Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309220339
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's rare to find a Timesland player who ranks high among the leaders as a runner and a receiver. After three games, Jones is ranked in both categories. He has rushed for 356 yards on 83 carries to stand sixth, and he has caught seven passes for 84 yards to rank 15th.
This is a big year for Jones, who is as versatile in athletics overall as he is in football. Jones lost only three wrestling matches last season by a total of three points as he finished third in the Group AAA state tournament at 171 pounds.
In baseball, Jones is a good enough hitter to be regarded as a possible draft choice in June 1994.
It is football, though, where his future lies. The letters started arriving after his sophomore year, and the volume increased when he rushed for more than 300 yards last fall against Patrick Henry. Jones is on many recruiting lists. At 5 feet 10 and 205 pounds, he is considered an NCAA Division I-A prospect.
Jones is the latest Fleming football player to earn a spot on that list. Lately, though, the Colonels' best athletes have made the list and then wound up going to schools in Division I-AA, II or III.
Jones says he's looking forward to playing Division I-A football. "If it's Division I, I'll be satisfied. If not, I'll go somewhere else and be satisfied."
Since Sherley Stuart took over as the Colonels' football coach in 1986, David Ware has been the only Fleming player to sign with a Division I-A program. He went to Virginia and now plays for the NFL's New York Jets.
In boys' basketball, the Colonels have been to the Group AAA Northwestern Region tournament every year since Jimmy Carter was president. While Fleming doesn't own two Group AAA state titles like archrival Patrick Henry, the Colonels' program has been the Roanoke Valley's most consistent for the past decade.
During that span, four players - Ramon and Damon Williams, Terrell Milam and Mike Holland - have signed letters of intent with Division I schools. However, none was highly recruited and they had few choices. The Williams twins and Milam went to VMI, which has not had much success in recent years. Holland signed with Virginia Tech.
Only VMI offered scholarships to both of the Williams twins, who were headed to Division III Roanoke College until the Keydets stepped in at the last minute. Though Holland signed with Tech, he saw little action and was not regarded as an impact player.
By contrast, in the past five years, George Lynch (North Carolina), Percy Covington (VMI), Curtis Blair (Richmond), Tim Basham (East Carolina), Troy Manns (George Mason) and Jonas Callis (VMI) have gone on from Patrick Henry to play Division I basketball. Curtis Staples, who played on the Patriots' 1992 state title team, will go to a Division I school on scholarship after this season, and Bernard Basham, a key player on the 1988 state title squad, opted for football and a full scholarship to Virginia Tech.
In girls' basketball, Fleming's Marquetta Randolph was one of Timesland's top players in 1992-93. While Group AA and Timesland player of the year Sherry Banks of William Byrd was recruited and signed by Virginia Tech, Randolph had no Division I offers and is at Division II Virginia Union.
Turning back to football, two years ago Fleming running back and return specialist Larry Basham talked about going to a Division I-A school such as Virginia Tech. Now he's playing at Division III Ferrum.
Fleming has several football players at Division I-AA, II or III schools. None are playing in Division I-A.
Salem, a Group AA school that arguably has had the strongest program in the Roanoke area ahead of Fleming for the last decade, has had five players sign Division I-A football scholarships. Another, Keith Moyer, turned down scholarships to Virginia Tech and other schools to walk on with the Hokies' track team.
Now, along comes Jones. The Fleming staff doesn't feel that he will have any difficulty meeting the NCAA's requirements of a 2.0 grade-point average in core curriculum classes and a 700 on the Scholastic Assessment Test. So it's a matter of his athletic ability.
"Because of his athletic ability, Eddie qualifies to play for any Division I school in the country in football. He has the necessary tools," says George Miller, an assistant football and the head wrestling coach at Fleming. "Perhaps the only deciding factor against him may be his physical size in reference to his height.'
Stuart feels Jones will have choices past Fleming athletes didn't have.
"I don't think he'll be another who isn't recruited. Kevin Ford [a defensive end] was one of the top kids last year. His SAT scores were eight [hundred] something, but his core curriculum average was on the border. He came through at the end, but a lot of people shied away from him. Now he's at Virginia State," Stuart says.
The Fleming coach, a graduate of tiny St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, isn't certain that bigger is always better when it comes to a college.
