Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408250019
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: 26 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Hokies' 45-20 Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl victory over Indiana on New Year's Eve made the Hokies 9-3, ending their best season since 1986 - which also provided the school's last bowl victory.
Now two years removed from a 2-8-1 disaster, Tech will be ranked in most preseason Top 25 polls. Despite significant losses on the offensive line and on defense, coach Frank Beamer's eighth Hokie team is expected to finish in the upper division of the eight-team Big East Football Conference.
Tech will tout senior quarterback Maurice DeShazo (school-record 22 touchdown passes last year) as a Heisman Trophy candidate, although a more realistic goal is for the Stuart native to be voted first-team all-Big East. DeShazo's offensive helpmates include junior tailback Dwayne Thomas (1,130 yards rushing, 11 touchdowns in '93) and senior receiver Antonio Freeman (20.1 yards per catch, All-Big East second team).
The '93 offense averaged 36.4 points per game, breaking an 88-year-old school record, then lost offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle to South Carolina. Beamer rebounded by hiring one-time Virginia quarterbacks coach Gary Tranquill from the NFL's Cleveland Browns in what is regarded as a major catch for the Hokies.
Second-year defensive coordinator Phil Elmassian, another ex-UVa coach whose friendship with Tranquill influenced the latter to move to Blacksburg, presided over a '93 unit that improved as the year went on.
Eight starters return on defense, led by second-team All-Big East linebacker Ken Brown, a senior who had 113 tackles last year; safety Antonio Banks, the Independence Bowl's defensive most valuable player for his 80-yard touchdown return of a blocked field goal; and defensive end Cornell Brown, whose freshman year produced 57 tackles in a starting role.
For the first time since the mid-1980s, Virginia Tech has a chance at national recognition in both major sports - football and men's basketball - and can brag about some of its non-revenue sports, too.
In the 1993-94 school year, four Tech teams - football, women's basketball, baseball and golf - reached the NCAA Tournament, the most ever. Coach Bill Foster's men's basketball team went 18-10 but was snubbed by the National Invitation Tournament, denying the Hokies a fifth postseason bid.
This year should tell whether Foster, in his fourth season in Blacksburg and his 28th overall, has stabilized a Tech program that until last year had averaged 11 victories over the past five seasons.
The Hokies bring back 6-7 forward Ace Custis, a Metro Conference all-freshman team pick, as well as contributors Shawn Smith, Shawn Good, Damon Watlington and Jim Jackson. Foster's recruits include 6-8 junior college transfer Keefe Matthews, 6-2 guard Myron Guillory and 6-6 forward Shawn Browne.
Point-by-point with some of Tech's other varsity sports:
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The women's basketball team won the Metro Conference tournament championship in Biloxi, Miss. in March and captured the program's first NCAA Tournament bid. The Hokies, who drew a school-record women's game crowd of 3,734 to Cassell Coliseum in their NCAA opener (a loss to Auburn), get a little more exposure when they open the '94-95 year in the women's preseason National Invitation Tournament at Maryland.
Everyone except senior Sue Logsdon returns this year, and a third straight 20-win season is expected. First-team all-Metro center Jenny Root and second-team choice Christi Osborne lead a team that will welcome, among others, Virginia Group A player of the year Lynette Nolley of Floyd County High School.
BASEBALL: Tech's baseball team followed a so-so regular season by winning the Metro tournament in Louisville, Ky., with uncharacteristically strong pitching. That gave coach Chuck Hartman, winner of more than 1,000 games in 35 years at Tech and High Point College, his first NCAA bid.
The Hokies went 0-2 in the double-elimination NCAA regional. To get back, they'll have to replace catcher Denny Hedspeth, second baseman Justin Dobson and left-handed pitcher Rob Gibson.
Tech does bring back young talent that includes reliever Charlie Gillian, whose 12 saves made him a first-team Mizuno Freshman All-America; sophomore shortstop Kevin Kurilla, who played well at year's end; and left-handed pitcher Brian Fitzgerald, who was 7-4 as a sophomore.
GOLF: Much of the talent that led Tech's golf team to its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1967 returns, including Brian Sharp, Sean Farrell and Curtis Deal, who finished in the top seven in three straight tournaments early last year and was fourth overall at the NCAA East Regional.
TRACK & CROSS COUNTRY: Tech figures to perpetuate its traditional strength in these sports. Mike Cox returns for his sophomore year after qualifying for the World Junior Cross Country Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year. Classmate Marshall Ferguson and rising junior George Probst contributed in cross country. The women's cross country team hopes Melissa Ward, 10th in the Metro Conference race last year, can help the Hokies improve.
The men's track team has won two straight Metro indoor titles but has lost star pole vaulter Chris Williams. The outdoor teams return stars such as sophomore Detra Edmunds (school record holder in the triple jump); sophomore thrower Johli Carscallen; junior hurdler Erin Graham; Cox in distance events; and javelin thrower Chris Sieben.
OTHER SPORTS: Tech's normally successful volleyball team sagged to a 17-18 record but lost just one senior and hopes experience helps the younger players.
The women's soccer team was 6-10-1 in its first season; the men's soccer team hopes for better than a 1-4 record against Metro competition.
The men's and women's tennis teams weren't factors in Metro play and need sophomores Oliver Mayo and Daria Ivan to anchor singles play.
Heavyweight wrestler Josh Feldman, an All-American, and NCAA qualifier Dante Winslow leave the wrestling team to rebuild.
Tech's swim teams, once scheduled to be cut by the athletic department, got a reprieve that could help stabilize the programs.
by CNB