Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504260110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Beginning with Saturday's Cosmopolitan Relays at Salem, Price starts the stretch run of his high school athletic career. Already, he's made All-Timesland and All-State Group AAA in football as a return specialist, and won the 55-meter dash indoor state championship in track.
With Price, the PH boys are favored to win their second consecutive Cosmo title over a tougher field, which includes Group AA boys' power Christiansburg and its noted sprinter, Andra Beasley.
Ahead is a fourth duel with Hayfield's Ian Winston, which will determine once and for all who is the king of dash in Virginia. As a junior, Price beat Winston in a regular-season meet at Knoxville, Tenn., then lost to him twice in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the Group AAA state meet in Hampton.
He again lost to Winston in both dashes in Knoxville this spring. But Price and his coach, Jeff Johnson, aren't ready to admit that Winston, who played basketball and didn't run indoor track, will win this year's state meet in Hampton.
``I think Jamie was upset at not winning a state title [as a junior],'' Johnson said. ``He had such a good season, and he wanted to top it off with a state title. It's very hard to do, and it's not that bad to place second in the state.
``Unfortunately, Knoxville was a repeat. In the 200, Jamie almost caught him. He was closing in and didn't have quite enough.''
The positive in all this is that now Winston has the pressure of holding off Price, the reverse of last year's roles of the two fastest dash performers in the state.
``Knoxville doesn't mean anything,'' Price said. ``It's early in the season. It's not always good to be the best [at this point]. This tells me where I stand. I'm relaxed now. He's [Winston] the one who is concerned about someone beating him.
``I feel confident. He's good. I take nothing away from him. He's fast. He's gotten faster. That's something I have to deal with. I'm stronger, which means I'll be faster. At Knoxville, I hadn't done any sprint work.''
Price's first love is football. At 5 feet 6 and 120 pounds, though, Price has hopes of getting a track scholarship. Virginia Tech is the only school pursuing him, and Price is awaiting his test scores to meet NCAA standards for an athletic grant-in-aid.
Price made it through football after Patrick Henry coach Ed Scott switched him from wide receiver to the Patriots' main running back last fall. He hit the weight room, became a stronger athlete and said he was in as good shape as he usually is at the end of outdoor track season.
``Football was frustrating,'' Price said. ``Teams keyed on me after the first couple of games. I'd go into games knowing they were keying on me. I'd look at the bright side and figure that might free someone else.''
Price didn't approach 1,000 yards in rushing, and the Patriots didn't pass to him much coming out of the backfield. He was sensational on kickoff and punt returns, making all-state.
``Everybody said I'd get hurt,'' Price said, smiling. ``My uncle [former Jefferson basketball star Ralph Boyd] was worried about my knees. But every time I came in the field house and put on a [football] uniform, you couldn't tell me I was the smallest person on the team. No way did I believe that.''
Supremely confident, Price was quick enough and athletic enough to avoid the big hits most of the time.
``I got hit pretty good at Danville,'' he said. ``It was on a kickoff return, and two bigger guys got a shot at me and hurt my shoulder. But that was the only time.''
Before he arrived at PH, Price was a two-sport star, but track wasn't one of them. He was a shortstop in baseball.
``In sandlot football, I was the quarterback,'' he said. ``I wanted to be a running back, but I wasn't fast enough.''
Not fast enough? ``I started running [summer] track between seventh and eighth grade [for Paul Moyer who coaches inner-city kids in AAU]. I didn't do that well. I finally did well and was faster the next year.''
So he gave up baseball, then yielded quarterback duties to Donnie Smith. ``It only made sense to play one of us at quarterback and the other at another position,'' Price said of Smith, who started for PH at quarterback most the year.
According to Johnson, Price knows more about running.
``He's very technical in his approach to each race,'' Johnson said. ``He just doesn't get out there, the gun fires and he goes as fast as he can. He had trouble coming out of the drive phase and accelerating. Now he's worked more on holding the drive phase a little longer.''
If Price has learned enough, he might go from being the king of speed in the Roanoke area to the state level. That will mean he can once and for all forget about football.
by CNB