"There are some other great schools out there besides Division I. When you look at Hampton, North Carolina A & T, I like to see my kids go to those places and get a first-class education with a first-class sports program," Stuart says.
White agrees.
"I've talked to players who have gone to Division I schools who told me they thought they would have enjoyed their college careers more [at a smaller school] because of the kind of pressure they were under. You can't imagine the pressure there is to play, win and at the same time maintain your studies in a [big-time] program," the Salem coach says.
Al Holland Sr., an assistant football coach at Fleming, played for Stuart in three sports at the old Lucy Addison High School. Holland was an outstanding pitcher and quarterback, yet only North Carolina A & T offered him a chance to play in college. No professional baseball team drafted him, so Holland went to the Greensboro school and played well enough to earn a place in the A & T sports hall of fame.
After leaving A & T, Holland signed a baseball contract and eventually became the National League Fireman of the Year in 1983 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
"A & T prepared me for everything when I finished," says Holland, who majored in recreation administration.
Holland admits he dreamed of playing football at Notre Dame, Michigan State or Southern California.
"I didn't sit around and wait for people to call me," he says. "My whole objective was to go to college."
The question is: Will Jones be like Randolph and other past Fleming athletes who went into their senior year hoping to compete in Division I athletics, only to settle for something else when they weren't recruited by the bigger schools?
Roland Lovelace, a football assistant and the girls' basketball coach at Fleming, says his star, Randolph, was disappointed at first when she received no Division I offers.
Virginia Tech and Radford both looked at the 6-0 forward. Fleming graduate Charlene Curtis, the head coach at Temple University in Philadelphia, didn't offer Randolph a scholarship, either. Some of the Colonels' coaches feel that Curtis should have taken care of a graduate from her school.
"My assistants saw her play and felt she was a little small for the Metro Conference," says Tech coach Carol Alfano, whose front line has no one shorter than 6-1 with 6-6 Stacy Brown as the tallest player. "I think Marquetta had to play a four or five [inside] position."
Radford coach Luby Lichonczak felt Randolph could play a three (swing) position.
"It came down to Marquetta and a junior college kid," said the Radford coach. "We needed someone to come in and play the three position who had experience and take over for [former Northside star] Patti Fisher, who was injured. Without question, I thought Marquetta was a Division I player."
As for football and other sports, there has been the perception in the past that Fleming players haven't been recruited by big schools.
"Sherley and I have talked about this," says Danny Wilmer, an assistant football coach at the University of Virginia. "Sherley is definitely trying to get his kids recruited.
"David Ware had grades, he had size and he had athletic ability. Teams knew about him. Tennessee and Georgia recruited him. He wasn't going to slip through the cracks, and I don't think [a similar prospect] would slip through the cracks. I stay at the Marriott when I come to Roanoke [to recruit] and Fleming is the first place I go."
Roanoke city councilman Delvis "Mac" McCadden, is a former Fleming athlete. He had heard rumors that some Colonels athletes weren't being prepared for college by their coaches.
"I had heard that in years past [before Stuart took over]. I think the coaching staff [in all sports] is doing its best now to get the athletes their better options," McCadden says.
"The best thing that can happen to Fleming athletes is that in eighth or ninth grades they realize they have to make the grades. I think sometimes they don't realize that, but I've been around the coaches and I know for a fact they tell them.
"You can talk until you're blue in the face, but if they don't take action, it doesn't matter. Our athletes don't understand that at a younger age, the academic curriculum plays almost as much a part as the recruiting talent."
The recruiting game worked out for Randolph, who is on scholarship at Virginia Union, even if she is away from the Division I spotlight.
The Fleming star said she was at peace after playing a key role in helping the West maul the East 83-58 in the Virginia High School Coaches' Association all-star game during the summer.
"I'll play just as hard at Virginia Union because they wanted me," Randolph said after the all-star game.
Now it's Jones' turn to play the recruiting game and see if he's another David Ware or one of a long list of Fleming graduates who doesn't play in the glare of the Division I spotlight.
"They say size means a lot, but it's really in your heart what you want to do," Jones says. "If you work hard enough, your dream will come true. My dream is to play college ball and see how far I can go."
Staff writer Doug Doughty contributed information to this story.
by CNB