Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 4, 1991 TAG: 9102040026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LINDEN, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
"Are we patriotic in Linden?" said Charlie Arledge, the school principal. "That's our team name."
That's right, the school's nickname is the Patriots.
Scott, a Vietnam veteran, is an administrative sergeant at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, serving with Livingston's 324th Personnel-Administration Unit. The air-raid sirens warning of Scud missile attacks has him thinking about home.
"I wish I was at home," Scott said in a telephone interview with The Birmingham News, "but I believe in what we're here to do."
Scott said the war assignment "hasn't been as scary as Vietnam. It's a lot calmer here than it was there."
Scott said he is proud of his Linden basketball team, a Class 2A school now 10-5 against a schedule of mostly larger schools.
"I wish I was coaching the team, but we have a job to do," Scott said. "I was hoping I would be home by tournament time, but now I don't think so."
One of the team's three seniors who signed up for military service, point guard Kris Spears, already has been to basic training.
"I was in a unit that was called up," Spears said, "but I'm still in school, so I had to transfer to a unit in Greensboro [N.C.]."
Another senior, Derreanco Agee, also is in the Army Reserve.
"I signed up in October," Agee said. That was two months after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
A third senior, Mark Williams, joined the Navy late last year.
Scott said that although he wants to see his players, he doesn't want to be reunited with them on the war front.
"I sure would like to see them," Scott said, "but not over here. I don't want this thing to last long enough for them to be sent."
But at Linden, the military isn't just something for athletes.
"Of our 50 or so seniors," Arledge said, "I know of seven, including two girls, who have already joined." He said at least 38 alumni are serving with the military in Operation Desert Storm.
One basketball senior who is not in the military is Roy Rogers, the team's 6-foot-9 center.
"Losing our coach has been tough emotionally," Rogers said. "We had been with him since we were in the ninth grade. Our goal is to win the state tournament for Coach Scott."
When Scott's unit was activated in November, Linden football coach Bobby Hall, whose team had just lost in the second round of the state playoffs, was recruited to fill in on the basketball court.
"The basketball players came to me," Hall said, "and asked me to coach the basketball team. I almost let them down. I told them I had to rest. But I relented. Coach Scott was doing what he had to do in Saudi Arabia. I had to help fill in at home."
Scott's sister, Tharesa Nicholson, teaches at Linden.
"I just wish he was here," she said. "It's hard on us all. We spend our time watching television. We all hope each week that this will be the week it will end."
by CNB