Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9309020236
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
King became the first woman in Virginia since World War II to take a boys' basketball coaching job in high school when she was given that task at Radford for the 1991-92 season. She also continued coaching the Radford girls in the fall.
It meant King began her coaching duties in early August and didn't finish until after her boys' team was eliminated from tournament play at the end of February.
This past summer King decided one coaching job was enough, and she chose to stay with the girls' program in which she has never had a losing season. She says it was her choice which team to keep.
"Looking back, I was 27 when I took both jobs. I think in my youthfulness [I thought] if you have enthusiasm, work hard and play team basketball, you can play with anybody," King said.
Her outlook has changed.
"I've had a reality check," she said. "You have to have personnel. You have to surround yourself with good people [players mostly]."
Under King, Radford won just 11 games in two years; the Bobcats just didn't have the personnel to do any better. Rick Cormany takes over the team.
There never was an undercurrent of resentment by the boys about being coached by a woman.
King had been warned that coaching both teams would be difficult.
"Randy Coulling [who coaches both teams at Waynesboro] told me they have four staff members and they go through the year together. If it wasn't for their assistants, he couldn't do it," King said.
Radford had a different junior varsity and eighth-grade coach each of the past two years. Except for Wayne Pridgen, King hasn't received consistent help.
There were more problems.
"By the time spring was here, I was so worn out, it was difficult for me to sit down and watch the NCAA tournaments," King said.
The bloom of coaching two teams began to wear off. I remember King attending the 1992 boys' state tournaments in Charlottesville. "I love this atmosphere. It's my dream to bring a team here," she told me then.
By last spring, King had learned a lesson: Coaching two teams at a school with a small enrollment for Group AA standards is a tough job. Though the girls' team reached the Region IV tournament last fall, it was apparent that the program would have to be rebuilt because the talent was running out.
"Every year except one that I've been in the program, the girls had made the region [tournament]," said King, who was an assistant coach for two years and head coach for six.
She knows she will have to live with the decision to give up the boys' team - "It'll be tough to go to boys' games this winter. We worked hard for two years. I felt like I was walking away before some objectives were accomplished," King said - but she has life outside the gymnasium to consider.
"My husband [Danny] told me to choose one of the two teams or else `we'll end up in divorce court,' " she said, seriously. "He's a saint. A coach couldn't ask for a better spouse."
Danny King drove the team bus and looked after the couple's young son, Jared, while Brenda King coached.
"It had also gotten to the point where I'd leave for a game and Jared said, `Mommy, you're going again?' That just tore my heart out," said Brenda King.
So King walked away from the boys' job.
"I truly loved the game-day atmosphere in boys' [basketball]," she said, "knowing you're coaching against the Bob Trears [Blacksburg], the Charlie Morgans [Salem] and the Billy Popes [Northside]. You knew you had to be at your best [as a coach] or it wouldn't be a contest."
Kings said she will remember a couple of players writing essays for college admission about what a pleasure it was to play for a woman coach.
"As a coach, the measure of your success isn't the wins and losses, but the relationship you develop with your players," King said. "In defense of that [boys'] record, it looks as if I didn't succeed. But in my mind we had a lot of success."
\ NEW POINT COUNT: The Virginia High School League has started counting games against public schools from other states in the points scale that decides wild-card playoff teams and home sites for postseason games.
The Timesland team most affected could be Pulaski County. In past years, the Cougars' games against out-of-state teams didn't count, and in some cases that has either helped or hindered Pulaski County in the playoff pairings.
The Cougars, who annually must go out of state for at least a game or two, now will have Friday's opener against Anacostia of Washington, D.C., and a game against rival Bluefield of West Virginia in two weeks count in the points standings.
If Pulaski County wins the Roanoke Valley District, the Cougars will be in the playoffs. But a loss to either Bluefield or Anacostia could cost Pulaski County home-field advantage in the Northwestern Region playoffs.
\ ANACOSTIA TRAVEL: When Anacostia plays at Pulaski County, that visitors again will be heavy underdogs. This is the ninth game in a series that has been played entirely at Dublin. Pulaski County has averaged 39 points a game, compared with 7.4 for the Washington, D.C., team. The closest game was 17-0 five years ago.
According to the Washington Post, which published an article on Washington teams taking long football trips, Anacostia will be paid $5,000 to participate in the Cougars' home opener.
Many Washington schools make such trips to expose their players to big-time high school football and for a good payday. Football budgets in the district limit each school to $3,500 with an additional $2,500 for junior varsity and junior high teams.
"We probably won't make that much [$5,000] the whole season playing in the DCIAA," Anacostia coach Willie Stewart told the Post, comparing the proceeds from his league schedule.
". . . Because of that game, I've been able to stay in tune with the latest in football uniforms and coaching outfits for the staff. It's a boost. We wouldn't be able to do a lot of things if it weren't for the Pulaski guarantee," added Stewart, who estimates he will clear $4,000 on the trip after expenses.
If people question Pulaski County's spending, they need only look to see that the Cougars' home crowd will offset that and to consider what it would cost to play some team home-and-home that was two or three hours from Dublin. Because Group AA area teams won't play Pulaski County, it forces the Cougars to set up games against teams like Anacostia.
by CNB