyond, get-

ting a day of training, games, and most impor-tantly, evalu-ation from Hoop Group employees, re-gional coach-es and even a couple of scouting writ-ers employed by Hoop Group. “We’re still piecing it to-

gether because this is brand new for Roanoke,” says Myers. “But we’ve already had interest from major AAu programs in West Vir-ginia and North Carolina, so we’ll have teams there but it’s open to individuals, too, rising high school freshmen to rising seniors.” “The Hoop Group name is so well-respected, that will lend it-self to getting more kids here,” says Billy Hicks, Myers’ first call with his idea. un-til recently, Hicks was the basketball academy di-rector for the Spectrum, and he thinks the brand name Myers’ organization brings can make this a big event. “The Spectrum is such a great facility with the ac-cess to the airport and the hotels there, that I think we’ll get a great response,” Hicks says. “And locally it will help. We’ve always been underrated and you don’t need to look any further than the NCAA recordbook at the top three-point shooters in the his-tory of the game. They came from a 30-mile radius here.” Redick still holds the record but Curtis Staples and Doug Day have dropped, although both are still in the Top 10. “Roanoke might be a little eas-ier for kids from all around down here to get to rather than D.C., or

Richmond or Raleigh,” he says. “When Chad left Massanutten we started talking about this and what a great facility we had here.” Myers says a host of Division II and Division III coaches will be there, along with several local high school coaches, including Cave Spring’s Hicks, and some former college players. The ses-sions start at 10:30 a.m., and run until 3:30. Players can register at hoopgroup.com. The cost is $110. “It’s pretty much wide open to anybody (within the age group) and it gives them a chance to be evaluated and get coached by some of the top coaches in the re-gion,” says Myers. Players will play and train with players their own age, except the top prospects who might get to step up a level. All of the play-ers will be observed not only by the staff of coaches but also by an ESPN.com analyst and Steve Keller, who has published the National Recruiting Report since

1986. “They give you a pretty good evalua-tion of where you’re at (as a player) and what you need to work on,” ex-plains Myers. “What they see is what level you’re at right now and what

level you could possibly be. These guys’ evaluations go to pretty much every college coach around the country.” And that has been the rub for Roanoke roundballers. The re-gion’s geography, and the lack of more local mid-level Divi-sion I programs or any Division II schools, conspire to make it harder to match deserving play-ers with scholarship offers. The Star City isn’t always part of the

national recruiting orbit either unless a George Lynch or a Rich-ard Morgan pops up. “I think that sometimes it’s hard for people get a good read on kids from Roanoke because they don’t play on the national scene a lot,” adds Myers. “Whether that’s with an AAu program or at an ex-posure camp. I think our coaches here are unbelievably good but at the end of the day, there are only so many college coaches that are going to come watch high school basketball games in the Roa-noke Valley. They can’t get every-where.” And as someone who has re-cruited college-level players, Myers understands a coach can go to Washington, D.C, and get around to more schools and more big-time prospects than perhaps they can in Roanoke. That’s just the reality for budget-conscious basketball programs. unless, of course, the word starts getting out about the players here. “That’s why I think this is such a good opportunity for a lot of kids,” says Myers of the gather-ing at the Spectrum. “I’ve always been a huge advocate of kids from Roanoke if I thought they were good enough.” Myers has made a living mak-ing players good enough, first as an assistant at Hargrave and then at Massanutten. He finished his high school career at Camden (S.C) Military Academy in 2001, trying to improve his stock with college recruiters. He later played at Shepherd (W.Va.) university. “People don’t realize that prep school gives you an unbelievable opportunity but you have to make the most of it,” he says. “Some kids now think if they put on a prep school jersey they’re going to be Luke Hancock. I try to tell them how hard Luke worked and what it took to get to be MOP of the Final Four. Luke was calling me two or three times a day in the

