Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9310010016
SECTION: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For three years the Blacksburg girls' basketball team has played at Park View High School, a Group AA school located in Sterling, about 25 miles from Washington, D.C.
In addition to playing the basketball game, the team always has visited some spot in Washington, starting with a private tour of the White House two years ago and the national zoo last fall.
"This year we went to the Holocaust Museum, and the girls were so depressed that I thought they'd never be able to play the game," Indians coach Mickey McGuigan said.
Though McGuigan's fears were needless as the Indians romped to a 74-51 victory, the visit to the Holocaust Museum had a profound effect on the team.
Senior forward Meredith Braine said, "It was one of the most incredible things I ever saw in my life. The thing that amazes me is that people believe it [the Holocaust] never happened, but when you go through four floors of the museum, there's no doubt it happened."
The United States Holocaust Museum, which opened this year, depicts how Nazi Germany killed 6,000,000 Jews - among 13,000,000 total victims - and conducted unimaginable atrocities. One aim of this museum is to make sure people won't forget what happened. The Blacksburg girls' team is proof that people who tour the stark building that from the outside almost looks like a Nazi death camp will not forget.
"My reaction," said Mary Thorn, a senior guard, "is I didn't know they could put together enough information. The whole building is done in great detail, and it's very sad that Jewish people were killed or had to go through something like this.
"You listen to it in history [class]. You think it happened. But you never know the real effects until you go to something like this. It was unbelievable."
For Thorn, the most emotional moment was going into a room where there was a collection of shoes that had been burned in the gas chambers.
"It amazed me how much information they collected from Europe and Auschwitz," Thorn said of the most famous Nazi death camp. "The burnt shoes came from the incinerators. You could actually smell the burnt shoes, and that really got to me.
"When I went through it, I was in shock. Then you get to the end and hear people talking [on videotape] about their experiences, what happened to their friends and how they escaped.
"Listening to one person tell how he lost his father while he was sitting beside him, that brought tears to my eyes. This is one of those things I'll want my kids to go to, but before they go they should know something about the Holocaust."
Braine and Thorn knew the story of the Holocaust from history courses. Braine said Abigail Murrmann had suggested this year's trip should be to the museum.
"We were so depressed that we couldn't believe we had to go out and play a game in three hours. It takes a lot out of you to see something like that," Braine said.
The Blacksburg team had only three hours to tour the museum. Braine said the team was told that to see and read everything would take two or three days.
"The top floor [where the tour starts] is concerned with time before the war [World War II], the third floor is during the war, the second floor was all about concentration camps and the first floor was the aftermath," Braine said. "When you enter, they give you a gray sheet with a picture of a Holocaust victim - a female for girls or a male for boys. It tells their story. On each floor, you read one paragraph, and in the last paragraph you find out whether the victim lived or died.
"I think my feeling was typical of the team. At first, we were shocked. No one said anything about it. On the way home, we talked a lot about it."
Both players agreed they had discovered that sporting games are far different from real life.
"It was hard to play that night," Thorn said. "We took a subway back to the hotel. We didn't feel real good and we went to sleep. We tried to forget about it, get over the initial shock and realize we were down there to play basketball."
\ MORE ON THORN: The Indians' guard plans to sign for a college scholarship during the early signing week in November. Thorn has scheduled home visits with East Carolina, Winthrop, James Madison, Radford and Maryland-Baltimore County.
\ MILESTONE: When Martinsville beat Chatham in its first Piedmont District football game two weeks ago, coach Taylor Edwards became the Bulldogs' all-time winningest coach. Edwards passed the record of Dick Hensley, the coach he calls his mentor and for whom he played and coached under as an assistant. Edwards, after his team beat Laurel Park on Friday, has a 102-32 record at Martinsville. Hensley's record was 100-41-2.
\ SALEM MARKS: Salem's 7-6 football victory over Graham on Friday gave coach Willis White his 100th win as the Spartans' coach.
With Salem trailing 6-0 and having trouble scoring against the G-Men, it was time to think about a rare home loss. Since Salem opened its stadium in 1985, the Spartans have lost only six times at home - once each to Spotsylvania, Blacksburg, Brookville, Alleghany, E.C. Glass and Pulaski County. Northside tied Salem the first year.
Salem's victory over Graham was the Spartans' 30th in a row during the regular season and 45th in the past 46 games. The only loss during that span came three years ago at Graham when the G-Men prevailed 20-9.
Before that, the last regular-season loss was 6-0 to Alleghany, the only Blue Ridge District game Salem has failed to win since entering the league in 1988.
\ STREAK OVER: When William Fleming upended E.C. Glass in football on Friday night, coach Sherley Stuart had his first victory over the Hilltoppers.
The current series between the schools started in 1987 in what was Stuart's best year as the Fleming coach. The Colonels went 9-1, losing only to Salem 15-14, as they won the Roanoke Valley District title.
In the first round of the playoffs, Fleming was beaten 21-6 by a strong Glass team. Before that, the teams hadn't played one another since 1982 when Fleming, then under John McGregor, won the last game of that series.
The schools resumed a regular-season series in 1988, and the Colonels lost 7-6 at Glass to a Hilltoppers team that went on to win the Group AAA Division 5 state title.
That same year, Fleming also renewed its regular-season series with GW-Danville and one of Stuart's teams has yet to beat the Eagles, who visit Fleming on Friday night at Victory Stadium.
The Colonels' last victory over GW-Danville came in 1985 as Fleming won 13-12 for its only football victory that year.
\ VOLLEYBALL OUT: Roanoke Catholic was forced to drop a sports program that had been one of the oldest offered by the school when the girls' volleyball team folded this fall.
"We had only one girl out for the varsity and only seven for the junior varsity," Celtics athletic director John Cooke said. "They hadn't had that much of a problem until last year when only eight girls came out for the varsity."
Cooke says some players transfered to other schools, some graduated and others went out for cross country or played fall soccer.
\ VOLLEYBALL IN: Never fear, though, volleyball is alive. The Virginia High School Coaches Association is adding an East-West volleyball game to its program next summer along with boys' and girls' soccer games.
That means there will be football, girls' and boys' basketball, baseball and softball along with the new sports with an equal number of opportunities for athletes of both genders.
The challenge is scheduling all the games around the clinic and coaches' banquet in a four-day span.
by CNB