Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9407120064
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia High School Coaches' Association East-West football game will offer Salem running back Marcus Parker one more chance to show he has recovered from a major knee injury before he enrolls at Virginia Tech in the fall.
Parker, who sat out more than half of the 1993 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, has been added to the West roster for the VHSCA football game July 14 at Darling Stadium in Hampton. Parker replaces a player who is unable to make the game.
Parker was an All-Timesland running back as a sophomore and a junior, but he injured the knee during a gym class in the spring of 1993. Parker sat out the first six Salem games in the fall, then played in the final four regular-season games and a playoff contest at Rustburg.
The football game caps four days of coaches' clinics and all-star games in five sports involving six Timesland athletes who were named players of the year.
The East-West girls' and boys' basketball games are July 11 at the Hampton Coliseum. In the girls' game at 6:30 p.m., Floyd County's Lynette Nolley, the Timesland Player of the Year, leads a West team that features four other area athletes. In the boys' game at 8:30 p.m., the West will be led by Salem's Mark Byington, the Group AA and Timesland player of the year.
On July 12, the VHSCA will hold its first East-West volleyball game. The West squad will be led by Blacksburg's Meredith Braine, the Timesland volleyball player of the year, and George Wythe's Stacey Green, the Timesland girls' athlete of the year.
On July 13, the East-West softball game will be played in the afternoon at Briar Field Park. However, Timesland's softball player of the year, Tracy Doupnik of William Byrd, is a junior and is not eligible for the all-star series.
On the night of July 13, Byrd's Chris Carr, the Timesland baseball player of the year, will be one of a talented group of pitchers for the West. Jason Anderson, the leader for Glenvar as the Highlanders go after the Group A title Friday, also is on the West roster.
In the football game, the West will have William Fleming running back Eddie Jones (offense) and Pulaski County lineman Randy Dunnigan (defense), Timesland's players of the year on their respective sides of the ball.
Jones will be trying to come back from a neck injury that forced him to miss the Group AAA wrestling tournament, where he was favored to win a state title in the 189-pound class. He also sat out the baseball season.
Another notable name for the West football team will be Patrick Henry quarterback Shannon Taylor, who was All-State in the Group AAA classification as a junior and second-team as a senior. Taylor chose football over basketball, a sport in which he was second-team All-Group AAA this year.
The West will be trying to build on the success of last year, when its athletes managed to win every all-star game but the boys' basketball contest.
by CNB