Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010014
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The first Dave Lamanca Golf Tournament may present some awkward moments Monday for the family members who have been closely involved in staging the event.
``One word I find myself using a whole lot lately is `bittersweet,''' Lamanca's wife, Kristi, said. ``It will be a nice day Monday, but it's going to be sad in certain respects.''
The tournament was organized to help raise money for the Dave Lamanca Golf Scholarship at Salem High School. Lamanca, a member of the Spartans' golf team that won the 1983 Group AAA state championship, was killed Sept.8, 1994, in a crash of USAir Flight 427 outside Pittsburgh.
``I can remember thinking about the scholarship as we were sitting by the phone, waiting for USAir to tell us what we already knew,'' Kristi Lamanca said. ``The idea of a golf tournament is something that took shape over the next month.
``Unfortunately, David and I had attended a few funerals early in the summer and had commented on the flowers: `Aren't they great, but they're really kind of a waste.' I really felt that, given Dave's interest in golf and his interest in kids, that this would be the most fitting tribute.''
More than $18,000 was contributed by Christmas for the scholarship, which will be awarded annually in four $1,000-per-year increments to a Salem High student who has demonstrated an interest in golf.
Lamanca was no phenom, but he was a regular on the golf team by his senior year (as well as a varsity basketball player). He seldom played more than once a week as an adult, but still shot in the 70s and carried a 9-handicap.
``He said his goal was to play on the Senior Tour,'' Lamanca's father, John, said. ``I said, `Go for it.'''
Kristi Lamanca, who met her husband one week before they were to leave for the University of Virginia in the fall of 1985, said she quickly became aware of her husband's golf interest.
``We came home after we had been in college three weeks,'' said Kristi, a graduate of Cave Spring High School, ``and I remember teasing him about how much room the golf clubs took up in the car. We went very few places that the golf clubs didn't go along.
``I've probably got three or four sets now that I never could figure why we didn't throw away.''
When the tournament was proposed, it was hoped there might be 40 teams. As of Thursday, there were 46 teams, including groups of Lamanca business associates from Florida and North Carolina.
A team from Pittsburgh includes Mike and Marita Brunner, who lost a brother-in-law in the crash. Marita Brunner is president of the Flight 427 Air Disaster Support League, composed of the victims' surviving family members.
``We're trying to get some things accomplished as far as purchasing the crash site and [bringing about] legislative changes,'' Kristi Lamanca said. ``I'd been in touch with her since late December and met her in January when we were up there for the hearings.
``I do think it was unusual that she would drive this far to play in a one-day golf tournament.''
The Lamancas have been struck by the effect the tragedy has had on total strangers.
``I'll be in a store,'' Kristi said, ``and people will come up to me and say they've thought about the accident, or that they know someone who flies a lot and now they think twice about it. I don't know if it's our small region, with three people on the plane, but it seems to have hit home.
``I've had a lot of people with small children, who because of Dave's age [27] or because I was pregnant, say, `I can't look at my children without thinking, what if something happened to my wife or husband?'
``I'm really amazed at the number and variety of people who have said how much this really touched them. I've gotten cards from strangers that say nothing but, `I read about your husband. I don't know either one of you, but I just had to write.'''
Kristi said she hasn't had the opportunity to fly since the accident.
``It's going to be a very difficult thing to do,'' she said. ``I'd hate to think I would never be able to do it again. I'd like to think I would be able to overcome that.
``A lot of it is not fear that the plane is going to crash; it would be going through the last things that Dave did. Those people had already heard, `Thanks for flying with us. We'll be on the ground in a couple minutes.' That's when I think you're pretty safe and the trip's almost done.''
Kristi is just one of several family members serving on the tournament committee, along with her husband's parents, John and Shirley; Dave's sister, Debi, and her husband, Allen Wilkerson; plus uncles Jim, Sam and Larry Lamanca. They are joined by family friend Mark Bond.
``She's [Kristi] got a pretty strong constitution,'' John said. ``She's been involved in a lot of things surrounding the tournament; it's been good therapy for all of us.
``I know Monday that I'll see a lot of people who Dave and I played golf with. They'll bring back some of the enjoyable times we had together and that might be a little tough, but that [golf] is why we established the tournament and hopefully the scholarship will be very beneficial.''
If it's bittersweet now, the Lamancas hope the tournament will become increasingly sweeter in future years.
``I would like to think so,'' said Kristi, whose son, Jayson David, will be six months old Sunday. ``This week, in particular, has been pretty tough. My birthday was last week and my anniversary was [Friday], so it's been good for me to stay busy.''
by CNB