Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990 TAG: 9005130127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Long
From 1927 through 1989, W&L had two golf coaches. This season, they have two.
Buck Leslie has been the Generals' coach since 1975, and he still is. But while his golfers were playing their way to an Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship with Mike Piatt in charge, Leslie has spent the past few months coming out of his own personal rough.
Leslie, a sports icon in Rockbridge County, started struggling on the racquetball court in December. He made excuses about having a bad knee and loafed on points so he could keep playing. Finally, on Jan. 4, he saw a doctor. "I thought it was my heart," said Leslie, who turned 65 two weeks ago.
It was chronic leukemia. By that night, Leslie was in Roanoke Memorial Hospital's Rehabilitation Center. He spent nine days there and began taking chemotherapy pills. He returned home to Lexington, but still felt weak. So, on Feb. 15, he went back to the rehab center for 30 days.
A couple of days later, Leslie's golf team was to have its first meeting. Leslie got on the phone to senior Ted Fox and co-captain Brian Kopet, a junior. "I told them I might not be able to make it back this season," Leslie said. "I told them someone would have to take charge, and Mike was going to be the guy. They said Mike would have their cooperation."
Piatt, 24, came to W&L last summer as the Generals' assistant basketball coach. Last fall, he talked golf with Leslie frequently, but he had never coached before. When it became evident that Leslie couldn't be with the team this season, he suggested to athletic director Mike Walsh that Piatt take over.
When the Generals won the ODAC title April 30 in Staunton, Piatt, as the championship team's coach, was named the ODAC coach of the year. He was given a plaque.
"On the way home, we stopped to see Coach Leslie and I gave him the plaque," said Piatt, who came to W&L from Ohio Wesleyan, where he played and coached basketball. "The next morning, he came in to work and gave me the plaque back. I tried to give it back to him, but he wouldn't take it and spent 20 minutes telling me why I should keep it.
"I was just an extension of Buck. I was his temporary voice and body. I had an advantage that other first-year coaches don't have. I had Buck to take me through it. He built the ship. I just steered it."
Leslie and Piatt credit the players. W&L's top six include four sophomores, Kopet and Fox. Only four strokes (average) separate the top six, and, in the Generals' nine events this year, five golfers have had the low round. Piatt hasn't been so much a coach as he has been a caretaker.
"Our players play where they're comfortable," said Leslie, now back in his office, minus more than 30 pounds and still taking medication. "We don't make changes in the lineup simply based on scores or averages."
Leslie has visited his players during the season on the driving range and in brief stops at Lexington Country Club. But because of his weakened condition and low blood count, increasing the chance of infection, he has spent most of his "coaching" time on the phone with Piatt and the golfers.
"When we first found out about Coach Leslie, I think we were shocked more than anything," said Fox, from Richmond. "But it's all worked out pretty well. We all feel comfortable around Coach Piatt. It wasn't a big change, and now it looks like Coach Leslie will be back next year."
Sophomore Clay Thomas, a past junior champion in Florida, said, "We thought there was a good chance this might be Coach Leslie's last season. We wanted to make it special for him."
It has been. Now, however, the W&L golfers see their coach on a regular basis again.
"To me, he's the same old Buck," Kopet said. "He should be OK next year."
Leslie, who has been an 8-10 handicap golfer, hasn't hit a ball since his illness was diagnosed. He intends to chip in his backyard this weekend, and, if W&L goes to the nationals from May 22-25 at Jekyll Island, Ga., he hopes to travel with Piatt and the team.
It's been an adjustment for Leslie, who was an all-star quarterback at Lexington High before earning six battle stars in the Pacific during World War II. He was a good enough pitcher that the annual W&L pitching award bears his name. Then, he coached at Natural Bridge High before moving to W&L, where he has coached football and golf.
"It's been different this year, that's for sure," said the bald Leslie, who bears a striking facial resemblance to Georgia Southern football coach Erk Russell. "With Mike around and the team doing well, I didn't feel any urgency to come back too fast, and not having the stress was important.
"It's been very special to be part of this. The fact that the team played well and worked well with Mike, I'm sure, has been a tonic for me. I'm sure it picked me up, especially mentally."
Piatt, an 11-handicapper, will be leaving W&L for another coaching job soon. His goal is to become a head basketball coach. He wasn't paid to coach golf, but he did get to spend every afternoon at the golf course.
"I mainly talked [to the W&L golfers] about basic coaching things, the mental side," Piatt said. "I didn't mess with their swings. I had problem enough just giving some of them advice that would help them, because they play better than me. I learned from them, just by watching."
Piatt said he thought a second ODAC plaque would be appropriate, so Leslie would have one, too.
"I guess to me, I was still the head coach," Leslie said. "It was like Mike was my assistant, but he did all of the work - and I appreciate that."
by CNB