Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402160024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Trouble was, she couldn't stand the alternative. Sitting.
So, Ballinger has shaken off the pain of a gimpy ankle, remained unflinchingly upright despite a bad back. In doing so, she has become harder to get off the floor than week-old chewing gum for the Radford women's basketball team.
"I can't stand sitting out," said Ballinger.
It's a good thing, because the Highlanders desperately need the 5-foot-7 sophomore on the court. She has become the Highlanders primary ball handler, a role that is completely new to her.
A year ago, Ballinger was a ball-hawking, dive-on-the-floor defensive stopper for Radford. Her job description is completely different this year - instead of concentrating on taking the ball away from opponents, she has to protect it from those who would like to do unto her what she does unto others.
She's getting better at that. Last week, Ballinger had consecutive games of 10 assists, as she recorded back-to-back double-doubles (double-figures in points and assists) in victories over Davidson and Liberty. In the last month, Ballinger has accumulated more dishes than a pair of newlyweds by averaging just under six assists per game over Radford's last eight games.
Of course, it's easy to rack up assists when you have the good fortune to play alongside Shannan Wilkey, the conference's leading scorer. Many of Ballinger's good passes have found their way to Wilkey, who has 48 points in Radford's last two games.
It doesn't hurt, either, that the Highlanders are finally getting healthy and that young post players Eve Kendall and Nakia Bridges are playing well.
With opposing defenses "always looking for Shannan, every one else is getting involved," said Ballinger. "We're getting the ball to the post a lot better. We're working so much better as a team, especially defensively."
Defense has been a Ballinger trademark ever since she came out of Cincinnati's Roger Bacon High School as a two-time honorable mention All-American. Her aggressive, take-no-prisoners style often rattles her as much as it does her opponents. Sometimes, admittedly, she's a little too aggressive.
Ballinger fouled out of 12 games in less than two years, eight times as a freshman. For a person who hates to be out of a game, a tendency to commit fouls can be discouraging.
"Shannan had to sit out [a recent game] with three fouls, and she looked at me and said `I don't know how you do it,' " said Ballinger. "She couldn't stand being out of the game."
Because of her bad left ankle, Ballinger has missed a couple of games this season. She tore ligaments in the ankle before the season and has reinjured it several times since by taking spills that have ripped her brace and the tape job that were supposed to keep the ankle from twisting.
Though her ankle has been troublesome, her back is even worse. Ballinger has a crack in one of the vertebrae in her lower lumbar region, an injury that revealed itself during a practice last year when she bent over to retrieve a ball and couldn't straighten back up.
A chiropractor told her she shouldn't play basketball again, but second and third opinions from other doctors cleared her to get back on the court.
Her back occasionally stiffens up, but she's used to playing with pain. Heck, even now she has no feeling in three of her teeth thanks to a head-on collision with teammate Patti Fisher in practice.
It should be noted here that Ballinger's major is, incredibly, nursing.
"Every time I call home," Ballinger said, "I get asked, `Any new injuries this week?'
"When I get old, I'll probably be crippled and hunched over. It's all part of the game, though."
\ ROWDY VAN PELT: In late January, Radford baseball star Denny Van Pelt donned a different uniform: the suit of Rowdy Red, the school's mascot.
Don Bowman, Radford's director of marketing, coaxed the slugging first baseman and well-known colorful character into representing the school in a mascot contest at a Roanoke Express hockey game. The contest was supposed to pit mascots against one another in a game of broom ball, a hockey-style game played with brooms.
However, shortly after arriving at the Roanoke Civic Center with Jeff Kleppin, Radford's athletic business manager, Van Pelt was horrified to learn the format of the contest had been changed.
It would not be a broom ball game. It was, he found out in the dressing room, a dance contest.
Van Pelt's dance routine consisted of shaking his fists (rather than his booty) in the general direction of the people who talked him into this. Not that the night was a total bust.
"I lost five pounds, anyway," he said.
Sources at the game, which boasted an audience of more than 7,000 fans who watched Van Pelt's every move, say Van Pelt represented his school well. He even took a swing at Barney the dinosaur, much to the delight of the crowd.
"If he had beaten up Barney, he would have become a cult hero," said Radford assistant sports information director Mike Ashley, who attended the game.
\ IN RADFORD: Men's basketball, Feb. 19, Coastal Carolina, 8 p.m.; Feb. 21, Charleston Southern, 7:30 p.m.; March 4-7, Big South Tournament; Women's basketball, Feb. 18, Campbell, 7 p.m.; Feb. 19, UNC Greensboro, 6 p.m.; Lacrosse, Feb. 27, Butler, 1 p.m.
Ralph Berrier Jr. covers sports for the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau.
by CNB