Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050087
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"He said, `You're going to take a $30,000 cut in pay and work twice as long? Son, I done something wrong,' " Stinespring remembers.
The Clifton Forge native had forsaken a high school teaching/coaching career to become a graduate-assistant football coach at Virginia Tech the month he was getting married.
He's not broke, his wife Shelley was all for the move (and is due to deliver their first child this month), and his Dad still comes to every Hokie game.
And, despite youth and relative inexperience on the Division I-A level, Stinespring and third-year Tech assistant Todd Grantham - another one-time graduate assistant promoted by head coach Frank Beamer - have made significant contributions in what may be an assistant coach's most visible capacity: recruiting.
Stinespring taught government for four years in high school classrooms at Lexington and Patrick Henry. He knows how a bill becomes law and, in part, how a coach can become an effective recruiter.
"I had to establish relationships with [students], with the public, with parents," he said. "I still find myself being able to talk to my players about more than lining up against Virginia or West Virginia. [I can] sit here and talk events based upon what I've seen. I can give examples and events that correlate."
Grantham tries to build the same kind of rapport and trust. Both Grantham and Stinespring say their youth helps them relate to 18-year-olds and that their belief in Virginia Tech helps them sell the school and team. Both lean on words like persistence, honesty, organization and hustle.
Both recruited by phone when they were graduate assistants, and learned from some of Tech's full-time staffers. Neither is surprised at his first-year success on the road.
"No," Grantham said. "That's your job."
Stinespring got his job in January 1993 during a four-coach turnover and inherited recruits Brad Baylor and Michael Murray, both of whom signed with Tech. When it came time for Beamer to distribute new recruiting assignments . . .
"I want to be put in a position where I feel like I have a chance to recruit somebody every year," Stinespring said.
Request granted. He was given some of Tech's most fertile and important recruiting territory - Fork Union Military Academy and about 100 Virginia schools, including those in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Martinsville - and he produced. Last winter, he brought in quarterback Albert Clark and fullback Shelly Ellison (who had yet to qualify academically as of last week) from Fork Union, Alleghany High School's Todd Wheatley, and highly regarded lineman Derek Smith of Kearneysville, W.Va.
When offensive coordinator and prolific recruiter Rickey Bustle left Tech for South Carolina in early January, the Hokies gave Bustle's recruits to the staffer who coached the recruit's position. Stinespring handles tight ends and assists on the offensive line; he closed the deal on Milford (Conn.) Academy tight end Gennaro DiNapoli and lineman Anthony Kapp.
Grantham's first recruiting class, in '93, produced highly rated Willie Wilkins and Larry Green as well as Sean Sullivan (all from Florida) and defensive tackle Jim Baron, who didn't qualify academically last year but has enrolled and was impressive during spring drills.
This winter, Grantham finished what Bustle started as Tech signed Floridian Joe Whitten.
Grantham said he made his own contacts in southern Florida, where previously Tech had not systematically recruited, in part by attending high school coaching clinics there. He pushes away pressure to sign Florida players; only one is in this year's class (Whitten) and his family moved to Florida from Danville.
The Hokies were fourth in the eight-team Big East last year, and their recent recruiting classes have received increasing praise.
"The bottom line is, I'm doing something I dearly love, and it's very important to me," Stinespring said. "I like the recruiting aspect. I recognize its importance. When I'm out on the road, I'm trying to figure out how I can get to one more school [that day]. If I get to one more school and take a look at one more prospective student-athlete, that's what I want to do."
by CNB