Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402200049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The new coach is George Brown, the school's principal who will do double duty in the two positions.
Usually, anyone trying to handle both jobs would be deemed crazy and anyone appointing someone to do both would get the same characterization.
In this case, it might be the best way to deal with a difficult situation.
Dennis Vaught, who is popular with a part of the community and was the head football coach when the Blue Tornadoes won the 1992 Group AA state football championship, came off suspension. Vaught, a former head coach at Lexington and Patrick Henry in Timesland, had been placed on suspension after admitting to outfitting his team with illegally long cleats against Salem in the 1992 state semifinal game.
Some people figured that Vaught, after serving his time, would return as the head coach. However, sources said that wouldn't fly in a divided community, so Woodward Mullins, the Tazewell County school superintendent, had to come up with another candidate.
There were few, if any, applications from qualified outsiders, and Terry Wess, who coached the team this year, physically was unable to continue with the job.
Faced with this prospect, Mullins turned to Brown and asked if he could do both time-consuming jobs. Brown, a workaholic, said he could.
Brown has no head coaching experience in football, though he's been athletic director and the head coach in a couple of other sports at Richlands.
If he was picking a football coach and looking at credentials of outside applicants, Brown said, "I wouldn't hire me."
Brown feels he can bring the community together while coaching what is supposed to be a very good team next year. He has leadership ability, which is more important than football experience in this case.
"I'm kind of an unusual person in that I take advantage [of all the hours] in a day," said Brown. "I have an appointment at 9:30 tonight. I know we end the school day at 2:30 p.m., and [as principal] we have a rash of calls that start at 3. That's an important hour and I'll have to come back after football practice and make the phone calls."
Brown, 41, says he can do the two jobs for 30 years if he has too.
He is not an interim coach. He was not given a choice of jobs. Mullins told him he could do both or just continue to be principal.
Mullins says he and the Tazewell County school board have confidence Brown can do both jobs.
"Everything you can see [on the surface] doesn't always make sense. Many people look at television screens and newspapers. Whatever they say is scripture. But give things a chance to work," said Mullins, who is hopeful the media won't take Richlands to task for the unusual appointment.
At Parry McCluer, Bob Williams is football coach and has served the past 10 years as principal at the middle school.
In Williams' case, he was football coach and added the principal's duties. He has been a success at handling both jobs, and no one has forced him to choose between them.
"It's not easy, but I've been fortunate from the cooperation I've gotten from everyone involved. It's not something that would happen here again, though," Williams said.
Williams says one difference is that because he is at the middle school he doesn't have the contact as an administrator with the Parry McCluer football team.
Brown will have to deal with the parent conferences that plague all principals and with any other item that arises to take up the administrator's time.
"You try not to schedule parent conferences after school. In some cases, you miss practice," Williams said. "It's happened to me. I've been fortunate that we've been together so long, my assistants can carry on and not even miss me."
Staunton River principal Bob Ashwell says Brown's task is not impossible.
"If the principal is able to delegate a lot of responsibilities to assistants [principals and coaches], it can work," said Ashwell. "Today, the principal is expected to set the tone instructionally and set curriculum changes. It's difficult to be involved with athletics and make instructional and curriculum changes to meet the needs of our students into the 21st century."
Vaught, who resigned from Patrick Henry several years ago after making a racial remark during a halftime speech to his team, is free to apply to become an assistant coach at Richlands. If he does, Vaught likely will be on the football staff in some capacity, sources report.
Brown says he will start work a couple of hours before school and take vacation time to run two-a-day practices. He's determined that this plan succeeds, and a lot of people will be watching Richlands to see how the school does on and off the field.
\ NBA-PLUS SCHEDULE: This is a horror story from the recent ice storms that plagued high school athletics.
This past Friday, Louisa County played two varsity basketball games at James Monroe. That followed single games on Wednesday and Thursday. The Lions also were scheduled to play Saturday and will play again Monday, giving them six games in six days in order to make up part of a district schedule wiped out by the weather.
Louisa County and the surrounding area was hit much worse than the Roanoke area by last week's ice storms. Schools didn't reopen until Wednesday.
The doubleheader at James Monroe started with a varsity game at 4 p.m. followed by a junior varsity game and then another varsity game at 7:30 p.m.
"It's on a Friday night and we don't have school the following day. Basketball players in the past have played AAU ball where they play two, three games a day," said former William Byrd athlete Greg Smith, the principal at Louisa County. "We're not happy with this, and I won't deny we had complaints. But we wanted to get in the games because we have a good rivalry with James Monroe and haven't played them yet."
by CNB