
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995                   TAG: 9501110067
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VAUGHT BACK AS HEAD COACH AT RICHLANDS

Dennis Vaught has been rehired as football coach at Richlands High School, two years after he was suspended for letting his players use illegal cleats in a state playoff game against Salem.

The Tazewell County School Board voted 3-2 on Monday to rehire Vaught, who coached at Patrick Henry and Lexington high schools. The action came a month after the board deadlocked 2-2 on the question.

Board chairman David Kovach and board member Ben Susman voted against hiring Vaught for the post in December. Board members Douglass Tackett and Robert Widener voted in favor of hiring him.

At that time, the board had four members, because of the resignation of James E. Pauley. The board voted unanimously last week to appoint McConley ``Buck'' Byrd to replace Pauley.

Byrd cast the deciding vote Monday to rehire Vaught, with Tackett and Widener. Kovach and Susman continued to oppose rehiring Vaught.

Vaught guided Richlands to the Group AA Division 4 championship in 1992. After the season, Vaught admitted his team used illegal cleats in a semifinal victory over Salem. In February 1993, the Tazewell County school board voted 4-1 to suspend Vaught from his coaching duties.

George Brown, Richlands' principal, coached the football team in 1994 while Vaught served as an assistant coach. Brown stepped down as coach after the season.

Brown and Woodrow Mullins, the Tazewell County superintendent, recommended in December that Vaught be rehired as head coach for the 1995 season.

Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, the gold medalist in the women's Super G at the 1994 Winter Olympics, will visit Massanutten Ski Resort in Harrisonburg on Thursday.

Roffe-Steinrotter will sign autographs from 11:30 a.m. to noon, then ski with Massanutten's ski school staff and junior race team from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.

by CNB