by Mike Ashley

See HOOPS, Page 16

Chad Myers hopes to one day be a Division I coach

Billy Hicks


Sox make late push; longtime assistant GM seeks top jobby Gene Marrano

AT PRESS TIME, THE SALEM Red Sox were nipping at the heels of the Carolina Mud-

cats, hoping to grab a postseason berth. That’s pretty impressive under the circumstances, consid-ering the Sox lost a number of key players to call-ups in 2013. Par for the course, says man-ager Billy McMillon, who will tell you advanced-A ball is all about player development. All-Stars Garin Cecchini (third base) and lefty starter Henry owens got the call to Double-A Portland, as did shortstop Devin Marrero (a Bos-ton Red Sox first-round pick) and reliever noe Ramirez. Replacements were quickly on the way, however: Stefan Welch has impressed in the field and at the plate since taking over for Cecchini. Mookie Betts did well at second after an injury to Sean Coyle and improved starting

pitching helped fill the void when staff leader Owens earned his promotion. Salem Red Sox radio broad-caster evan Lepler says this sea-son’s squad was just as talented as some that have come through Salem over the past few years, when Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Will Middlebrooks were among those who made stops on the way to Boston.

“Early in the season the talent in the infield really stood out,” says Lepler, a Massachusetts na-tive who realized one dream by handling the public address chores for a Boston game at Fen-way Park last season. He included All-Star catcher Blake Swihart (another first-round pick in 2011) among that talented bunch of in-fielders. Outfielders Henry Ramos and Keury De La Cruz may have started slowly, but “carried [the Sox] for long stretches,” accord-ing to Lepler, as the season went on. The 2013 Salem Sox “play hard and really want to win. This team in particular…wants to make the playoffs.” Swihart told Lepler he considers winning a “valuable tool” toward his overall develop-ment. Betts has been a base-stealing threat, “a stud and really fun to watch,” since arriving on the scene. Welch, an older prospect at

25 acquired from the Pirates organization in june, “basically replaced Cecchini in almost every way — and was probably a little bit better de-fensively.” The Aus-tralian was strug-gling in Double A but Lepler says he seems to have been rejuvenated by his stay in Salem. “Most Red Sox fans proba-bly wouldn’t consid-er him a prospect, but I would.” Miguel Pena and

Mike Augliera have picked up their game as starting pitchers; Lepler points out that Augliera, who may have “the least stuff on the staff,” was named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week three times in a five-week span. Right-hander Heri Quevedo, 23, is “a toddler” in his first year of major-league affiliated ball but over the last few months Lepler expected him to throw 5-6 innings in ev-

ery start. “He’s been really fun to watch.” Lepler can see a team taking a chance in the Rule 5 draft, putting Quevedo in a major league bullpen next season due to his “electric stuff.” With Boston stockpiling talent at positions like shortstop and third base (Middlebrooks and SS Xander Boegarts are also in the pipeline), Lepler wouldn’t be sur-prised to see Salem alumni like Marrero and Cecchini used as trade bait. “I really thought going into the trade deadline [on july 31] that one of those four guys would get traded. I thought it would be Cecchini or Middlebrooks.”

* * * Another longtime member of the Salem club was also hoping for a promotion of his own: assis-tant general manager Allen Law-rence, a former North Cross base-ball player who was on the Salem game day staff throughout high school and college. Lawrence had thrown his name into the hat as a replacement for departed GM Todd Stephenson, who left in mid-july. Since 2005 Lawrence has been the assistant general manager under Jamie Toole, Stan Macko,

John Katz and Stephenson. He’s been the interim GM since Stephenson stepped down. “I learned a lot from Todd and all of the other GMs I worked for as well,” says Lawrence. Being the head guy in charge “has helped me tremendously, whether I was to get the job or not,” says Lawrence. He figures Fenway Sports Group may take its time in selecting a new per-manent general manager, with their focus on the parent club’s pennant drive taking center stage. Much of what Lawrence does from day-to-day hasn’t changed much, since game day promotions and other details were already in place for the sea-son. “It’s been some small addi-tions to my plate…but nothing I wasn’t already doing [in some fashion].” By the way, the guy you see rushing through the checkout line in a kroger ad that has run on the back page of Play by Play is Lawrence (one career home run at North Cross), who shot it at the Bonsack kroger. “It was inter-esting, I was happy to do it. kind of fun and an interesting experi-ence. I just stood there doing dif-ferent things for an hour-and-a-half. A lot of my friends have seen it and given me a hard time,” he says. Everyone else in the ad was a paid model. Lawrence, 35, says baseball fans in the area are “just looking for good entertainment. Weather is the X-factor.” Rainy conditions that have plagued the valley all summer helped drive the turn-stile numbers down in his esti-mation. “People will come out in nice weather and are more likely to stay home if there’s a chance of rain.” Hardcore fans will come out in any case but the casual fan just wants a nice night out on the town. A dry night at that, notes Law-rence. A winning team may help a bit, especially if the Sox are in a

