Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405010152
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bob Teitlebaum
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Approval by the Martinsville School Board gives Hall, who is retired as a teacher, another year to seek his 600th victory. Dr. Ralph Hall Nelson, Martinsville High School's principal, said this will be the final year for Hall - the state's winningest public school boys' basketball coach, with 592 victories.
"That is and was his request," Nelson said.
Nelson knows he will be one of the men responsible for finding a successor to Hall. That's like finding someone to follow John Wooden at UCLA in basketball or Woody Hayes at Ohio State in football.
"What a great coach he is, but this is the second time that I've been in this situation," Nelson said.
As principal of the high school in Reidsville, N.C., Nelson was the point man in the search for a successor to Hoy Isaacs, who left with 640 victories.
"In Hoy's case, we went outside the system and hired a guy named Ron Parsons. That was about eight or nine years ago," Nelson said.
Parsons met the challenge. He's still at Reidsville, and this season his team went 31-0 and won a state championship.
"Guys like Hoy and Husky are so great at what they do," Nelson said. "It's always a challenge to find someone to maintain the kind of program they've had."
It's likely that Martinsville's program, with all its tradition, will generate a lot of interest about 10 or 11 months from now, when the Bulldogs try to replace a legend.
\ MEREDITH RETURNING: One of Hall's buddies, Don Meredith, will be back again as the Lord Botetourt boys' basketball coach.
Meredith, who like Hall is retired from teaching, decided this week to stick with a job he took in the mid-1970s.
"They [Botetourt] expect me to return until I let them know differently," he said. "If I decide to retire, I'll probably do it before the year starts. I'm not sure if I'll be back one, two or more years. As long as I feel good and get self-satisfaction from doing the best we can do, I'll coach. The kids are working hard and that's the important thing. I wouldn't do it [coach] if I didn't love it."
\ CAVE SPRING COACH: The deadline for applying for the boys' basketball vacancy at Cave Spring was Friday.
Otis Dowdy, the school's athletic director, said the Knights hope to have a replacement for Rick Crotts the first two weeks of May. Crotts resigned in early April.
Some candidates have been interviewed. Dowdy and the Roanoke County system won't identify them, but two names have been mentioned frequently in connection with the job. Chris Carr, the junior varsity coach last season, remains the leading candidate. His main competition is former Cave Spring player Rick Hall, who has been an assistant coach at Roanoke College and Coastal Carolina. Hall is to interview this week.
\ OFF AND RUNNING: Blacksburg has won the Group AA Central Fidelity Cup for statewide athletic supremacy three of the four years the trophy has been awarded.
The cup goes to the school with the most points, based on finishes in state competition in each VHSL sport. Winning a state championship is worth 50 points on down to 15 points for an eighth-place finish.
The Indians won the Group AA cup outright in 1990 and last year, and shared it with Tabb in 1991. Tabb won the cup in 1992.
With two-thirds of the school year completed, Blacksburg is in first place with 135 points, just ahead of Handley (132 1/2) and York (125). The Indians' state championship girls' basketball team provided most of the points.
Blacksburg also got help from boys' basketball, football and girls' cross country, each of which finished in the top eight in the state.
Christiansburg (85), which is seventh, is the closest Timesland entry to Blacksburg, just ahead of eighth-place Northside (77 1/2).
In Group A, Giles (135 points) remains first despite not scoring any points in the winter. The Spartans' Division 2 state championship football team accounted for 50 of the points, but both cross country teams and the golf squad also finished among the state's top eight teams in the fall.
Strasburg is second with 115 points. George Wythe, tied for fifth with 80 points, is the next Timesland Group A team. The Maroons, with a strong girls' track team, have a chance to make a big jump in the spring.
In Group AAA, William Fleming (45 points) is tied for 28th as the top Roanoke Valley District entrant in the standings. The Colonels scored all of their points with a state runner-up finish in boys' basketball.
\ SETTING RECORD STRAIGHT: In talking about his team's chances of winning the Cosmopolitan boys' track title, Northside coach Arnold Humphries said that shot-putter John Huffman, who was second in the 1993 Group AA meet as a junior, had left the team after one practice this spring. Humphries said he left messages, but that Huffman didn't return the calls.
The reason Huffman didn't come back to track was because he underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing elbow. It was the second costly injury to the Vikings' program this spring. Quarter-miler Darius Henderson underwent knee surgery.
\ WRESTLING STANDOUT: William Trumm, who wrestled in the 145-pound class for Glenvar as a sophomore, finished second in the Virginia Greco-Roman wrestling tournament as a 160-pounder. The junior, who didn't wrestle during the 1993-94 season, will go to the national tournament July 24-30 in Fargo, N.D.
While most of Trumm's expenses will be paid, he still needs some financial help to make the trip. Anyone interested in making a contribution should call Glenvar wrestling coach Dave Mueller at the school at (703) 387-6148.
by CNB