Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A COACH LOSES FAITH IN HIS PROFESSION
Coach JOHN CURIA, who has spent 20 years coaching football, has seen a seamier side to athletics in recent months. He's not sure he wants to see it anymore.\ Two weeks after the decision against Richlands for using illegal cleats, one of the key figures in the case is having trouble dealing with all that has taken place.Orange County football coach John Curia caught Richlands preparing to wear the same cleats against his team a week after it used them in a 17-7 victory over Salem during the Group AA Division 4 semifinals. Curia now says he is re-evaluating his role as a coach and may even resign his position.
The situation also has had an impact on Curia's wife and three children. His wife, Debbie, says her husband has shown an emotional side that she hasn't seen in 20 years of marriage.
The Virginia High School League Executive Committee hit Richlands with a one-year probation for using illegal cleats against Salem, which had filed a protest. Officials at the Orange-Richlands game for the state championship a week later assured Curia that Richlands had changed the cleats before the Blue Tornadoes beat Orange 19-10. Curia remains unconvinced, but he has not pursued the matter further.
Curia says he is depressed by what happened, although it didn't affect him right away because he's been busy coaching Orange's junior-varsity basketball team.
"I have some concerns [with coaching]," said Curia, a 20-year veteran who has been head coach at four schools - Orange, Grundy, Turner Ashby and Hinton, W.Va. "You coach for a while, you want to get into a championship situation. That's every coach's goal. Then when you get into it, you realize it's not as important as you thought it was."
Debbie Curia said: "I know how much time he puts into it. For this to cloud that is a real sad thing."
The Orange coach is concerned about where high school athletics and coaches are headed.
"You hope [the Richlands cleat incident] is an isolated incident. How do you know?" Curia said. "This has gotten a lot of press, but I've had [coaches] pull people off sidelines [to substitute when a play begins] and throw passes to them. You're right at the bending of the rules.
"Sure, I'm thinking about getting out the more this has dragged on. I've talked to my principal. Every person has to ask for an answer, exactly what is it you want out of coaching.
"I'm having a lot of trouble readjusting to things I've tried to do for a long time or justify the way things are. I'm having difficult times. I said at the [VHSL Executive Committee] meeting that maybe I made a mistake for not looking at [using] a different shoe or a longer cleat. I don't know if I want to get into a position where you consider that kind of stuff. This is high school sports.
"Ninety-five percent of our kids won't play another game of football after their senior year or make their living playing football. These are the type of things that people jump at to criticize athletics."
Debbie Curia knows her husband better than anybody, and she has seen this incident change him.
"John's a strong person and seldom blows his cool," she said. "To him the idea that anyone would think of using anything illegal has blown him to the core.
"He's always worked so hard. He's a wonderful coach. When he first came to Orange, he didn't feel he was getting the values important to him to the team. He expects to teach more than football. He wants to teach [them] to be a man, go out and play fair."
John Curia also is concerned about the racial slurs aimed at his team by fans in Richlands. Richlands also was put on a one-year probation for that.
"I would hate to be one of our minority players. I don't think it's affecting them that greatly," he said. "They've become callous to this type of treatment. They go to some areas expecting this type of treatment. We have to tell them they're going to be called names, not to get mad.
"I would be mad, though. If someone told me I was going to be called a wop and make racial slurs, I would get angry. I have to ask kids to accept something I don't believe. I feel very uncomfortable with the whole thing."
Curia said he feels compassion for the Richlands players.
"I'm sure they're discouraged because they did something no other team from Division 4 accomplished," he said. "I guess now everyone's saying it's tarnished, so imagine what those kids are trying to deal with."
If he gave up coaching, Curia, 42, would walk away from a lifelong career and a game that he played at Concord (W.Va.) College after starting out in sandlots. The way he feels after the cleats scandal would make leaving easy, he said.
"I saw [Gate City coach] Nicky Colobro and [Graham coach] Glynn Carlock at the meeting [to select the all-star teams for next summer's Virginia High School Coaches' Association game]," Curia said. "I felt uncomfortable because of this situation. That's their area where they're from. They have a lot of pride in football in that area. Both have been highly successful. Somehow, in this situation, you feel dirty.
"I've told myself a thousand times that game is over. Our kids made great plays, their kids made great plays and they made more great plays than our kids. That's what determines the outcome. But I can't block out the other things.
"That's what's eating at me. The outcome of the game depends on the shoe instead of the athlete's prowess. That's contrary to everything I've learned about sports."
Debbie Curia says their oldest son, a sixth-grader, told her and her husband, "If a coach told me to wear illegal shoes, I'd have played barefooted."
Despite all this, John Curia looks sympathetically upon Richlands coach Dennis Vaught, who has admitted having his players wear the long cleats. In the end, Vaught confessed to what he had done and said he was sorry.
"Take a look at Coach Vaught. When there was a threat his kids might lose the title, he came to the front," Curia said. "You have to think he did that to protect his kids. That's the reason people get in coaching, to protect kids."