Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9410170010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's a privilege to write about high school athletes.
Case in point was a perfect Friday night, a big crowd for the Northside-Cave Spring football game, two Roanoke County rivals and a finish that almost defied description.
There was Cave Spring's Billy Frantz catching a pass for a two-point conversion with 38 seconds remaining to give the Knights a 15-14 victory.
First, the play could have been a dud. Frantz, who carried in the play from coach Steve Spangler, gave quarterback Jeff Lang the wrong call. So while 10 Knights ran what Frantz told Lang, the junior receiver, a member of the Timesland Sizzlin' Sophomore team last year, ran the play Spangler called.
It could have been a catastrophe. But no, Frantz was wide-open, and somehow Lang got the ball to him. Frantz wasn't even supposed to be the end who caught the ball. It could only happen in high school. Never in the pros and rarely in college.
There's more to this story. Several minutes before Cave Spring scored to set up the winning two-point conversion, the Knights failed to score when they were deep in Northside territory.
In the press box, Spangler's second-guessers were out in force. ``All he had to do was throw a ball in the air and let Frantz [who is 6 foot 2] catch it,'' said one so-called expert.
Luckily, Spangler didn't hear that. It's for sure that iIf Cave Spring hadn't won the game, fans would have been talking about how the coach should have played it. This part of the game goes on in the pros and college and is part of sports on any level.
Another thing that makes covering high schools special is some of the coaches. There are many who aren't very patient when they lose a tough game. Several ``forgot'' to call in their games to this newspaper Friday, which is one of the least pleasant parts of covering high school athletics.
But in the case of Northside's Jim Hickam, that's not likely to be a problem. After the tough loss to Cave Spring, Hickam was patient enough to go through at least two television interviews and then talked to this reporter. As badly as I'm sure Hickam felt, he never was impatient and never gave short answers to questions. That's a refreshing side to high school athletics. , for I remember covering professional and college sports when losing coaches were rude and combative.
One year, I interviewed Norm Sloan, then the North Carolina State basketball coach, after a loss to North Carolina. Norm Sloan was talking very low and we were in a hallway. He was surrounded by about seven reporters. I asked Norm him to speak up a little and he snarled, ``I can't. I've got a cold.'' The interview, as far as he was concerned, was over. I think he's the kind of coach who wouldn't call in his game after a loss.
A BIG ONE: One boys' basketball coach who can't wait for the first day of practice is Glenvar's Art Lawrence.
Why should Lawrence be so eager when he's in the same district as an experienced Parry McCluer team that finished second in the Group A tournament last winter?
One big reason is 6-foot-6 Parry Taylor, a junior varsity player last season who was tremendous during the summer at camps. Taylor will team with 6-4 James Williams to give the Highlanders one of the bigger front lines in Group A.
One coach who saw Glenvar in camp thought Taylor was a transfer, but he recognized the junior could make a difference.
Lawrence, whose boys' tennis teams have won consecutive Group A titles, says if Taylor continues to develop, his basketball team should be solid for the next two years and competitive with anyone in the state.
``He's the biggest player we've had at Glenvar,'' said Lawrence, who has a history of producing tough teams.
One problem for Glenvar this year might be the Pioneer District, which figures to be a very competitive league. Besides Parry McCluer, Bath County and Covington should be strong.
HIGHLY RANKED: William Fleming lineman John St.Clair, one of the state's top college prospects, is rated the No.14 defensive lineman in the country by SuperPrep magazine. St.Clair is on the recruiting publication's All-America team.
NEW GIRLS' COACH: Patrick Henry will have a new girls' basketball coach this season in Kim Townley. She takes over from Patricia Sheedy, who had been the Patriots` coach the past four years.
GET A JOB: When Michael Bailey was not offered a new contract to guide the boys' basketball team at Bethel High School in Hampton, the coach of former All-State star Allen Iverson wasn't ready to get out of the business.
Bailey is now the boys' coach at Tullahoma (Tenn.) High School. It's not likely he'll win any state championships there, as he did with the 1992-93 Bethel team that featured Iverson and Tony Rutland - arguably the best pair of guards to play for the same team in Virginia.
Iverson, who signed a grant-in-aid with Georgetown this year after serving time in jail for his part in a brawl in Hampton, may be the most talented guard to come out of this state. Rutland, a senior during the 1993-94 season for Bailey, signed with Wake Forest.
Bailey has in-laws close to Tullahoma in Florence, Ala. More importantly, he told The (Nashville) Tennessean, ``Some of the things that are happening in Hampton - there was a kid stabbed to death at school and a kid shot to death in a robbery attempt - I needed to try to get my son in a more secure environment.
``But I really like it here - one community supporting one school. The potential is great.''
by CNB