Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405050027
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Do not, at peril of a stern look and a severe dressing down, call her "Coach."
"I hate that," says the doyenne of the city's tennis scene. "I wasn't in physical education and I didn't finish my degree. Calling me `Coach' would indicate more than I am.
"Just say I'm in charge."
Therefore, the girls who play for her on the Radford High tennis team simply call her "Betty." Everybody does.
A reporter once had the temerity to call her "Mrs. Branch," before being halted in his verbal tracks.
"Just Betty's fine, honey," she said.
Branch, 55, calls everybody "honey" or "hon" when she's in a hurry, which is most of the time.
Even though she won't tolerate being called Coach, there is no mistaking who's in charge.
"Are you carrying that all by yourself, hon?" she demanded of one of her freshman managers who was lugging a cooler of ice water through the gym to the tennis courts for afternoon practice as another manager walked along beside unburdened.
"You help her carry that," Branch demanded. "That thing is heavy."
Branch rolled her eyes.
"I have three managers and they do absolutely nothing. I still have to do everything."
Well, that isn't entirely accurate, but Betty must be forgiven her hyperbole. She isn't the first coach, pardon - person in charge - who has been exasperated with the work ethic of managers.
That's all right, though. The managers aren't on board so much for their water hauling capabilities, but their prospects as future players. Betty likes the current crop of apprentices and allows them to hit with the older girls whenever they get the chance, which is frequently.
Branch doesn't forget her manners and introduces a sportswriter to the girls.
"He writes what he thinks," she said.
"What?" one of the players said. "You mean he's as blunt as you are, Betty?"
Just say that Branch is not given to suppressing her opinions, as numerous basketball officials have discovered in their dealings with her in her capacity as scorekeeper for the the boys and girls team at Radford.
"I guarantee you that every official in the district knows who Betty Branch is," said Buddy Martin, the high school principal and the former Bobcats basketball coach. "She's gotten technicals called on her. They were called on me, but they were her fault."
"That's probably true," Branch said. "But I've probably helped them out some, too."
That, too, is true.
"I've always admired and respected her efficiency," said Harold Golding, a veteran zebra. "She's tough, though. She's always made sure you did things right and according to procedure. She loves to catch you in a mistake. She'll blow that horn and get you over there. `There's no No. 24 in this game,'" she'd say.
"I could kill her!"
Branch came by her knowledge of basketball the old-fashioned way: she played and studied it. Back when she was growing up in Gate City, that was one of the only games in town for girls. By all accounts, she was a terror in the old six-girl game that they used to play in those days.
Radford College brought her to this town and a local guy named David Branch married her and kept her here. She continued playing basketball and softball (she was a catcher) in the city league.
"When she started in basketball here, she just tore this place apart," David Branch said.
She once poured in 46 points in a game. But she had to give up basketball when they made the older women play a game in which fast breaks were outlawed. She despised that.
"No fun anymore," she said.
That's when she took up tennis. At the age of 36.
She can hit it, too. To this day. During warm weather, she plays five or six days a week. In winter, she and the circle of women she plays with play indoors at Virginia Tech every Thursday and outdoors whenever weather permits.
"When there's a serious game, she's a serious competitor," said Pat King, one of Branch's playing associates.
Branch got into tennis because of her children. Eldest child Steve, now 35, started playing because he was too small for his first love, football. Steve turned out to be a good player for the Bobcats and Betty joined up as a team chauffeur and unofficial assistant to Buddy Martin, then the coach.
"Buddy and I both had station wagons and we drove that team all over the state," she said. "Lord, they'd never let you do that now."
She sewed uniforms for them, bought them lunch, and lent them money, and kept the coach straight.
"I'd have to tell Buddy what the score was," she said.
Maintaining discipline in the ranks was another of her specialties.
"You talk about making kids mind . . . " Martin said. "She'd get right up in their faces The middle son, David, didn't play tennis, but LuAnn, the youngest did. That's when Branch threw in her lot with the girls, driving the bus, doing what had to be done.
After LuAnn graduated, Branch stayed with it, helping Chris Garber, who coached three state champion teams in four years before leaving prior to the 1985 season. That was Branch's first year and the girls promptly went out and won the state again.
"Chris gets the credit for that state championship," Branch said. "She'd already taught the girls everything they knew."
Since then, Branch's teams have been to the state tournament all but two years and have been state runners-up twice. Beth King and Michelle Miano were state doubles champions in 1989 and Hillary Johnson and Jennifer Johnson (no relation) finished second in doubles in 1992.
The team last year and this has been a little down from previous standards but Cathy Richardson will be making a run at individual honors and she and Ashleigh Funk are a formidable doubles team. But this is a young team (only five seniors) and better days are ahead.
Branch is still as firm in her convictions as she was the day she started. Earlier this year, she drove the team all the way to Bluefield for a match with Graham, concluded it was too windy and cold to play, and loaded them up and turned around and drove right back home. She almost did the same thing in Charlottesville after a dispute with the coach there but decided against it because the boys' team planned to stay.
Branch hasn't changed much, no matter what the caliber of the team. Matches still make her nervous, a condition she alleviates by sneaking off for a quick and surreptitious cigarette.
"I don't want the girls to see me," she once explained. "That would be a bad influence."
Hard to believe she could ever be a bad influence, cigarettes or not.
"Betty makes tennis fun," said Lesley Nester, one of her seniors.
Branch has maintained a brutal schedule over the years, keeping score in basketball, announcing - she even did a junior varsity football game once ("How many women have ever done that?" she said,) driving and keeping score for the Radford University women's basketball team, taking care of grandchildren.
"I have a great husband," she said. "As long as I keep a little food in the house and clean up every now and then, he doesn't mind."
She won't exactly say what her plans for the future are.
"I think she'll be back," David Branch said. "They pay her a pittance but she'd do it for nothing. She loves this stuff."
She is cutting back in her scorekeeping and hinted that if the high school can find a qualified replacement for her as tennis coach, she wouldn't mind stepping aside.
"I've got things I want to do," she said.
The idea that anybody would want to read about any of this amuses her.
"I guess you're shaking the tree to see what'll come out," she said.
Actually, there's more to it than that.
"Around here, I'm known as `Mr. Betty Branch,' " David Branch said. "What does that tell you?"
Quite a bit, actually.
"She's become a legend," Martin said. "There's no doubt about that."
by CNB