Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993 TAG: 9307170083
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The weekday warriors of the hard courts could be in for some tough times this weekend.
After all, the basketball court will be larger than the small back gyms of War Memorial Gym at Virginia Tech, where many of them play during lunch.
The competition will be younger - more than a decade younger, in some cases.
And the stakes will be higher:
You don't get a chance every day to play for two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games.
That's the situation the 36-and-over men's basketball team from Blacksburg will find itself in Saturday morning at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County.
When the squad tips off at 9:30 against a team from Pulaski, it will be the only game these guys play against competition in their own age bracket.
Only two teams entered men's basketball in the 36-and-over category.
So win or lose, the Blacksburg team will find itself up against teams in the 25-to-35 division.
Whichever of the two "older" teams fare best in the "younger" division of the double-elimination tournament gets the gold medal for the 36-and-over division.
"We just wanted to play basketball," said Jack Maher, an accounting professor at Virginia Tech and the team organizer.
"We got a team together to play in the Commonwealth Games and sent in the entry. Some of us play together at lunch. Others are people I knew about. And others play in the town league. Mostly, we just wanted to get together to play basketball and have fun."
Probably the biggest obstacle the squad will have to overcome is the speed of its younger foes.
"I think quickness will be a concern," said Dr. Phil Barkley, chief medical officer of the Virginia Tech Student Health Service.
"But sometimes, as you get older, you also get a little stronger. And a lot of these guys have been playing basketball a long time. They are really good and really smart."
To the players themselves, it doesn't seem as if they are any slower than they ever were.
"At noontime, we're all in the same age group," said Jim Hall, a computer systems engineer in Tech's Chemistry Department.
"We've all slowed down together."
The team also showed how it could counteract any loss in speed - real or imagined - earlier this week.
In scrimmages against college players from the area, the Blacksburgers held their own.
That experience of stopping a quicker foe could come in very handy in the Commonwealth Games.
"I know some of the teams we'll be playing [in the lower age bracket]," said Marshall Ashford, who scored 1,058 points in his Virginia Tech career and was a co-captain of the 1978-79 Hokies.
He now teaches and coaches at William Fleming High School in Roanoke.
"They play in the summer league at William Fleming," he said.
"They like to run-and-gun."
The Blacksburgers also will rely on their height - three players are 6-foot-4 or taller - and their skills.
"I don't know what the other teams are like, but I think we'll do all right," said 6-foot-6 Tony Price, who played basketball at Blacksburg High School and now coaches at Blacksburg Middle School.
"I've noticed we move the ball around well. We've made some pretty nice passes."
And the Blacksburg squad will have experience on its side:
Not only will the players have gained experience during lunchtimes, but many also can recall their days as college athletes.
Maher was a Little All-American at the University of Scranton (Pa.). Price played at Belmont University in Nashville, Barkley at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Hall at Bridgewater, Tim Franklin at Springfield (Mass.) College.
John Byers was a teammate of Ashford's at Tech.
The others on the team, Jeff Birch, John Broslin, Gary Downey and Steve Greenfield, bring experience from high school, recreation leagues or city playgrounds.
And if they do well, the Blacksburgers already know what they're reward will be.
"They're calling us the Geritol Team and saying if we win we get a one-way trip to Warm Hearth Retirement Village," joked Downey, a professor with Tech's Center for the Study of Science in and Society program.
"Actually, we're all just trying to stay in shape playing basketball. And if it turns out we're competitive with younger athletes, that's great."
by CNB