Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270145
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now, Foster is stepping down as Salem's athletic director and moving to the assistant principal's job at Andrew Lewis Middle School next year. That leaves only two members of the athletic staff - girls' track coach Tom Roth and girls' tennis coach Dave Petersen - who were there when the school opened in 1977.
"There was an opening at Andrew Lewis and I just wanted to change. So I asked to be considered," said Foster.
He will be leaving open a job at a school with some of the finest athletic facilities in Timesland. With that distinction, though, comes a lot of extra work.
Several other districts use Salem's facilities when they have been host to regional or district meets.
For example, the Roanoke Valley District track meet is still run at Salem although the Spartans dropped to the Blue Ridge District two years ago.
The Region III track meet has been at Salem two consecutive years, and Salem played host one year to the Piedmont District, which didn't have a suitable track.
When the 1985 floods ravaged Victory Stadium, Patrick Henry held its football playoff games in the Salem stadium.
When Lord Botetourt and Northside held a playoff basketball game last year for the Blue Ridge District title, Salem was the site.
Had William Fleming of the Roanoke Valley District played host to a Northwestern Region basketball game this year, it would have been held at Salem.
Roanoke College even used the Salem gym to play host to a couple of NCAA Division III South Atlantic regional tournaments before Bast Center was constructed.
For most of the extra events, Foster has had to make sure the setup was convenient for the visiting schools.
Finding a replacement will not be easy.
One person who is not interested - at least not at the moment - is football coach Willis White.
"As it's set up now, you can't be athletic director without being assistant principal," White said.
The Salem football coach has the qualifications to be an assistant principal, but he said he is not interested in that job, coaching football and serving as athletic director.
"At one time, they wanted to know if I'd be interested in being athletic director. I would if I could still coach football and teach," White said. "I enjoy teaching. But you can't be assistant principal, coach and athletic director."
\ Foreign exchange students played a big part in the Group AA boys' and girls' tennis tournaments last week.
In the boys' tournament, Western Albemarle's Rachid Benjelloun, the Moroccan amateur champion, ended Tommy McDonald's bid for the Group AA singles title, beating the Salem senior in the first round.
A year ago, when McDonald was the Group AA runner-up, Benjelloun wasn't in this country. As the only returning senior from last year's finals, McDonald would have been a favorite.
James Monroe won the team title thanks to Jussi Kovisto from Finland. Salem boys' coach Dave Petersen said that had Kovisto been on any of the other three teams in the finals including the Spartans, that team likely would have won the title.
The Salem boys' team also was hampered by an injury to Brad Yeatts, who played in the team competition and lost partially because of a shoulder injury.
"I'm not knocking foreign exchange students, but they change the balance of the team," said Petersen. "There are a lot of things you can control, but injuries and foreign exchange students aren't two of them."
Salem's girls benefited from having Doris Ballak of Switzerland, who made it to the Group AA finals. She lost, yet she won - Radford University has offered Ballak a partial scholarship to play tennis.
"I never thought about making it this far when I started," said Ballak, who now has a decision to make about coming back next year.
\ Noting Timesland:
Two of the better performances in last week's Group AA track meet came when William Byrd's Brod Bonds won the long jump and Patrick County's Mark Hiatt ran a personal best in the 800 meters.
A leap of 22 feet, 4 1/4 inches capped a great year for Bonds, who rushed for 1,133 yards in football and averaged 15.4 points a game for the Terriers' Blue Ridge District regular-season champion basketball team.
Hiatt set his best of 1:56.4 to win the 800-meter title. He is going to Brigham Young next year and hopes to parlay this performance into some interest from BYU coaches when he tries out for the track team.
When Lord Botetourt outlasted Salem 11-9, it was the Cavaliers' first Region III softball title. Janelle Sowers collected two wins and a save for the Cavaliers.
Jefferson Forest's Angie Dudley saw her streak of 81 consecutive stolen bases in softball come to an end. She had stolen 42 of 42 last season and had 39 straight this season when she was thrown out.
"She might have had that one," said Jefferson Forest softball coach Ray Davidson, "except that it was the day before the Region III track meet [where Dudley scored 42 points]. She was under orders not to slide and to go in standing up."
R.E. Lee of Staunton renamed the high school gym after Bassett native Paul Hatcher, the school's head basketball coach who over 22 years has a record of 444-87, including this winter's Group AA title. Hatcher and his wife also were given a new car and a trip to Disneyworld in Orlando, Fla.
by CNB