Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993 TAG: 9306140568
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Two athletes who did all they could possibly do in athletics as seniors are Timesland's athletes of the year.
Cave Spring's Tiki Barber (boys) and Blacksburg's Katie Ollendick (girls) are the winners of this year's most prestigious high school athletic awards given by the Roanoke Times & World-News sports department.
The athletes of the year are selected by members of the newspaper's sports staff, in consultation with some Timesland coaches.
Barber is the first repeat winner in the seven-year history of the award. He and his twin brother, Ronde, shared the award in 1992.
Ollendick is the second winner in three years from Blacksburg, following Gereme Alvarez, who won the award in 1991.
Their last weekend of athletic competition, as much as anything, illustrated why they won the award.
Barber ran in the 100- and 200-meter trials at the state Group AAA track meet, two events he did not have a good chance to win. It could have cost him in his specialties, the long jump and triple jump.
It didn't. Barber still won the state championship in both jumping events and made it to the semifinals of the dashes before being eliminated.
Ollendick this year added the 800-meter run to a track and field repertoire that included the high jump, the 400 and the anchor leg on the Indians' 1,600 relay team.
As a consequence, Ollendick wasn't up to par at the state Group AA meet in the 400, an event she won as a junior. Still, she won the high jump for the second consecutive year, anchored the relay team to a second-place finish and scored 26 points to lead the Indians to the team championship.
"I'm happy. I think I left my mark," Barber said after his final triple jump.
Now, he and his brother go to the University of Virginia, where the twins will continue their athletic careers.
"I wasn't as fast or as quick as I was last year," Tiki Barber said. "I pulled my hamstring [during the indoor track season] and had problems all year."
In football, he injured his ankles in the third game of the season. Yet, he still made second-team All-Group AAA at running back and had 1,338 all-purpose yards in nine games.
"I think if I hadn't been injured, I'd have had a season uncomparable to anything," Barber said. "I felt primed and ready at the beginning of football. I got hurt and there was nothing I could do about it."
He sat out only one game, a matchup with GW-Danville, and played in some others on heart alone.
"There were probably some nights I shouldn't have played and did," Barber said. "I hated not playing. The game I didn't play, I hated standing on the sideline, but it was a mutual decision with Coach [Steve] Spangler."
Ollendick said her performances in the state Group AA meet might not have been among her best, "but they were what I needed to do for the team. We came away with the state championship."
Despite losing an edge in the 400, Ollendick led all Timesland runners in the 800 and finished fourth in the state meet in that event, despite not coming into the competition with an outstanding time.
It was the same way in basketball. Ollendick wasn't the state's leading scorer because Blacksburg was a balanced team. But she was the Indians' best player as they rolled to an unbeaten record and the state title, and Ollendick was recognized as a first-team All-Group AA selection.
"I was surprised at basketball. I was around a lot of other good players who taught me a lot," said Ollendick, who always shuns the individual spotlight.
"I enjoyed the team part of basketball. It seems a lot more unified and you have to work with each other, as opposed to track.
"But I like track better. It's individual. When you're out there, getting ready, it's two different approaches."
For Ollendick, track was pressure. "I could play basketball and whatever happened, happened," she said. "Track was more pressure because I had more expectations to live up to. I never felt I would disappoint anyone or myself in basketball."
Tiki Barber and Ollendick are strong students.
Ollendick's father is a professor at Virginia Tech, where he teaches psychology. However, she's going to the University of Virginia on a track scholarship.
Tiki Barber graduated from Cave Spring with a grade-point average of better than 4.0 as an honors student in advanced classes. His brother also is a good student, but Tiki says people always recognize them more because of their success in sports.
"I know a couple of my friends' cousins have said they want to be like Tiki. People have told me that," he said.
"There is potential for them to be athletes like Ronde and me. But they may not be complete with the academics included. Most people don't look at Ronde and me from an academic standpoint. They're not mature enough to understand it.
"I probably take more pride in my academics. It's easy for someone to be a good athlete. You always see that. But it's hard to be a good student."
\ TIMESLAND'S TOP ATHLETES\ WINNERS THROUGH THE YEARS
GIRLS 1986 - Laura Barta, Radford 1987 - Jenny Mitchell, William Byrd 1988 - Gina Hilger, Lord Botetourt 1989 - Rebecca Russell, Carroll County 1990 - Anne Fontaine, George Wythe 1991 - Gereme Alvarez, Blacksburg 1992 - Lisa Hodges, Cave Spring 1993 - Katie Ollendick, Blacksburg
BOYS 1986 - Tim Slaughter, Floyd County 1987 - Bryan Hamm, Alleghany 1988 - Calvin Talford, Castlewood 1989 - Randy Lawrence, Christiansburg 1990 - Chris Williams, Bath County 1991 - Tim Williams, Bath County 1992 - Ronde Barber and Tiki Barber, Cave Spring 1993 - Tiki Barber, Cave Spring
by CNB