Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309220343
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Not that he's some quack, but you don't want him to be operating on you. Not if he doesn't like you.
This is a fellow who really can carve up somebody, particularly when he's working on his brain. As for the rest of you, he definitely can leave you feeling worse than you did before you saw him.
In some cases, he can pretty much make you sick.
A fair and reasonable question would be, "Who in the world would want to have anything at all to do with such a practitioner?"
Pulaski County High School's football team has a standing appointment.
When the time comes for strong medicine, the Cougars call for a stiff dose of Dr. Dre, also known as Andre Eaves, the slick-footed and tenacious quarterback and defensive back who has assumed the alias of a favorite rap group.
The musical outfit's full name is Dr. Dre and Death Row. 'Dre Eaves calls his offensive line Death Row, too. This year, the Row and the doctor have been pretty much fatal to all who have opposed them.
Two victims up and two left crawling from the wreckage.
The doctor likes to operate without using painkillers.
"Tough as a pine knot, " says Joel Hicks, Pulaski County's coach. "He's a great defensive player, and he carries that defensive temperament to offense. I like that in my quarterbacks. He doesn't play timid. He's not afraid to turn it up the field when he has to."
As a rule, fear isn't in the doctor's bag. If the 5-foot-8, 151-pounder were the sort who frightened easily, he might never have made it past his first start as a high school quarterback.
That was two years ago. Eaves was a freshman - one of the few ever to play varsity at Pulaski County - and the Cougars were in the Group AAA Division 6 Northwestern Region playoffs at Woodbridge. The Vikings were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state.
Pulaski County trailed by two touchdowns going into the fourth quarter, but by the last minute the Cougars had tied it at 20 and were driving. With seconds left, Pulaski County was going to kick the potential winning field goal. That was when everything blew up.
First, the snap for the kick failed. Then the deep-snapper, Brad Burrus, hurt a shoulder. Bad as it was to lose such a specialist, with Burrus, it was worse. He also was the quarterback. So when overtime arrived, Hicks summoned Eaves, who hadn't played quarterback in live action since the first game of the year and then only while mopping up in a rout.
"I was just thinking, `Don't let me lose this game, '" Eaves says. "I hadn't taken many reps at all from [center] Matt Layman. I was worried about fumbling."
Instead, Eaves almost scored on one of the Cougars' four plays from the Woodbridge 10. That helped set up what turned out to be the winning field goal and a huge upset.
"That really helped me, " Eaves says. "Since I'd played in a playoff game against the No. 1 team in the state and done OK, I thought that I was ready."
Eaves started every game at quarterback last year when Pulaski County marched to the state championship. He played every game at cornerback, too. He was an old hand in the secondary, having started there the whole season as a freshman.
There never was any question that Eaves would be a two-way player. Many coaches don't like their quarterbacks to play defense because of the risk of injury, but Eaves is too valuable to waste.
"I've got two minds when I play football, " Eaves says. "I've got one for when I play defense and one for when I play offense. When I'm on defense, I don't think about offense; when I'm on offense, I don't think about defense."
Eaves has an active mind - most people will tell you he's active, period - and that mind stays on football.
"I don't know anybody who enjoys playing football any more than Andre Eaves does," Hicks says.
Eaves had definite ideas on where he wanted to play, too. He grew up in Giles County, where his older brother, Shawn, was an All-Timesland running back at Giles High School. Andre wanted to play football, but not at Giles.
"I didn't want to play at a Group AA school [Giles has since dropped to Group A], " he says. "That didn't sound too good to me. I wanted to come over here for the competition. You can also get more publicity over here, although they do pretty well with that over at Giles, too."
It's hard to beat the publicity Pulaski County got while winning the state title last year.
"That's as happy as I've been in my life, " Eaves says.
Just how happy was that?
"We're still celebrating, " he says.
Talk of a repeat started among outsiders before the season even began. The Cougars' play to date hasn't done anything to discourage those sentiments.
"I'm hoping, " Eaves says. "We'll play them one game at a time and see what happens."
As diagnoses go, the one from this particular doctor looks like a sound one.
by CNB