Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993 TAG: 9301310159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHLANDS LENGTH: Long
TOWN: FORGET CLEATS, WE WON
Richlands High School football coach Dennis Vaught can do no wrong, as far as football boosters in this Tazewell County town are concerned.Well, yes, he made a mistake when he outfitted his team with illegal cleats in the Group AA Division 4 semifinal game against Salem, they say. But he admitted it and, besides, there is a lingering suspicion that Salem used the same kind of cleats - something which Salem coach Willis White vehemently denies.
Besides, they say, the difference in legal and illegal cleats is only an eighth of an inch, not enough to have changed the outcome of Richlands' 17-7 victory on a muddy field here Dec. 5.
The Virginia High School League Executive Committee voted Thursday to put Richlands High School on probation for a year. The main effect would keep Richlands from competing in football playoffs next year if it goes that far again, but does not affect its 1992 championship.
The trophy is on display on the counter in the school office, along with a resolution adopted last month by the county Board of Supervisors commending Vaught and his team.
"There's no doubt in our minds that Salem had the same type of equipment on that we had on. The only difference is that we didn't have a smoking receipt to back ours up with," Vaught said, referring to a CMT Sporting Goods representative producing the receipt for Richlands' purchase of the cleats three days before the Salem game.
He did not make a counterclaim that Salem used them, he said, because "you don't want to get into a spitting contest with a skunk."
Vaught said he kept his team in their practice cleats after assistant coach Sanders Henderson told him before the Dec. 5 game that Salem was wearing them, too.
"I saw them when they came out and the other two [coaches] saw them during the course of the game," Henderson said Thursday.
White said Salem was not wearing the 5/8-inch cleats then or ever. He said the team does not even have cleats like that.
He invited a check of his school's purchases from CMT. "We buy all of our stuff there. But we have never bought any [ 5/8-inch cleats] and we have never worn any," he said.
A spokesman at CMT said he understood the cleats were legal for practices but not games.
Vaught said he talked to members of his football team, which compiled a 14-0 record in winning the championship, after the VHSL Executive Committee's decision.
"Sure they're upset, but they understand that a cleat had nothing to do with what we did to Salem. We could have played them barefoot," he said. "The bottom line is they got outplayed and outcoached and they're having a hard time accepting that."
Vaught admitted that, when first questioned about the cleats, he denied using them.
"We thought nothing would happen because we knew Salem had them on, too," he said. "We also thought something would be taken from the kids that we thought they had earned."
He said the denial had been a mistake.
"You know, making a mistake is bad. But when you make a mistake and you learn something from it, it's not all bad," he said. "I'm a human being like everybody else. . . . I learn from my mistakes. I'm also man enough to own up to them. If there's a positive in this, I guess that's it."
Tazewell County Superintendent Woodrow Mullins Jr. has said "appropriate action" would be taken regarding Vaught's action but, as a personnel matter, it would be confidential. Richlands High School Principal Brenda Lawson has said a written reprimand would be issued to Vaught for using equipment which could jeopardize student safety (the cleats are illegal because of concerns that they could stick in the ground and cause knee injuries) and for unprofessional conduct.
"It is most disturbing and disappointing that Mr. Vaught would compromise a student's safety and well-being in this manner," she said in a letter to VHSL Executive Director Earl Gillespie.
Gene Lawson, a Richlands car dealer who was on the county School Board when Vaught was hired as an assistant coach in 1989, said Vaught's initial denial could have taught students the wrong lesson - that winning is more important than honesty.
"I think that's the initial message the kids could have gotten, but I think the kids got a more valuable message - it's not too late to correct a mistake," Lawson said. "He did in fact deny it, but he came forward and 'fessed up."
Lawson was a football coach at Richlands for 12 years. He remembers scouting Vaught when Vaught played for Patrick Henry High School in Washington County before entering nearby Emory & Henry College.
"If I were still on the board, I would still hire him," Lawson said. "There's no doubt he made a mistake, and he admitted that. What do they want, blood? I feel that this is something we can deal with down here, and we will deal with it, and we'll be back and he'll be back."
After his 1988 Lexington team won the Group A Division 2 Region C football championship, Vaught became coach at another Patrick Henry High School, in Roanoke. He resigned after being accused of making a racist remark to his team during a halftime talk.
"There was a little substance to that, too, but it was blown all out of shape. We were convinced of that or we would never have hired him down here," Lawson said.
Richlands is facing another complaint to the VHSL from its Dec. 12 state championship game against Orange County High School: that racial comments were made during the game.
"All this garbage, this racial stuff, this is old hat. . . . This thing keeps rearing its ugly head," Lawson said.
"We're an all-white community and an all-white high school. I don't know the reason for that . . . but we're very vulnerable to racist claims because of that," he said. "I'm not aware of these racial things. But it always seems to find its way into anything we're involved in."
"I know none of my players said it and I know none of my staff said it," Vaught said. "We don't condone that type of behavior. If I catch any of my kids talking like that, we'll discipline them. I guarantee you none of my coaches talk like that."
"That's totally absurd. I've followed this program for 35 years and I've never heard anyone make a racial slur," said Richlands football fan Dick McGee.
"This thing from Patrick Henry, it's followed Dennis here. . . . But I've never heard any student make a racial slur in any contest in Richlands, ever."
Instead, McGee said, he hears the reverse - outsiders referring to Richlands players as "rednecks" or "hillbillies" and referring to Richlands as a coal community as if that were a put-down.
As for Vaught, McGee said, "Mistakes are part of life. There is no one among us who has not made a few. He made a mistake and he admits it. I'll take him for that, whether he ever coaches another football game or not. He's our friend."
"I don't think any of us are lily-white. We need to help a guy who admitted he made a mistake," agreed Gene Hurst, a funeral director whose business sports a sign proclaiming Richlands High "Our Dream Team."
"I'm not condoning what happened. Mr. Vaught made a mistake, and the sad thing is our kids are going to have to pay for it," Hurst said. "The coach made a mistake, you know? What's a kid to do?" he asked.