Salem’s Mookie Betts (stealing second) has filled in well for the injured Sean Coyle

Miguel Pena has given the Red Sox a boost as a starting pitcher

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by Gene Marrano

A FEW YEARS AGO KIM-berly Arbouw might have been classified as your typi-

cal busy mom: a houseful of kids, a husband, another child on the way — and homeschooling her children to boot. Not much time for exercise on a regular basis. She didn’t even know how to swim, she admits. Fast forward three years and Arbouw is a competitive triath-lete (running, swimming, biking) who has qualified for the national championships in her late-30s age group. She recently competed in Mil-waukee, gamely on a leg that’s been giving her trouble for a while. “I decided to go anyway,” says Arbouw, who had been ad-vised by doctors to take a break. Recently retired Ironman cham-pion Chrissy Wellington was on hand to give out finisher medals. “That was really awesome,” says Arbouw. That’s not all: in early Septem-ber Arbouw heads to London with Team uSA for the World Triathlon Championships, competing at the shorter sprint distances in her age group. It’s quite a long trip in a short period of time for the native Roa-

Full-time mom becomes triathlete medalist

noker. Going with her are several other Roanokers, including Mike Morris, Betsy Henderson, James Dalton and Stephanie Pratola. A sprint triathlon typically includes a 750-meter swim, followed by a 12-mile bike ride and a 5k run. (One lane length of a competi-tion pool is usually 25 meters; for comparison a yard is about 10 percent less than a meter). “Triathlon is a ton of fun and keeps my life happy and balanced,” says Arbouw. “I started in 2010 at the age of 35 when I didn’t even know how to swim, bike, or run.” Preg-nant at the time, Arbouw was watching an IMAX movie in 2010 about a woman who swam with dolphins. Shortly thereafter she signed up for swimming lessons at the Ro-anoke YMCA with Pat Bate-man, a celebrated triathlete who at one time posted times among the nation’s best. “I couldn’t even put my head in the water,” notes Arbouw. As for biking (she bought one de-signed for triathlons), “I didn’t know how to bike — or even stop the thing.” Arbouw jokes that she rode a horse while living in the Netherlands for a while with her Dutch-born husband, “but I don’t think that’s exactly the same.” Bateman had won an Ironman Triathlon many years before (at much longer distances than a sprint triathlon) and he left Ar-bouw intrigued. By May of 2010 she had entered her first event. “The week before my first triath-lon I made it across the pool lane — by then our third child was four months old,” she recalls. Some of her classmates in that first swim class thought Arbouw’s goal of competing in a triathlon might have seem far-fetched, but she had seen the light. “I think I really shocked them by how far I’ve come,” she says. Subsequent swim lessons with coach eva

Steib at the Carter Athletic Cen-ter helped with technique. “It all really came together [then],” says Arbouw. By 2011 she was placing in her age group, competing in the Vir-ginia Triathlon Series and oth-er events. By 2012 Arbouw had qualified for Team uSA. “I really

caught the ‘triathlon bug’ and it has been a really fun journey. I love traveling to races and the fun of training and racing.” Now Ar-bouw blogs about her newfound passion for fitness as a triathlete at http://adventuresin-tri-mom-athlon.blogspot.com. Arbouw credits fellow triath-lete nancy Hans with giving her the encouragement needed. They met in Bateman’s swim-ming class. In fact Arbouw says she might not be competing if it wasn’t for the support of the 50-something Hans, who has done two triathlons in the same weekend and is now preparing for her first full Ironman this Octo-ber in North Carolina. “Had it not been for Nancy I would have nev-er, ever done this,” Arbouw says. The Ironman entails a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon distance run. Hans has competed in more than two dozen triathlons: four

