Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 14, 1991 TAG: 9104140080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bob Teitlebaum
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hicks said recently that he hopes to qualify for the 1992 Boston Marathon in the men's 45- to 50-year-old age group. To attempt to qualify, he will run in the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 5 and must cover the distance in 3 hours, 30 minutes to be eligible for the Boston Marathon.
"I'm about five minutes off that time," said Hicks of his practice runs. "But I'm training on hilly courses in Pulaski County and it's level where they run in Pittsburgh. So I think I can meet the time."
Hicks has only run in the Cleveland Marathon, but he has been running in shorter meets for years. "I run competitively in 5Ks and 10Ks all over the area," he said.
Now that he's spending more than three hours at least once a week when he runs 26 miles, the Cougars' coach probably is doing more than just thinking up football plays for next fall.
"I can plan my day, my whole next week," said Hicks of what he thinks about while running the longer distances.
\ Former Covington High basketball coach Bo Carper might be back on the bench next winter after a 13-year layoff.
Carper, an assistant principal at Covington High School, retired as coach after the 1979 season. His record was 125-69, and the Cougars played in the Group AA Blue Ridge District in those years.
Carper might follow Richard McElwee at Covington Boys' Home as a part-time head basketball coach. McElwee resigned after this past season to devote more time to his coaching duties at Bath County.
Carper says he is interested in the Covington Boys' Home job, but first things have to be worked out with Covington High officials depending on next year's work schedule.
Carper's Covington High teams, which played in the Group AA Blue Ridge District, had a five-year stretch in the mid 1970s when they went 96-20. A lot of that was because of having three of Timesland's outstanding athletes of the decade - Garland Jefferson, Linton Townes and Chipper Mack.
"Linton went to James Madison and was later drafted 33rd [in the second round] by Portland in 1982, Chipper played four years of football at Kansas State and Garland [now the head coach at E.C. Glass] played at Virginia," said Carper.
\ North Cross' Kristen Humphries was overlooked in the recent selections for the All-Timesland volleyball team.
Humphries played on a Raiders team that split with Group AAA Northwestern region champion Cave Spring and beat two other Roanoke Valley District teams.
Part of All-Timesland is based on strength of schedule, and the Raiders, because they were stronger in volleyball, upgraded their schedule this year. That went unnoticed, and thus Humphries was mistakenly overlooked.
\ After six years as Rockbridge's head football coach, Temple Kessinger moves to Galax next year. At Galax, Kessinger will battle some of the same problems that he fought at Rockbridge - namely a school with one of the smaller enrollments in Region C.
Unlike at Rockbridge, Kessinger won't have to go against as many state powers. While at Rockbridge, Kessinger faced Lexington, Parry McCluer and Covington - members of the Pioneer District - and all won state titles. The Mountain Empire District didn't have a finalist during the span.
Kessinger did not get a chance to move to the football vacancy at Lexington a year ago, and that meant he probably had little chance in landing the job as head coach at the new Rockbridge County consolidated school scheduled to open a year from this fall.
"That was never discussed. I just felt it was best I stay at Rockbridge," Kessinger said diplomatically. "I applied for the Galax position because I felt it was best for the Temple Kessingers.
"I looked at Galax several years ago, but I had been the head coach at Rockbridge for only a year. I had given a three-year commitment and I felt like I needed to follow through on that."
\ Salem is seeking another team to play in its football jamboree on Friday, Aug. 23. The Spartans had added two teams to make it an eight-team jamboree when one of last year's entrants pulled out.
Salem has Radford, Glenvar, Laurel Park, Patrick County, Northside and Carroll County in the jamboree. Anyone interested in playing in the jamboree can call Salem coach Willis White at 387-2504 in the afternoon.
by CNB