Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994 TAG: 9403270023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In five years, Wagner has taken the Vikings as far as a team can go in Group AA state wrestling - short of winning a championship. Northside was second as a team in 1993 and third in 1994.
With Grundy dominating Group AA state wrestling, placing second or third in this classification is about all other schools can hope to accomplish.
With four regional champions and four wrestlers who placed in this year's Group AA state tournament returning, Northside should contend for second or third again in 1995. The Vikings will count on Region III champions Brad Hungate (112), Leland Keeling (130), Clifton Dunford (125) and Chip Nininger (171), along with David Higgins (140), who placed fifth in the state.
Don't look for Roanoke County to seek a high-powered wrestling coach to replace Wagner. For the most part, the county has filled non-revenue coaching positions with the best available candidate for a teaching position at the school.
When Wagner was hired, he had little experience as a wrestling coach. There was so little interest in the program that the Vikings didn't even have a complete set of uniforms.
Under Wagner, Northside came a long way. In five years, he built the second-best program in Group AA and the best in Timesland. The Vikings have won 56 consecutive dual meets, back-to-back Region III titles and the Big Orange title this year in a tournament that brings together Timesland's best wrestlers.
Wagner is quitting to work on his master's degree in administration, but he may not leave coaching altogether. He has told Roanoke County schools officials he would consider a football assistant's position at any school other than Northside.
"Either way, I won't coach wrestling. I could coach football and still pursue my master's, but I couldn't coach wrestling and do that," said Wagner, who gave up his duties as an assistant football coach at Northside several years ago. "It's tough [to leave wrestling], but I'm walking away from it. I love wrestling. It's done a lot for me. It's not an easy decision. Part of this is I want to be a football coach."
There are football openings at two other Roanoke County schools - William Byrd and Cave Spring.
At Byrd, Wallace Thompson is retiring as a varsity assistant. Thompson, 57, has been head football coach at Buffalo Gap and Salem, but is better known as a track coach, a job he has held in two stints at William Byrd.
His 1988 Byrd team won the Group AA boys' state title, though only three distance runners scored points. It is the only outright state track championship, boys or girls, won by a team from the Roanoke Valley in more than a decade. (William Fleming shared the 1985 Group AAA boys' crown with Bethel.)
Wagner won't be the only candidate to fill Thompson's spot as a football assistant at Byrd. Mike Sebolt, who coaches the Terriers in cross country, will be one of the candidates.
The other football openings in Roanoke County are at Cave Spring, where the Knights are looking for a pair of ninth-grade coaches.
\ STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: It's a virtual certainty that the winter state basketball tournaments won't return to the University of Virginia in 1995.
The reason is that UVa has a chance to be a high-seeded team in the women's NCAA Tournament every year. To play host to first- and second-round games, UVa must keep University Hall free the third weekend in March, when the state tournament is held.
"That's what we want them to decide, whether they can't hold our tournament because they're keeping that week open for the NCAA," said Ken Tilley, the incoming VHSL executive director.
The only way to keep the games in Charlottesville is to condense the state tournament into one week, something that proved to be very difficult this year when the regional tournaments were hit by bad weather.
"It's true they won't [likely] condense [the state] again," Tilley said. "The schools seem to want a week later. The calendar has been set and we're entertaining [state tournament] bids."
The Salem Civic Center and Liberty University are expected to make strong bids. Lynchburg's problem is a lack of hotel rooms. Salem has a track record of success with the fall girls' state tournaments and the Group A and AA wrestling tournaments.
The VHSL also could split the first two rounds of the state tournament between two sites for all classifications - east and west - and then bring the final four to one site. If that happens, Salem likely would be one of those sites.
\ FINAL NOTES: Richard Savedge is one of the candidates for the Fieldale-Collinsville football job that was vacated in the fall by . . . Richard Savedge. That's not a typo.
Savedge, the school's athletic director, was interviewed for his old job, and if the Henry County brass sees it his way, he'll return as football coach.
"I just basically thought the kids had lost confidence in what we were trying to do," Savedge said. "I had their interests at heart. I found out that wasn't true."
Salem hurdler Amy Pitts, a junior, has been chosen to compete this summer with a group of track and field athletes from all over the United States on a 13-day tour of competition and cultural exchange in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The U.S. team, sanctioned by USA Track & Field, will include more than 40 athletes from 30 states.
It's official; the Altavista basketball coaching job is open. It was held for 13 years by Stu Richardson, a native of Hillsville whose teams went 212-83 while dominating the Seminole District.
The Campbell County school board rejected a plea by Richardson that his dismissal as basketball coach be overturned. No reason was given for his dismissal, but Richardson's program had been under fire since last season, when one of his players was accused of violating the VHSL's amateur rule by accepting hundreds of dollars for dunk shots during games.
by CNB