were half-Ironmans; the oth-ers were sprints and Olympic distances. An Olympic “tri” involves a 1500-meter swim, a 24-mile bike ride and a 10k run. “I helped [kimberly] do her very first ‘brick’ back in May of 2010,” says Hans, director for the Prevention Council of Roanoke County. “Then she took off. She defi-nitely sets her goals and goes for them. It’s been impres-sive to see how well she has progressed in three short years, especially with three young children. She has lots of husband- and grandma-

support.” For the uninformed, a brick is when you train for two compo-nents of a triathlon back to back. Hans often bikes and then imme-diately runs because that is the most difficult transition for her; ironically, swimming is now her comfort zone. “You need to [train] for the mental part of it, especial-ly in anything past a sprint tri,” she advises. “This goes to show you that you can take up a sport — or three — at any age, excel at it, and have a fantastic time,” says Arbouw about her journey to triathlon medalist in three short years. “I didn’t do any sports…now I’ve met people [competing] from kids to those in their 80s. I’’s really an awesome thing.” An awesome thing that she says others can do as well if they just take the plunge and go for it. “It’s really crazy that I’ve come this far.”

Triathlete Kimberly Arbouw (right) is congratulated by Chrissy Wellington in Milwaukee

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Mother of three, Arbouw enjoys the strong support of family

Sprint triathlons typically include a 750-me-ter swim, a 12-mile bike ride and a 5K run


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each other. What’s the point of that? The VHSL says a team doesn’t have to schedule a district opponent if the classification difference is three or greater, so the Piedmont will not have every team playing every other team. The River Ridge is similar, with Patrick Henry, 6A, in the same district but not scheduled to play 3A schools Cave Spring and Blacksburg. The Patriots will play district opponents Hidden Valley, Christiansburg, also 3A. PH and Blacksburg have played in recent

years, although they were not in the same district then. Single A districts like the Three Rivers and Pioneer are largely unaffected with membership re-maining the same, so they could have all-district awards. Would it mean the same to be first-team all-district in a district that has those honors, if others don’t? I guess it’s up to the person getting the award. Through the regular season in fall sports, things will look fairly familiar. Come postseason, the landscape of playoffs will be vastly different. It will be inter-esting.

whose helmet has come complete-ly off during a down to continue to participate beyond the immediate action in which the player is en-gaged.” There is no definition of “im-mediate action.” Obviously, if two players are engaged in blocking or one is tackling another and a helmet comes off, that player must stop, but it’s unreason-able to expect immediate cessa-tion of a block or tackle. The rule was written to prevent a player from chasing an opponent, mov-ing from one block to another or

Ask a RefFrom Page 6 participating for more than a few

moments following the loss of the headgear. But coaches are worried that a player will be penalized for follow-ing his football instincts. What if a player loses a helmet and a fum-bled ball is by his feet? Is he going to resist the urge to fall on the ball? Does immediate action mean im-mediate vicinity? (No.) What spot is the spot of enforcement for the 15-yard penalty? Hopefully all players will have properly fitted helmets and this will not be a worry, but it could po-tentially have a dramatic effect on a game.

thought of becoming an NBA su-perstar. But that’s how it worked out. It’s probably a good thing Sam got him early.

* * * Finally, I’d like to say welcome home to Adam Wood, a Hid-den Valley High School baseball player who traded hitting curve balls for hitting a bass drum this summer. Adam, who I have known since birth, chose to miss summer travel baseball with his

South County Rebels team to tour with an elite drum and bugle corps, The Pioneers out of Wis-consin. The group practiced and performed and competed for 80 days over the summer, Wood tot-ing a 35-pound drum for hours at a time, day after day. At times, it almost made his catcher’s gear seem like a bathrobe. “You’re sweating all the time, your feet hurt and you don’t know how you’re going to make it through the summer,” Adam told WDBj7.

TurnerFrom Page 7

The President congratulated the team and said “they treated us to one of the best championship games that any of us have seen in a very, very long time.” Luke had one special instruc-tion from his mom, he said: “Get your picture taken with the Presi-dent.” Once again, Luke came through in the clutch. In mid-August Hancock re-turned to Louisville for the start of his senior year and ready to help the Cardinals defend their national championship title. Luke has faced a myriad of oppor-tunities and obstacles in the last five months. More will undoubt-

edly unfold. You can expect him to be up to the challenge.

