Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307180069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS BACHELDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's just that the volleyball teammates are a bit longer in the tooth than most of the players they face in area mixed doubles competition.
"Volleyball - especially outdoor doubles - is really taking off, and there is a whole new generation of younger players," Perkins said Saturday during a break in Commonwealth Games of Virginia action at American Legion Field. "So we're getting older and they're getting younger."
"Yeah," Hunter added, "We're getting older, and they're getting better."
In a field consisting mostly of high school- and college-age players, Hancock, 42, was easily distinguished Saturday by his 6-feet, 6-inch frame and his graying hair and beard. Hancock is a Virginia Tech graduate who lives in Floyd and works in Blacksburg for Tech's campus telephone system.
Perkins, 35 and with not a single gray hair, lives in Blacksburg, where she is a lab specialist at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Hancock and Perkins have played several mixed doubles tournaments each of the past five years since they met playing at the Blacksburg Recreation Center. Both also compete as part of single-sex doubles teams.
For the past couple years, Perkins and Hancock consistently have qualified for tournament playoffs in BB Division. This summer, they moved to A Division, a step up the competitive ladder. (AA is the highest division.)
"At our age, it was now or never," joked Hancock, who maintains his sense of humor when playing against youngsters.
"A couple of tournaments ago when I was playing men's doubles, I looked across at the other team, and both guys looked about 16," Hancock said. "One said he was 19 and the other 18, so I said, `I'm older than your team.'
"I told them I was 42, and one of them said, `Ha! You're older than my dad!' That sparked us a little bit. We split two games with them, and we were the only team to beat them all day until the championship."
After losing their first two games Saturday, Perkins and Hancock relaxed, talked strategy and consumed bananas and Gatorade underneath Hancock's makeshift tent, a tarp extending from the bed of his old blue GMC truck to a pair of sturdy, Floyd-grown maple limbs.
"See that guy over there?" Hancock said as he pointed to a lean, shirtless player. "We call them guys `flat-bellies.' They're young and skinny, and they get to everything.
"And we hate 'em."
by CNB