Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412290104
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ray Long Jr., coach at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, said he had to ask the Eagles' staff to back off in the week leading up to the Division 5 state championship game.
That didn't prevent BC from getting a commitment this week from 6-4, 290-pound Damien Woody, an All-Group AAA offensive lineman from Patrick Henry, or getting a visit from Woody's teammate, tight end Erron Kinney.
Woody represents BC's fifth commitment from a Virginia player, all of them ranked among the state's top 25 prospects by the Roanoke Times & World-News. Woody is the 17th Top 25 player to commit.
The Eagles' push into Virginia coincides with the arrival of first-year head coach Dan Henning, although fourth-year assistant Billy Thompson has been BC's primary recruiter.
Henning played at William and Mary and coached at Virginia Tech, and he later served as offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, whose base of operations is in Ashburn. Four of BC's recruits are from Northern Virginia.
Kinney, one of the state's top five prospects, has taken a visit to Oregon State for basketball and is looking favorably at schools who will let him play both sports, including Virginia Tech.
MORE RECRUITING: Tech is the leader for 6-1, 217-pound Michael Hawkes, a Nottoway High linebacker who was named sleeper of the year in Virginia by the Roanoke Times & World-News. VMI also is involved.
VANDY WATCH: William and Mary football coach Jimmye Laycock, once viewed as a long-range possibility to succeed George Welsh at Virginia, has interviewed for the vacancy at Vanderbilt.
Laycock's link to the Virginia job was ex-William and Mary boss Jim Copeland, who recently resigned as UVa athletic director. Laycock has not been reluctant to go on job interviews, but has withdrawn from consideration at Boston College and Duke.
HOKIES' SUPPORT: Radford University alumnus Pete Ramey, a railroad investigator from Christiansburg, was USA Today's guest basketball picker this week and chose unranked Virginia Tech 14th.
At the beginning of the week, Tech (8-1) was the only team to beat Nebraska and Xavier, but the Cornhuskers were ranked 23rd and Xavier was only one place behind the Hokies among teams receiving votes in The Associated Press poll.
IN THE ACC: Clemson's lineup, with no starter taller than 6-6, is the Tigers' shortest since 1968-69. That hasn't prevented Clemson, picked for last in the ACC, from winning its first seven games.
COMEBACK STORY: Washington and Lee senior Tyler Duvall, who missed the last month of the 1993-94 season with a life-threatening form of meningitis, has started at point guard in six of W&L's first seven games and has a team-high 30 assists.
LOCAL UPDATE: Bridgewater College senior Christie Osborne, starting point guard for the Eagles' women's basketball team, will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Sophomore Nikki Hall from Glenvar is the second-leading scorer for Longwood, off to its best start (7-2) since 1980-81.
NOT BIG ENOUGH: The Richmond Coliseum, preparing a bid for a second Division I women's basketball championship later in the decade, has been told that the minimum seating capacity for the event is being raised to 15,000.
Unfortunately for Richmond, its coliseum seats less than 13,000 for basketball. Virginia Commonwealth researchers determined that last year's championship had an economic impact of $7.3 million on the Richmond community, including $2.9 in direct spending.
THE BALANCE SHEET: Only four of 76 championships conducted by the NCAA in 1992-93 (the last year studied) made money: Division I men's basketball, ice hockey and lacrosse, and Division I-AA football.
Division I women's basketball lost the most money, $1.2 million, followed by Division I baseball at $900,000. A new contract with ESPN should push women's basketball closer to the black, however.
In 1993-94, attendance in women's basketball rose by 9 percent, to an all-time high of 4.5 million. Of the top 15 schools in attendance, only Virginia and Stanford were down, but that was by 109 and 90 fans apiece.
Ohio State was the top draw in women's basketball with an average crowd of 8,411, followed by Southwest Missouri State at 8,191. Virginia was 11th at 4,519 and while Virginia Tech was only 64th. Tech crowds were up 74 percent to 981 per game
by CNB