Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990 TAG: 9004080037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was just another spring sports result, and there will be many more before June rolls around and sends us into summer.
However, it was the first-ever girls' soccer game in Timesland. Thanks to Sharon McCulley, six Timesland schools took up the sport this spring.
Oddly, the six have little in common. They are Magna Vista, Martinsville, Patrick Henry, Salem, Cave Spring and North Cross. Two are from Henry County, three are Roanoke-area public schools and the other is a private school.
Sharon McCulley is the mother of former PH goalie Kevin McCulley, who was Timesland boys' soccer player of the year in 1987.
McCulley coached girls' recreation soccer, but until this year she wasn't sure there were enough players in high school to field teams.
"This year, a lot of girls who had been playing rec soccer moved up to high school. I felt if we could get the permission of the administration, we would have enough players to field teams," McCulley said.
Patrick Henry had 65 girls at the first meeting. "I knew there was interest at Patrick Henry. We'd worry about the money later," McCulley said of the finances.
McCulley contacted most of the Group AA and AAA schools in the area as well as the private schools. She didn't receive many positive responses at first because there was no money budgeted for girls' soccer.
"Then I contacted some parents I knew who had a child playing and got a grass-roots movement going," McCulley said.
At Patrick Henry, the City of Roanoke and the school boosters club paid for the uniforms. However, McCulley receives no pay for coaching while her counterparts at Cave Spring and Salem do.
North Cross is coached by Jerry Maycock, who also gets no extra pay. He's a dean at the school.
"We've been wanting to have a team, but there was no one to play," Maycock said. Most private schools play girls' soccer in the fall.
"We started a team a few years ago, but we only had rec teams to play."
Girls' soccer is here to stay and, like softball, it's sure to add teams and flourish over the next few years.
Patrick Henry basketball coach Woody Deans is taking up the game of golf in order to raise money for his team's trip to Hawaii in December.
The Patriot Golf Classic, which is one way Deans has of raising an estimated $25,000 it will take to pay expenses for the trip, is set for April 20. Deadline for entries is Wednesday.
This is no ordinary golf tournament. There are $20,000 in prizes, including a cruise, new car and a trip donated by some businesses in the Roanoke Valley.
The cost is $200 per foursome and entries are limited to the first 68 foursomes.
Cave Spring junior varsity basketball coach Rick Crotts, who was suspended in February for using profanity in a halftime talk in the dressing room, has been reinstated by the school.
Crotts might move up to varsity assistant next year while Roger White coaches the junior varsity. Cave Spring head coach Joe Davis says that change would have nothing to do with the suspension.
Although Liberty is 5-0-2 and tied for the Seminole District baseball lead with Brookville, Minutemen coach Jim Cutler is concerned about star player Keith Coles, an All-Timesland selection in the outfield last year.
"He hurt his knee playing football a long time ago and then reinjured it trying for a dunk in pregame warmup [during basketball season] " Cutler said.
It hasn't affected Coles' hitting or outfield play, but he hasn't been the same pitcher he was last year. "He can't get the velocity on his fastball. His curveball is working. We're trying to hang with him long enough [hoping] he regains his fastball," said Cutler, who had counted Coles as his No. 1 hurler.
It's official. The Salem-Oak Hall Classic will not be held next year, which means the Roanoke Valley will not have a big holiday basketball tournament.
Salem coach Len Mosser said a lack of teams and the fact that the Salem Civic Center will be available for only two of the three nights necessary are the reasons for scrubbing the tournament.
"I hope that someday this flies again," Mosser said. "It's something that's needed in the Roanoke Valley."
Finding teams to play became difficult when Cave Spring, a participant all three years, decided to go to the Fort Eustis tournament in Eastern Virginia.
Also, the Piedmont District is taking in Gretna, which leaves that league with fewer non-league games. The Piedmont always had an entry in the Salem tournament.
All-Blue Ridge District running back Chris Meacham of Lord Botetourt has decided to attend VMI and go out for football as a walk-on. He also is a linebacker.
The Cavaliers' Eric Layman, a second-team selection at offensive and defensive tackle, will attend Ferrum College.
by CNB