Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Conference officials were criticized last season when Syracuse quarterback Marvin Graves was allowed to stay in the game and direct the winning touchdown drive in that game despite his involvement in a brawl that led to the ejection of three Mountaineers defenders.
"I would never dismiss an official based on one game," said Wooldridge, a former basketball official who also serves as commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. "It was a tough decision, but based on ratings and performance I had to let them go."
The kind of shape officials are in has been one concern. Wooldridge said the seven officials who were put on probation have lost a combined 114 pounds since a clinic at Virginia Tech early in the summer.
"If a guy walks out there with his shirt over his belly and makes a controversial call, he can be the best official in the world and people will say he blew the call because he was out of shape," said Wooldridge, who has an office in Salem.
Wooldridge, named supervisor less than six weeks before the 1992 season, has taken steps to improve the quality of Big East officiating by sending full crews to each conference school to officiate preseason scrimmages.
"We felt like our guys needed to work in game-type situations," he said. "The coaches supported us wholeheartedly and the [athletic directors] agreed to pick up the cost. The expenses will amount to about $15,000."
Owen Grogan of Roanoke has become the second Big East football official from the Roanoke Valley, joining Bruce Palmer of Vinton.
\ GETTING ON WITH IT: Former Lord Botetourt High School football star Gene Toliver said he is concerned that people may be getting the wrong impression about his decision not to return for his final year of eligibility at Virginia.
"I don't want people to think I was three hours short [of graduation] and wasn't coming back," Toliver said. "I needed to take one class this summer. I finished it in summer and my adviser has signed my transcript, meaning I can graduate."
Toliver played with two casts in the Cavaliers' final game against Virginia Tech and participated in spring practice, but he reached the conclusion that he wanted to attend graduate school full time and prepare for a career in teaching and coaching.
"I felt and still feel I could have made a contribution this year," said Toliver, who started 14 games during his college career, including two bowl games. "I love the game of football. This would have been my 17th year of playing, but I felt I needed to get on with things."
\ HOKIES' RECRUIT HURT: Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer said freshman Brad Baylor, who dislocated a shoulder Monday in practice, may not enroll full time until January in order to save a year's eligibility.
Baylor, who plans to return home to Harrisonburg for surgery, was rated one of the top 25 prospects in Virginia last year by the Roanoke Times & World-News. A 6-foot-4, 250-pound lineman, he was placed on defense by the Tech coaches and had a chance to play this year.
\ MORE INJURIES: Florida State's bad luck started a little earlier than usual when the Seminoles, the preseason choice to win college football's national championship, lost three prominent players to knee injuries.
Tiger McMillon, who led Florida State in rushing last season, ruptured a patella tendon (below the kneecap) and had surgery that will keep him sidelined until at least November. Defensive backs Steve Gilmer and Corey Fuller both tore anterior cruciate ligaments and are expected to be out all season.
Syracuse free safety Tony Jones, who had five interceptions last year, broke a bone his left forearm during a passing drill Sunday. The Orangemen hope that Jones, third in the Big East in interceptions last year, will return by midseason.
\ PITT'S BROWN BACK: Pittsburgh coach Johnny Majors has reinstated offensive tackle Reuben Brown, who received six months' probation Monday from Allegheny County Judge Robert Dauer. Brown pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct that stemmed from an incident at a Pittsburgh-area hot dog stand in March.
Felony charges of aggravated assault on a police officer and criminal conspiracy were dropped in July.
Majors said Brown, a former All-Group AAA player at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, was allowed to return to the team because he hadn't been in trouble since the spring and is on schedule to graduate.
\ COACHING STUFF: Hollins College is in the market for a new basketball coach after the sudden departure of Laura Williges, who left after two years to become an assistant at Division II Slippery Rock.
"I look at this as a continuation and not a parallel move," said Hollins athletic director Linda Calkins, who has begun advertising for a combination basketball coach, soccer coach and physical education instructor. "I didn't expect it this late, but I knew Laura was exploring other possibilities."
Tom Groom, a former Virginia Tech football player who coached the Hokies' tight ends until this year, has been named an assistant coach at Lehigh.
\ ED GREEN UPDATE: Ed Green, the former Roanoke College athletic director and men's basketball coach, has taken a position as an assistant principal at Kinnard-Dale High School near York, Pa.
Green, previously the athletic director at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., said he is exploring the possibility of operating a team in the proposed Atlantic Basketball Association.
\ ENOUGH'S ENOUGH: Roanoke College lacrosse coach Bill Pilat was hobbled for several weeks after Washington and Lee coach Jim Stagnitta lined a golf ball off his ankle in a captain's choice tournament. "I told him it was bad enough that they knocked us out of the NCAA Tournament," Pilat said.
by CNB