Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993                   TAG: 9306160084
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WESS IS INTERIM COACH FOR RICHLANDS FOOTBALL

Wess replaces former Patrick Henry coach Dennis Vaught, who is on suspension for one year. Vaught admitted his team used illegal cleats in a Group AA state playoff semifinal game this year against Salem.

Wess, 43, graduated from Richlands in 1969 and was a football and track star for the Blue Tornadoes. He still holds the school record in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He went to Marshall on a football scholarship and was an assistant on Vaught's staff.

"The job was advertised and the position was for an interim coach," said Richlands athletic director George Brown, who will become the school's principal on July 1.

Vaught, Brown said, has been reassigned as a teacher at Richlands Middle School. Both Wess and Vaught may apply for the football job that will be open again next year.

Richlands is on a year's probation in football that will bar the school from defending its Group AA Division 4 state football championship that it won by beating Orange in the finals.

Tom Rife, the boys' basketball coach, also will be the athletic director when Brown moves up as principal. - Staff report