Hancock was impressed when President Barack Obama greeted him as the Final Four MVP

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summer to come workout more. He wanted it so badly and that’s why he made it.” Myers’ long-term goal is to get back in college coaching, and he’s in the right spot. Of the 10 previ-ous staffers that have held his position for Hoop Group, the last nine have gone on to great col-lege jobs, including Andy Toole at Robert Morris, Billy Hahn, now a top assistant at West Virginia, and Mike Rice, who got the Rut-gers’ head coaching job before his well-publicized departure. Myers is making connections throughout college basketball, and he already has a great repu-tation as a recruiter and evaluator of talent. It’s probably just a mat-ter of time for him, especially now that he has expanded his organi-zation’s offerings.

HoopsFrom Page 13

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pennant race late, but he doesn’t see that as a major factor in any case. He spends most game nights “putting out fires,” visiting with clients and season ticket holders. Lawrence also tries to spend time with fans that may come out once a year, “picking their brains to see

what they like or don’t like. Every-body has a different opinion.” He would like to pick those brains as the Salem general manager next season. Lawrence would prefer to stay here with his family as he climbs the baseball ladder. “If I can become the GM of this team, that’s my ultimate goal,” he says.

The Hoop Group was founded in 1963, and has been one of the premier basketball teaching op-erations anywhere. Over 80 per-cent of their ELITE basketball campers go on to play college basketball. Figures from 2010 say over 950 coaches and recruit-ing service scouts attended their events that summer. Myers says that this summer the group ran seven camps with over 2,300 players, in places like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Balti-more, Washington, D.C., and New jersey. Add Roanoke to the list. “I brought up doing (a Top 100 camp) in Roanoke, and people thought I was crazy add-ing more,” Myers smiles. “But I thought it was a good opportuni-ty for the people in this area. This one is kind of on me but you try to do whatever you can to help out where you’re from.”


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KarbassiyoonFrom Page 18

of the top teams in the world. His team was playing a friendly (es-sentially, an exhibition) against a lower-level Italian team Pro Pa-tria when Boateng had more than he could take. He kicked the ball into the stands and left the field. In a show of support for their teammate, the rest of A.C. Milan’s team, followed by the Pro Patria team, also left the field. karbassiyoon says players are subjected to it throughout Eu-rope, but there are movements to punish offenders and try to curb the problem. Through SWOL, karbassiyoon and Davis organized an event on Miami Beach to call atten-tion to the problem. They played a Brazilian game called foot vol-ley that’s essentially volleyball, but played like soccer in that the

hands and arms cannot be used — all feet, legs, chest and head to get the ball over the net. The event attracted a who’s who of soccer players from the u.S. and Europe. karbassiyoon says that in addition to helping the cause, the celebrity status of the participants willing to be part of SWOL’s event legitimizes his company as having a real impact on the game, not just an online presence. “It was a six-hour event and we were able to prove we had con-nections and prove we had tan-gible offline presence,” karbassi-yoon says. The site has 55 writers in 16 countries and is a place where fans can keep up with the sport at its deepest levels. “There are some really good writers that have incredible opin-ions and insights. It’s cool to get

these guys on a platform,” he says. karbassiyoon, who just turned 29 on Aug. 9, hopes it will turn into a lucrative business venture. SWOL is located in Miami be-cause karbassiyoon and Davis re-ceived a $25,000 stipend to locate in a business incubator there. There was a competition among start-ups to earn one of 10 such grants with office space in the incubator, three months of inten-sive instruction in how to grow, monetize effort, find advertising revenue and, hopefully, a media partner. “We have far bigger aspirations. We know how big the market is. We’ve both seen how big it is,” karbassiyoon says. “The digital media age has changed the way news is reported, and opinions are reported.” SWOL is also developing a fan-tasy game that will be download-

able as an app, but ties into the content on the Web site, karbassi-yoon says. Funny how things turn out. In 2002 there was a camp in Wilm-ington, N.C., for talented high school soccer players. karbassi-yoon wasn’t on the original list of attendees, being relegated to the waiting list. When a spot opened, he took it. Once there, he won the Golden Boot as the MVP of the camp. He impressed his coach at the camp, Paul Mariner, who happened to be a former player for Arsenal. Mariner made some calls and got Arsenal to look at karbassi-yoon. The rest is history. A life in soccer that could provide a major positive impact to the world start-ed because of a camp in Wilm-ington, N.C. karbassiyoon wouldn’t have it any other way.

as suggested by John Heisman, the inspiration for the Heisman Trophy and Georgia Tech football coach at the time. At this point American football was a unique game in its own right. However, a serious downside to this new game soon developed. Football was a violent sport by its nature, making players prone to injury. There was very little focus on protective equipment, and many of these tough athletes refused to wear the equipment which was available. This concern came to a head in 1905 when there were 19 fatalities and an indeter-minate number of serious injuries during football games. Spectators were put off by this, and there was public protest. President Teddy Roosevelt threatened to ban the game unless the safety issue was addressed. This former warrior and Rough Rider was no strang-er to hard knocks, but Roosevelt recognized the excessive risk in playing the game in this manner.

In response, the 62 representa-tives of football-playing colleges met and formed the Intercolle-giate Athletic Association of the united States (IAAuS) to discuss rules changes for the 1906 season. New rules and guidelines were

introduced to make football safer. Penal-ties were drawn up and enforced to eliminate unnecessary rough-ness. Helmets and pads gradually became re-quired equipment. The IAAuS later became the NCAA. Ironically, the helmet

that was developed to prevent se-rious injury back in those forma-tive days of the sport has evolved into a device that has inflicted serious harm to many players in present-day games. The primary focus is once again how to elimi-nate these injuries from the sport. Over a century of evolution has brought us football as we know it today. Teams at virtually every level are impressively organized and well-funded. Modern stadi-ums provide sufficient accom-modations for spectators, players

and officials. NFL teams and ma-jor collegiate programs can ac-commodate crowds approaching 100,000 at their games. Revenue from these games can be enor-mous. And fans don’t have to brave the horde at the stadium to watch their favorite team. There are media packages available that broadcast every NFL game. You can opt to view these spectacles on big-screen High Def TVs or on almost any electronic media device including PCs, Tablets and even cellphones. The same goes for many collegiate games. Media providers have arrange-ments with various NCAA confer-ences to carry all of their football games. Postseason bowl games deliver the best of college football for the serious fan. Those who actually attend these bowls are indulged by a variety of entertainment that can include parties, banquets, concerts, extravagant tailgates and halftime shows, pre-game celebrity gatherings and post-game celebrations. Of course the NFL delivers similar fare at their postseason

playoffs. And the Super Bowl ap-pears to be the ultimate football fan experience for those fortu-nate enough to get their hands on those tickets. Plus, those tickets and programs make great sports memorabilia — get a key player’s autograph on one of them and you’ve got a real treasure. However, this is the final year that BCS bowl games will deter-mine the NCAA National Cham-pionship and the final standings. The BCS commissioners reached a final consensus for a four-team playoff. This plan was approved by the 12 college presidents that make up the Presidential Over-sight Committee of the BCS. Starting with the 2014-15 season the championship will be de-termined by the results of these playoffs. The top four teams will be selected and seeded by a com-mittee to play in two semifinal games. These semifinal winners will play for the national champi-onship. These three playoff games will alternate years as the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl plus two other bowl games to be determined at a later date. It is about time.

PresidentTeddy Roosevelt


For the past six years karbassi-yoon has criss-crossed the conti-nent many times, has gone all over Latin America and watched thou-sands of soccer players. He’s man-aged to get three signed by Arse-

nal. That might seem like a small success rate, but top level clubs can be so intensely selective that they might not need more than a handful of young players each year. He says Gedion Zelalem is a name soccer fans will know. He is of African descent but was born in Germany. He was living in Wash-ington, D.C., when karbassiyoon first saw him play. Zelalem is now working with Arsenal’s first team. “The job pays for itself if you find someone,” karbassiyoon says. In all those years, making con-tact with people on the highest levels of international soccer, karbassiyoon decided to branch out from working in scouting. He partnered with an old friend, Adam Davis, to start a business and Web site, Soccer Without Limits (swol.co). “Adam went to uNC, then in-terned with a professional club in Germany. He worked for three

Karbassiyoon used soccer as springboardLEGENDS OF THE GAMES

by Christian Moody

Legends ofthe Games

Eightieth in a Series

See KARBASSIYOON, Page 17

IN 2003 DAnny KARBASSI-yoon left the Roanoke Valley to take on the world.

