Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190257
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEVE CARLSON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long
Finally, Paye asked Hamler how come he never let up.
"See that little kid up there in the top row?" Paye, now the coach at William Fleming High, remembers Hamler saying. "He may be seeing me play for the only time he'll ever see me play, and I want him to think I'm very, very good."
Barry Hamler hasn't changed since he graduated from high school in 1976. The Booker T. Washington basketball coach is still trying to prove how good he is to faces in the crowd.
Hamler, 34 and a former assistant to Paye at William Fleming, will walk onto the court at University Hall in Charlottesville this weekend with one objective: to prove his team is the best Group AAA team in the state.
The Bookers (24-2) meet South Lakes of Reston on Friday in a state semifinal. If they win, they play for a state title Saturday.
Talk to enough people about Hamler and you get the idea he has always been driven to succeed.
"He's more competitive than anybody I've ever coached in 33 years," says Paye.
Watch Hamler coach for a while, and you'll say the same thing.
Unless you're a basketball official. Then you might have a few other things to say.
Maury coach Jack Baker, Hamler's biggest rival on the court but a friend off it, said Hamler is probably the most intense person he's seen on a basketball court. Who would he compare Hamler to?
"Attila the Hun," Baker says with a laugh. "No, I've never seen anyone act the way he does.
"He's very unique in that sense. I think other people are intense, but nothing like he is.
"Because of his intensity, I think Barry demands perfection from everyone - his players, himself, scorekeepers, clock operators, sports writers. Because of his intensity, he has trouble tolerating mistakes from other people involved in the game. There's nothing wrong with that."
Tell that to the clock operator, sitting there minding his business when, suddenly, Hamler is in his face, pounding the table and screaming, "Blow the horn!"
Hamler does that, it seems, at least once a game to get the officials to come over and talk to him. Once Hamler gets them within earshot, fans realize they went to a basketball game and a debate broke out. No filibuster in Congress has anything on Hamler.
Hamler admits this is one of his favorite devices. He used it to perfection in the Eastern Region final - one of the Bookers' two losses - against Kecoughtan.
A Kecoughtan player was about to shoot a crucial one-and-one and the Bookers were out of timeouts. Hamler managed to engage the officials in conversation, and the player waited on the line for the discourse to break up. Then, right before the player was handed the ball, Hamler sent a substitute to the scorer's table and the horn blew again.
Needless to say, the free throw was missed.
"That was a nice ploy," Kecoughtan coach Revis Conrad snarled.
"Two minutes and 50 seconds," Hamler says, fondly recalling the incident. "That's my way of helping my basketball team win a game within the rules. . . . As long as you keep in mind the kid is No. 1, you can't go wrong."
Hamler knows the rules inside out. He claims to read the rulebook every year, and says he goes to a week-long officials' camp every summer.
Anyone who has seen Hamler's tirades might think he is an excellent candidate for a stroke. Actually, there are times he should be a candidate for an Oscar.
"He knows exactly what he's doing," Baker said. "That's what people don't realize, Barry's in total control on the sideline. He might not act like it, but he is.
"He's certainly one of the best coaches in the region. I think he's an excellent coach and he gets a lot out of his kids. This past region tournament, I don't think he had the most talented team there, but I think they were the best-coached team there.
"With Michael, people tend to forget that. They figure, `Well, he's got Michael Evans, he ought to win.' I think sometimes people take Barry for granted because he's got Michael, and sometimes he doesn't get the credit he deserves."
No one at Booker T. is taking Hamler for granted. The halls are loaded with banners, newspaper clippings and snapshots hailing the Bookers' state-championship drive. A banner above Hamler's classroom door reads, "It's Hamler time. Too legit to quit," a takeoff of the popular song by rapper Hammer.
Hamler seems to relish nothing more than the vigor the student body has displayed for basketball this year. He was touched when, after he was suspended for one quarter of a game for comments he made about officials, the student body gave him a standing ovation when he entered at the start of the second period.
He proudly shows a visitor around the halls of Booker T., which has embraced its basketball team.
"They're excited," Hamler says.
Come Friday night in Charlottesville, Hamler will be excited, too.
Count on it.
by CNB