Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003232834
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the NCAA Tournament convened for its Thursday through Saturday run at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House, one-tenth of the officiating crew consisted of natives of Roanoke.
Roanoke?
The city is known for its monstrous electrified mountaintop star and a railroad, but rarely for wrestling.
Yet here are Rick Schilling and Steve LaPrad tooting whistles at college wrestling's big event.
"Unreal, isn't it?" said Schilling, 39.
Really.
Unreal because two guys from the same hometown, from the same high school (Northside), who had the same coach (Ken Shelton), rose to the top of a highly specialized field in the same year.
"That's got to be weird," said LaPrad, 34.
Not weird is the way they got there. That is very straightforward.
These guys are good.
Selection to the 20-man crew that works the national championship is based on a coaches' vote. Schilling's appointment came from his work in last year's Eastern Region Tournament, which included Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, Liberty, James Madison and George Mason. LaPrad was voted in after he officiated the 1989 Southern Conference tournament.
There are, by Schilling's estimation, about 500 NCAA-certified officials nationwide.
"It is a great honor to be chosen," Schilling said.
Honors have come Schilling's and LaPrad's way before. This will be Schilling's second NCAA Tournament, the first coming in 1987. Also a college football official, he worked the 1988 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Division III national championship.
"I've always said that I wanted to officiate national championships in both football and wrestling," Schilling said.
LaPrad was a two-time Division II All-America wrestler at Pembroke (N.C.) State. He'll be working his first national wrestling tournament.
"He's probably like I was in 1987: a basket case," Schilling said.
Not yet, LaPrad said.
"My main concern is just to do a real good job," LaPrad said. "But I probably will get a little more nervous when things start to bust loose up there."
LaPrad lives in Summerville, S.C., where he is the head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at Summerville High, the largest school in the state. He is married to the former Beth Cobb of Parkton, N.C., and they have three children: Brent, 7; Tyler, 3; and Lindsey, 10 months.
Schilling is a sales representative for Sweetheart Cup Co. He is married to the former Barbara Renick of Rocky Mount, and they have a 6-year-old son, Ryan. For the Schillings, wrestling is a family affair.
As they got to know each other, Rick Schilling discovered Barbara had been a football and wrestling cheerleader at Churchland High (her teen-age years were spent in Tidewater). She attends most of the meets and football games he officiates.
"When I first started, she'd sit up in the stands and later ask me why I'd make a certain call or what I was thinking about in a certain situation," said Schilling, who has worked a Group AAA or AA high school tournament every year since 1974. "I found out that she knew more about it than I thought I knew."
Not many know more about officiating wrestling than Schilling and LaPrad. The coaches' vote proved that.
by CNB