Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If he's able to do that, a lot of people will say amen. For too long, the VHSL has operated like it was in the 1960s and '70s. Tilley wants to bring his organization up to date.
Whether the principals who control the VHSL let him do that is another matter. The executive committee of the VHSL might have given Tilley the job, but it might not have given him a mandate for change.
Tilley, who came to the VHSL in 1986 in part to handle public relations, never got much of a chance to do that. Instead, he was tied down running the debate and drama that the VHSL handles for public high schools.
Tilley came from North Carolina, where that state association was concerned only with athletics. The VHSL, though, must focus on more than just athletics.
At a recent meeting of the Virginia Press Association, where Tilley was on a panel discussing how high schools and the media should deal with each other, he said after the program that he would like to improve the interest in state football playoffs and the basketball tournament.
First, though, Tilley and the VHSL must deal with the matter of governance. It is likely at next month's meeting of the legislative council that the principals will vote down a proposal by the Northwestern Region to set up a 50-member executive committee to run the VHSL.
The reason it will be turned down is because such a group still is too large.
At least one member of the General Assembly made it clear a year ago that if the VHSL doesn't shed the legislative council that allows every principal one vote, he will try to place public high school athletics under the auspices of the state department of education.
Will that happen if the principals turn down the Northwestern Region's proposal? Tilley says no, explaining another move probably will be made to place the VHSL under the rule of an executive committee of 15-20 people.
To do so will take a year. Tilley said he's talked to people in the General Assembly and assures them the VHSL still is interested in settling the debate over governance by a smaller body. So a move to place the VHSL under the guidance of the state department of education is not imminent.
Once the matter of governance is decided, Tilley can try to straighten out the playoffs and state basketball tournament.
For the playoffs, the VHSL needs to set up state semifinal and championship games as doubleheaders in municipal or college stadiums. With such a plan, the VHSL would not lose as much money as it did this year when bad weather plagued the playoffs.
It's already been decided to put the state basketball tournament out for bids and move it away from Charlottesville, where it is dying from lack of interest.
So hope exists that Tilley will help the VHSL escape the clutches of the "good ol' boys" who have run the organization for so long and kept it going like an operation in the horse and buggy days.
\ TWO STARS LOST: Semester exams are completed, and Timesland seems to have lost only two athletic stars who failed to pass the five subjects required for them to stay eligible.
Rockbridge County's Kenny Lewis, an All-Timesland football return specialist and the basketball team's second-leading scorer, is out.
This past week, Covington's Van Rogers, who was sixth in Timesland boys' basketball scoring with a 22.4 average, was declared ineligible. Even so, Covington shocked Parry McCluer, the state's third-ranked Group A team, in the first game Rogers missed.
\ HICKS ON MOVE: Sara Hicks, a freshman who was one of the leaders for the Northside girls' basketball team this past fall, has transfered to Lord Botetourt.
Hicks, whose family moved earlier this winter to Botetourt County, could have remained at Northside, where she also plays volleyball, and moved next fall while remaining eligible.
Her father, Bob Hicks, said the family decided to make the move now to give his daughter a chance to adjust and be ready for basketball, which is her best and favorite sport.
It means that two Saras - Hicks and Moore, who started for the Cavaliers this past fall - will be sophomore standouts next year for the defending Blue Ridge District champions.
\ GAZZOLA HONOR: Bath County's Johnny Gazzola will receive the Distinguished Service Award from the Virginia State High School Athletic Directors' Association at its April 16 meeting in Herndon. Gazzola, who has been covering the Chargers and the Pioneer District for several newspapers for years, turns 68 the day after he gets the award.
\ CRAZY POSTPONEMENT: People must have wondered Wednesday night when the Magna Vista-Salem boys' basketball game was called off with the temperature in the 50s.
Magna Vista wouldn't put the buses on the road, said Don Bateman, the school's athletic director, because of the forecast that called for freezing rain starting that night.
"We got word from the central office and the forecast we kept hearing was that the freezing rain was going to start early," said Bateman.
Dr. Virgil Poore, the Henry County school superintendent, might seem to be overprotective. However, earlier this winter, Bassett's volleyball team went to Gretna in good weather and was forced to spend the night when an ice storm hit before match was finished.
It's been that kind of winter, as if you didn't know by now, and Poore was right to think first about the students and last about the game.
by CNB