Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993 TAG: 9302040370
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BYRD'S BIG MAN THROWS HIS WEIGHT AROUND
The most popular role model for big men in basketball these days might be Phoenix's Charles Barkley.Known as the Round Mound of Rebound, Barkley has proved a big man with a lot of weight can go a long way in the National Basketball Association.
William Byrd's David Robertson is a long way from being another Barkley. In the Blue Ridge District, though, Robertson plays the Barkley role to the hilt for the Terriers. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior is a big reason Byrd has become one of this year's surprise teams.
Robertson is a member of the big man's fraternity in the Blue Ridge District that includes Northside's Walt Derey, Lord Botetourt's Jeff Cronise, Alleghany's Todd Wheatley and Salem's Josh Pugh. All these players are, like Barkley, amply built. Yet they are good enough on their feet to push their way around the court without looking like an elephant in a glass factory.
"Pugh and I talk before our games," said Robertson. "It usually comes down to the big men going against each other."
When the Terriers played Northside, Robertson started off guarding a forward but eventually wound up going against Derey.
Though basketball is the game he's best known for, Robertson might wind up playing football in college. He played only two years of high school football, yet many Old Dominion Athletic Conference schools are courting him to try to get him to play either football or basketball.
"I don't know why I played only two years," said Robertson. "My friends tried to get me to play as a freshman and a sophomore. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed it. There's no telling how good I would have been, though, if I had played [two years earlier]."
Robertson was a defensive end and tight end for the Terriers, and he has the size to play that position on a small college level.
For now, though, basketball is Robertson's game.
"He's a hard worker. He's improved in a lot of areas," said William Byrd coach Paul Barnard.
Robertson is the third-leading scorer in the Blue Ridge District. Yet, there's more than points to this story.
"He works hard on free-throw shooting. He was a 50 percent shooter as a sophomore. Now he's near 70 percent," said Barnard.
The one duty that Robertson must perform on a team shy of tall players is rebounding. Two seasons ago, he might not have been able to respond to that command.
"He averaged 8.5 rebounds as a sophomore, 10.5 as a junior and now he's up to 12.2," said Barnard. "David has improved on defense. We worked on him coming out to guard people on the perimeter."
Barnard said some defensive lapses last year came when Robertson had problems scoring. "But now he's extended his jump shot to 15-17 feet. He worked on that, too."
In the spring, Robertson throws the shot for the William Byrd track team. He missed going to the regionals last year by a couple of inches, but he says this spring will be better.
"Hopefully, I'll be stronger. Last year, we didn't lift weights along with basketball, so I had to work twice as hard [in the spring] to get my strength up. This year, we've lifted weights twice a week because we got pushed around a lot [last winter]."
At Byrd, Robertson carries a 3.3 grade point average and has scored a 1070 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test.
"I don't have trouble in high school [balancing athletics and studies]. I don't have that much homework. I usually get it done during school. I would like to go into civil engineering, but if I play at a school in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, they don't have that course so I'll just take something that is financial or business [related]," said Robertson.
For now, though, his concern will be to lift a William Byrd team, picked to finish fourth in the Blue Ridge District, to the Region III tournament for the first time since 1990. At the beginning of the week, Byrd was in a three-way tie for first place with an 10-3 record. Obviously, Robertson has proved he's a big enough man to carry the Terriers a long way.