Now he’s working to change the world. karbassi-yoon was a wunderkind of soc-cer in Roanoke, playing for the Roanoke Star club teams from the time he was in elementary school. karbassiyoon developed into what many consider to be the best player ever to come out of the valley. He is the only local player to sign a professional contract with a club in the English Premier League, the highest league in England and one of the best in the world. Less than a month after grad-uating from Northside in 2003, karbassiyoon was living in Eng-land and playing for the reserve team of the Arsenal Football Club. He played in three matches with the Arsenal first team, all in the League Cup tournament. In his first match, karbassiyoon scored the winning goal in the 90th minute. That’s an easy way to endear oneself to teammates, but Arse-nal had one of its best teams ever in 2003-04, needing little from its second team.

After being loaned to Ipswich Town in the Champion League (a

rung below the Premier League), karbassiyoon signed to play for Burnley, also in the Champion League. Problem was, his knee wasn’t cooperating. “Over there they said my knee was ‘knackered,’” karbassiyoon says. “That just means ‘tired,’ but even if I had surgery, I would just keep having to have more surger-ies. It wasn’t going to get any bet-ter.”

After four years of professional football of the global variety, kar-bassiyoon, just 22, retired from playing soccer, packed up and headed back home to the states. He was working toward enroll-

ing at Vir-ginia Tech when Ar-senal came calling once again. This time, they wanted him to be their eyes and ears in this part of the world. For six years now, kar-b a s s i y o o n has been a scout for Ar-senal cover-

ing all of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

years in Brazil as an agent,” kar-bassiyoon says. “We decided to le-verage our contacts in the game.”Among their friends in the game are writers and bloggers who are extremely knowledgeable, he says. “We’re reaching out to blog-gers. They’re often great writers, but don’t have an audience,” kar-bassiyoon says. The site is akin to the Bleacher Report here in the u.S., an online clearinghouse of news, opinion and prediction targeted to one sport. “We give fans a place to offer their opinions,” he says. One of the goals of SWOL is to combat racism — the ugly side of the beautiful game. In 2010, dur-ing the World Cup, ESPN’s Jer-emy Schaap narrated a piece on the intense racism black players suffer in Europe. To American sports fans, the abuse was shock-ing, but Schaap pointed out that Europe never went through a civil rights movement or had any government pass anything like a Civil Rights Act. In many ways, the fight against racism in other parts of the world is 50 years be-hind the u.S. In january, Kevin-Prince Boateng, a German-born black player who has played for the na-tional sides of both Germany and Ghana, made headlines when he walked off the field after be-ing taunted with racist chants throughout a game in Italy. Boateng plays for A.C. Milan, one

Danny Karbassiyoon (red and white uniform in both photos) battles Thomas Graveson (above) and Danny Mills (top right)

Soccer Without Limits co-founders David Der (left), Karbassiyoon (center) and Adam Davis (right)

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The game of love: let’s go to the replayI WAS NESTLED INTO MY NICE

