Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9410270014
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``I went to Catholic for academics and just decided to play football,'' Gilliland says. ``I heard that it was basically a waste of time to play at Catholic, that they hadn't won a game in two years.''
At 5 feet 8, 165 pounds, Gilliland might have been too small to play for Group AAA Cave Spring had he stayed there. But the senior doesn't think it's been a waste of time to play at Roanoke Catholic, where the football team is starting to measure its seasons by victories instead of losses.
Bill Massello, a lineman, is another senior built along the same lines as Gilliland. He didn't give up on Roanoke Catholic football, and last year he was an All-Virginia Independent Conference selection at defensive end.
John Cooke was hired to coach the Celtics the same year Gilliland transferred. Until this week, Cooke counted Gilliland and Cameron Blount, another transfer from Cave Spring, among nine players who had stuck with the program for three years and were not transfer students.
The transfer students Cooke knew about were ones such as sophomore running back P.J. Moyer, who came to Catholic as an eighth-grader and last year rushed for more than 1,000 yards as a freshman; and Tony Joyce, a quarterback and president of the senior class, who transferred from William Fleming because he wanted to study without a lot of hassle from his friends.
Cooke says it was a blend of the youngsters who were there when he arrived with a group of transfers such as Joyce, Moyer, injured fullback-linebacker Chris Roberts and wide receiver-defensive back Demond Lark who have helped the Celtics get off to a 3-0 start this year.
At first, Cooke was discouraged. He was greeted by 13 players at his first practice, which explains why the Celtics had lost 20 consecutive games. They lost their first six games that year before winning the final two against Massanutten and Randolph-Macon Academy. Last year, Catholic went 4-6. Now the Celtics are talking about being ranked in the state private school poll and earning a playoff berth.
Gilliland paid no attention to advice from his friends at Cave Spring.
``I came out just because I wanted to play football,'' he says. ``I didn't think I was good enough to play at Cave Spring, but that didn't bother me.''
Joyce might have been good enough to play at Fleming, and Lark was good enough to be listed on the Colonels' roster last year as a sophomore.
Joyce, Lark, Moyer, Roberts and a couple of others were introduced to Catholic by part-time assistant coach Paul Moyer, the father of P.J. Moyer. While the elder Moyer can interest youngsters he has coached in track in attending Roanoke Catholic, Cooke maintains that is not recruiting.
``Without some of the new players, the program would still have improved with some of the ones who have been here for years,'' Cooke says. ``Paul coached a lot of these kids and referred them to the school. But they had to go through the same process as anyone else who transfers - get an application, pass a test and then they can also apply for financial aid. There is a formula for that [financial aid] which applies to every kid in school.''
When Catholic submitted its roster to the Virginia Independent Conference, of which it is a member, it listed only five players on the football team who were receiving financial aid. So it's hardly a team of recruits.
For Joyce, Catholic is a fresh start.
``I was getting into a little trouble at Fleming,'' says Joyce, who also plays basketball. ``[If I had stayed at Fleming] I don't think I could have played football or been president of the senior class. I wasn't into going to class because of peer pressure. Now I make A's and B's and plan to go to college.''
Joyce has qualified under NCAA guidelines for a college football grant, and Yale has written to Cooke inquiring about him as an athlete.
``It was a good decision to come here,'' Joyce says. ``I see my friends from Fleming. At first, they kidded me. Now they don't want to see me waste [this opportunity].''
P.J. Moyer had a rocky start at Catholic. He played for the varsity in eighth grade with some success, then failed to meet academic expectations and was disqualified for the final game against Randolph-Macon.
Today, it's a different Moyer.
``I get C's or better,'' he says. ``That was a bummer [being dropped from the team in eighth grade]. I've worked on my academics.''
It's a good thing, because with two more years remaining, Moyer has a legitimate chance to rush for 4,000 to 5,000 yards.
Like Joyce, Lark came to Catholic for an education and a chance to study.
``I didn't think they pushed me at Fleming like they do here,'' says Lark, who also hopes to find a second athletic opportunity in basketball. He didn't play that sport for the Colonels.
Transfers aren't the only story as Cooke builds the program. There still were only 22 players on the team after Chris Roberts, another transfer from Fleming who was one of the team's better players at fullback and linebacker, suffered a season-ending leg injury.
After one game, Beau King, a fullback-defensive tackle, rejoined the team.
``Last year, he won a weightlifting contest at Lord Botetourt. He gained 62 pounds in less than two years,'' Cooke says.
The problem is King was unable to run as he had before gaining so much weight. He also bought a car and decided driving his car was more important than football. But after one game, King changed his mind.
``I missed it,'' he says. ``That first game got me excited.''
When he asked Cooke if he could return, was King worried the coach might turn him down? ``Nah, I knew he'd take me back,'' King says. ``I wasn't concerned.''
Cooke hardly can afford to turn down players. When the state private schools took male enrollments of the top four grades at member schools last year, the Celtics had 62 boys. Only six schools had fewer males, and one, Miller School, had dropped football.
When Catholic beat Randolph-Macon two years ago, it beat a school with 255 males in the top four grades.
Cooke puts it another way.
``Beau knew I would give a kid a second chance,'' he says. ``That's the reason I'm here: to give kids a second chance.''
That philosophy has helped breathe new life into what was a dying program.
by CNB