Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 4, 1993 TAG: 9311090306
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Jefferson Street" Joe became a starting quarterback and a cover story for Sports Illustrated. Gilliam's arm seemed to make a football travel forever in the air.
Now, I've seen and covered a player I feel has a better arm than Gilliam and the potential to be as good or better than the former Tennessee State star. I watched in awe Friday when Patrick Henry's Shannon Taylor uncorked a 53-yard pass (all of it in the air) to Jamie Price.
Gilliam had a strong arm, but he also had some great receivers. In high school, Gilliam would drop back 15 yards so no rush could reach him. He'd throw Hail Mary-type passes so that his receivers, who were track stars in the spring, could outrun opponents and make the catches.
Gilliam learned to be more precise with his throws in college, but Taylor already knows how to do that without dropping 10 or 15 yards.
Taylor also is a better runner than Gilliam. Twice I've seen him run for long touchdowns this season - once against powerful George Washington-Danville.
Against Franklin County, Taylor was having a tough night. He admitted yelling at some of his receivers in frustration because he wasn't on target.
Then it all came together. On what looked like a botched play, Taylor threw a touchdown pass three seconds before halftime. Taylor had the first pass batted back in his face, so he fired again, as allowed under high school rules, for a touchdown.
Then in the first 4:21 of the second half, Taylor led PH to four scores in a 33-6 victory. Just like that, Taylor put the Eagles down for the count.
The 6-foot-5 senior is one of those quarterbacks with a knockout punch that is as fast as anything Mike Tyson ever threw when he was a comparable age as an amateur boxer.
Friday night, Taylor takes on Pulaski County at Victory Stadium in a game that should decide the Roanoke Valley District championship. Last year against the Cougars, Taylor passed for 425 yards - the sixth-best performance in state history.
Sometimes high school games that look like monsters don't live up to their billing. If this one does, though, it could be a Timesland classic.
Certainly Taylor, matched against the nation's 15th-ranked team, has all kinds of possibilities to provide a very entertaining two hours for any football fan.
\ TV CHANGE: In showing high school football games in their entirety on a delayed basis each Friday night, WJPR/WFXR (Channels 21/27) plans a schedule before the season and sticks to it.
The exception was when the Roanoke-based station scheduled wild-card games to be selected the week of the game. That was not done this year.
This week's tape-delayed contest was to have been Salem at Cave Spring, a fierce rivalry that before the season looked like a good matchup.
With Cave Spring going winless and the PH-Pulaski County game to be played the same night, WJPR/WFXR has switched off a scheduled game in mid-season for the first time.
"It was hard to turn down the PH-Pulaski County game with all its interest," said Dave Ross, who puts the program together and is the announcer for the series. "It's not a regular thing, but you want to do the best you can."
It means PH will be televised two weeks in a row, with the Patriots' game against Fleming scheduled for Nov. 12. Ross says that won't change, and PH will become the first team to be shown in back-to-back regular-season games.
\ DOUBLE TROUBLE: Not everyone was happy when the Roanoke Valley District came up with a proposal to double the number of athletic directors on the executive board that may be used to run the Virginia High School League, if the proposal passes a second reading in the spring.
The proposal would weaken the power of the superintendents and state legislators on the board because their numbers would remain the same as they were before the proposed committee was expanded from 27 to 48 members.
Staunton River principal Bob Ashwell, who has never been known to mince words, had this to say:
"I believe the basic reason the Virginia High School League is in the state it's in right now is because the same group of people who want to make a 48-member committee [the ones who voted for the RVD proposal] are the people who antagonized the superintendent's association, the state legislature and a large number of parents three years ago when they refused to accept suggestions or direction from anyone."
Ashwell's comments go back to the independent-team proposal to permit students to play for VHSL teams and outside teams at the same time under certain conditions. The proposal ultimately passed.
"It is apparent to anybody who is willing to look at the makeup of the two suggested committees that those folks who favor the 48-member committee are trying to dilute the authority of the superintendents and state legislators," Ashwell said.
As a consequence, Ashwell notes, it won't be surprising if the legislature and superintendents agree to place the VHSL under the control of the state department of education and eliminates the Virginia High School League as the organization that runs high school sports.
\ VHSL CHANGES: Northwood principal Craig Barbrow, chairman of the VHSL's executive committee, says he hopes the committee studying reclassification and balancing of the regions will have a report ready by October 1994 to give VHSL schools a year to study any proposed changes.
Barbrow says that besides looking at the number of schools in each classification, one proposal is to look at having five classifications instead of the present three.
As far as selecting a replacement for retiring executive director Earl Gillespie, "We'll have a screening committee that gets five or six names, and then the executive committee will pick a successor," Barbrow said. "We have a number of people qualified in-state and people on the staff who will be seriously considered."
Barbrow feels that some former principals, working in central administration, or even a superintendent, might apply for the job. Someone from outside Virginia also might be chosen as a finalist.
by CNB