comfy beach chair, appropri-ately at the beach, earlier this

summer when I was transported back in time. A large group of 20-somethings set up shop near us, actually too near us, but that’s probably best saved for a later column on beach etiquette. I counted about five young guys and I think there were four girls of a similar demographic in the group. Once you tire of your crossword puzzle and the book you’re read-ing, you people-watch at the beach and that’s where I was thanks to 29 Across and a book that wasn’t getting it done for me. I noticed four of the guys arranged their beach chairs together while one more enterpris-ing young man sat amidst the women-folk. Smart guy; brains of the opera-tion, I quickly sur-mised. Before all these notions could take root in my sun-drenched noggin, though, one of the other young men, who just wouldn’t sit down, was pick-ing up steam in what was obviously some debate in which this group had been en-gaged. He was a debater from the Stephen A. Smith School of Loud. He didn’t re-ally make great points but he was louder than anyone else and that passes for discourse on ESPN these days. Most of the eastern shore of the united States was privy to this guy’s every opinion. He was MVP — Most Volume Player. The topic was LeBron James, as our young orator pontificated on the greatness of king james. He compared him to other greats like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and went on and on and on. Of course, at his tender age, he couldn’t actually have much real-time remembrances of Magic or even Mj, but he was as firm in his convic-tions as Lewis Black on 20 Red Bulls. Being who I am, I had to bite my fat tongue not to interject that there was professional basketball before ESPN, and you might want to look up the track record of one Bill Russell, but I was for the most part enjoying the show. Also enjoying the show, I noticed, were many of the “old lions” sit-ting around with their families. I nodded knowingly at one guy who was about my age, maybe a little older. We all had a friend like this guy back in the day, who could turn any sports debate into a Bataan Death March of beating you into submission with loud verbiage that just made you want to change the subject or go hide until he talked himself out. Heck, you may even have been that guy. Sad to say, I think I was. Now, all I could think about was this guy was worried about LeBron’s legacy on a beautiful sun-swept beach afternoon when he should have been thinking about the lottery-pick lovelies just to his right. The kid had no game. I know. I was him back in the ’80s whilst debat-

ing Magic over Bird or Herschel Walker over Marcus Dupree. I bring those names up to show just how fleeting all that time I spent on such matters actually was in the big scheme. The big scheme started to make a little more sense to me when I found out you could actually talk to girls, maybe even get them to talk back, if you would just shut up about the Bears’ “46” defense or the college basketball shot-clock for a few minutes. Of course the best girls paid a little attention to sports, and the really high draft picks were willing to learn. I taught my first girlfriend how to keep score at baseball games and she did just that as I coached my Bad News Bears-esque Little League team and then she scored for my church league softball expansion-type team. Of course that was easy, we rarely got hits or scored many runs. After we broke up, it must have been like how Red Sox fans felt when

Roger Clemens pitched for the Yankees when she showed up in another church league dugout fudging hits for another guy on another team. I would have asked our pitcher to brush back the guy but it was slow-pitch. Right after college, I put in a lot of time with another girl teaching her the true way of why Carolina basketball was pure and good (pre-P.J. Hairston) and all things Duke con-spired to make the world a meaner, more unsavory-some-where-puppies-are-dying, stop-faking-charging-calls kind of place. After we broke up, I heard she was dating an even bigger Carolina fan. Personal foul. No fair. I put in all the hard work explaining the Four Corners and why Mike o’Koren was one of the most underrated players of all-time. I wooed a woman once — she was almost a baseball fan — by telling her that her going out with me was like the ’69 Mets winning it all. We eventually broke up, too, when her scout-ing report said I was good field, no hit. I had a college buddy who carved out a career in athlet-ics and one of my favorite stories was about him watching the World Series with his future-bride. When Lenny Dyks-tra stole third, his girl asked if Spike would now try to snuck fourth. Of course when I bring such things up, my wife reminds

me of some of my trials and tribulations in the grocery store, particular-ly on what I call “the cooking juice and tin pans” aisle. I have so much trouble picking up the correct items my wife wants me drug-tested. And despite popular rumor, I did not make her take a Dallas Cowboys quiz before the wedding, though I did covertly schedule the nuptials around the preseason schedule. See, kid, that’s how it’s done. By the way, happy 16th anniversary, Honey.

Cave Spring High School Reunion:Event for Combined ’73s & ’74s

Date: Sept. 20 & 21, 2013Who: The Cave Spring HS Classes of ‘73 & ‘74Activities: Fri. night mixer; Sat. morning golf at Bally-hack Golf Club; Sat. afternoon - Art open house at Eric Fitzpatrick Studios; Sat. night cocktail buffet at Hunting Hills Country Club with music, friends, fun.Additional Info: Facebook, Classmates.com or at www.cavespringreunion.com.Contact Us: Please let us know your contact informa-tion. Send to: [email protected]

We want to find you!! Please let us know your contact information.

SIDELINESby Mike Ashley


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