VHSL TO RECOMMEND COMBINING GROUP AA, A WRESTLING TOURNEYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992                   TAG: 9202020164
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
VHSL TO RECOMMEND COMBINING GROUP AA, A WRESTLING TOURNEYS
For high-school wrestling fans, 1993 could be a bonanza in the Roanoke Valley.
If a Virginia High School League recommendation is passed this spring, the Group A and Group AA wrestling tournaments will be combined and held next February at the Salem Civic Center.
That would make up for this year, when the VHSL, unable to find a suitable site in Western Virginia, moved the Group AA tournament across the state to Hampton University.
The Group A tournament will be held at the Salem Civic Center, but it is likely the two tournaments, uncombined, will not draw that big a crowd. Both are scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 21-22.
The moving of the Group AA tournament could cost the VHSL a lot of money because it was shifted farther away from Grundy, which has the state's best program in any classification.
Grundy, which is sixth-ranked nationally by USA Today and has beaten many of the state's top Group AAA programs, will take a good crowd to Hampton. However, times are tight and it is likely many Grundy families who would attend if the tournament were held in Western Virginia will not travel 300 miles to Hampton.
One Grundy resident who is not feeling the economic pinch called Salem Civic Center manager Carey Harveycutter and offered to pay the rent on the building so the state tournament could be held there instead of Hampton.
"That's not the problem," said Larry Johnson, VHSL programs supervisor. "We tried to get the civic center and, at the time, they were booked."
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference basketball tournament had been scheduled, but it was shifted to the last week in February.
By then it was too late for the Group AA meet to bring it to Salem. "Hampton University had done a lot of preliminary work and we didn't feel as if we could not go there," Johnson said.
It wasn't too late for the Group A tournament, which lost its home at Washington and Lee because of another conflict.
"I have sent a letter out to the district chairmen about combining the two tournaments," Johnson said. "I told them to discuss it with their schools, but that it would be a unique experience for people to watch two tournaments."
More than that, Grundy, a perennial power, probably would bring buses full of fans to Salem and that would be a boon to restaurants and hotels.
Johnson says combining the two tournaments won't necessarily be a permanent move. However, the Group A and AA girls' fall basketball tournaments came to Salem several years ago and have stayed because they are pleased with the crowds and the treatment they have received.
\ It has been awhile since William Fleming was the Timesland's top wrestling power, but indications are the Colonels might be a contender with Franklin County next season and the team to beat in two seasons.
Two weeks ago, Fleming's ninth-grade wrestling team won first place in a tournament in West Virginia against teams from five states. Ruffner, Fleming's feeder school, competed in the same tournament and finished second in the middle-school division.
The Colonels will have three outstanding wrestlers back next year, including Keno Shepherd (103), who was unbeaten going into Saturday's Group AAA Northwestern Region duals; sophomore Eddie Jones (160), who has lost twice; and freshman Herbie Kasey (119), who lost twice to Salem's unbeaten Lugman Wade by a point.
\ On Jan. 24, Lord Botetourt boys' basketball coach Don Meredith proved that nothing will stop him from getting to his team's game.
Two hours before the Cavaliers played Alleghany, Meredith was kicked in the chest by a steer on his farm.
"He nailed me right over the heart," Meredith said. "A bunch of calves who had pneumonia got out of the barn and into the field. We had to catch them and it was no fun."
Meredith, whose family owns a farm in Bedford County, stopped to see his mother at a nursing home on the way to the game and was examined by a nurse.
"She got all upset and wanted me to go right to the hospital. She said my pulse was racing. But I told her I couldn't go to the hospital, I had a game," Meredith said.
Meredith still hasn't been to a doctor, but he admits he has a sore chest.
Lake Braddock (Group AAA), Tabb (AA) and William Monroe (A) are the Central Fidelity Cup leaders after the fall sports season. The awards go to the VHSL schools with the top overall athletic program each year.
No Timesland school is among the top 10 schools in Group AAA. In Group AA, Christiansburg is second, Radford and Salem are tied for third, Marion is fifth and Lord Botetourt is seventh. In Group A, George Wythe is seventh and Glenvar is ninth.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB