Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411290011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Gatorade works for her.
"When he wins, I can give him a hug," says the pretty, petite wife of the Hokies' head football coach, Frank Beamer.
"When he loses," she adds, "there's nothing I can do."
Cheryl Beamer is the first to admit she's not a good loser, either.
Virginia Tech football games are tests of her intestinal fortitude. She's been to only one away game in two years -partly because her Friday nights are spent at Blacksburg High School football games watching her son, Shane, dodge tackles in his position as wide receiver, and partly because Tech games make her crazy.
"I'm a nervous wreck," she admits. "I always feel like I'm underfoot. Once they play The National Anthem, I think, 'Oh my god, it's time for the game to start.'''
When road games are televised, she does turn on the set, but even then she can't sit still and watch the gridiron action.
"I have the cleanest house in Blacksburg on Saturdays," she says.
Her husband was a little quieter than usual following a loss earlier this year at Syracuse, she said, but he didn't let his disappointment get the best of him.
"Frank never changes. He gets down but he's never out. ... He never brings it home with him."
Frank Beamer was a country boy from Fancy Gap playing football at Virginia Tech when he met his future wife, a city girl from Richmond, in 1968.
The couple met on a blind date. Cheryl's brother-in-law, "Waddey" Harvey (who later played for the Buffalo Bills), set it up.
"Waddey was a 6-foot-5, 270-pound defensive lineman. Frank said he couldn't say no.''
The couple was at Frank's house in Fancy Gap for the Christmas holidays when he proposed.
"He couldn't find the ring," Beamer recalled. "I had to wait in the living room while his mama and daddy went to help him find it."
The Beamers were married in Richmond in 1972. They exchanged their vows on April Fool's Day.
It was, Cheryl Beamer believes, the least foolish thing she ever did.
"It sounds corny, but I always tell people that I respected Frank before I fell in love with him," she says.
When she talks about her husband, Cheryl Beamer, 46, sounds like a woman in love.
"He's so easy to get along with, it's incredible!" she said, bubbling. "He's not self-serving. He's not phony. He's compassionate. You can ask anybody - I'm not telling you this just because I'm his wife.''
"I tell him all the time he's wise beyond his years."
She most admires her husband's politeness, she says, noting that he minds his manners even when he's confronted by offensive, overzealous football fans.
"If Tech ever fired him, he would be the most popular coach ever fired," she says. "Everybody loves him."
But she realizes that love is sometimes a fickle thing. The lesson hit home a few years back when Tech had a losing streak.
A Virginia Tech alumnus, irate over the Hokies' performance on the football field, phoned the Beamers' home and lashed out at their daughter, Casey. The turkey's tirade left the 10-year-old in tears.
Then, too, there were some snide remarks at school.
"Kids would say things to Shane and Casey that hurt them," Cheryl Beamer says. "One kid said to Shane, 'Hey, Beamer, where you gonna be living next year?'"
Cheryl Beamer says her children were scratched but not scarred from the experience.
"It was a tough lesson but a valuable lesson. The kids have seen how Frank comes through....They found out that you can survive tough things."
Both Beamer children are athletes. Shane, 17, is a senior football star at Blacksburg High School, and Casey, now 13, is on the eighth-grade girls' basketball team at Blacksburg Middle School. Both wear number 14 on their jerseys - the number their father wore when he was a quarterback at Hillsville High School and a defensive back at Virginia Tech.
Because of his grueling schedule during football season - a coach usually spends 80 hours a week preparing for one game - Frank Beamer misses out on many of his children's activities.
"Frank's really trying to make an effort to get to Shane's games," Cheryl Beamer says. "He's only seen one of Casey's games, but he always gives her the third degree at home, asking her how she played."
She is quick to point out, however, that her husband doesn't pressure his children. "He would be just as proud of them if they chose band or debate," she says. "He doesn't want to take the fun out of playing sports in high school."
Likewise, Cheryl Beamer isn't one to pressure her husband.
She does all the housework: "Frank Beamer does NOT do housework," she laughs.
She mows the grass: "The only time Frank is around grass is at a football game or on the golf course."
She does the laundry, washes the car, landscapes the lawn: "One day a year, he does yard work. My neighbors threaten to take a picture."
And she does it all without complaining.
"Oh, Frank tries to get me to hire someone to help, but why pay someone to do something I can do myself?"
When the coach does find the time to do some relaxing at home, he usually does it in an apron.
"He loves to barbecue," Cheryl Beamer says. "He makes it last two or three hours. He loves sitting on the deck, looking at the trees. He's learned to enjoy that."
She is well aware of all the uncertainties that go along with being the wife of a football coach, but there's one thing she's absolutely sure of: her marriage.
"I tell people we'll never get a divorce," she quips. "I don't see him enough to argue."
by CNB