Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 5, 1995 TAG: 9505050044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Shortly after lunch one day this spring, Melissa Lawrence developed a stomachache.
The discomfort was of such severity that she could have been forgiven for thinking she had ingested one of tose toothy monsters from the movie ``Aliens'' and the critter was now trying to gnaw its way free.
But Lawrence, a junior at Narrows High, had other, more pressing, matters than digestive distress to attend to. She was scheduled to throw the shot put and discus and run legs on the 1,600- and 400-meter relays in a track meet against arch rival Giles.
Lawrence is the sort who believes in honoring her commitments.
``I always want to compete,'' she said.
Compete she did, heaving the discus thrice for a top distance of 77 feet. Then came the shot and a trio of tosses the best of which was 32 feet.
``That's pretty good for me,'' she said.
Her belly, meanwhile, was going its own violent way.
``I had tears in my eyes,'' she said. ``It hurt.''
At painful length she concluded she would be unable to continue. She bid her coach, Wally Dunford, goodbye and asked her mother, Millie Lawrence, to take her home.
A spoonful of thick, pink, over-the-counter remedy was prescribed and Lawrence took to her bed. In retrospect, that treatment was about as effective as taking on a rhinoceros with a slingshot.
But Lawrence wouldn't know that until about 9:30 p.m. when her alarmed mother drove her to the hospital. Doctors took one look and intoned: ``Appendicitis. Immediate surgery is necessary.''
By 11:30 p.m., Lawrence was on the operating table. Two days later on a Friday afternoon, she was back at track practice. A week after that, she was going full speed at a meet.
The temptation is to trot out the textbook cliche for such instances and say that Lawrence was the author of a gutty performance.
In this case, however, such a remark would not be altogether appropriate.
TORN UP: Bradley Hudgins, Auburn High's best baseball player, has been reduced to designated hitter status now that a sore right shoulder has shelved him as a pitcher and infielder.
The diagnosis is a torn rotator cuff and the hope is that it will heal with rest.
``Too many pitches,'' he said. ``I threw about 120 or 130 the first game of the season on a Friday then came back and threw 80 more the following Tuesday.''
Hudgins tried to play at second base, but hurt the shoulder again making a cutoff throw to the plate against Shawsville a couple of weeks ago. After taking some time off, Hudgins chose to attempt a comeback as a DH this week.
``I won't pitch any more this season,'' he said. ``Maybe I'll be able to this summer in American Legion ball.''
RILED OVER RUMORS: Danny Evans, the veteran coach of the New River Valley Yankees American Legion baseball team, was in a stew recently when he heard rumors that he wasn't going to be having a team this summer.
Absolutely and categorically not true, said he.
``I even heard the story was going around that we were out of money,'' he said. ``We have more money than we've ever had.''
The team moved from Giles County to Blacksburg a few years ago and now receives funding from Legion posts in Narrows, Blacksburg, and Christiansburg.
The Yankeee will be having tryouts at 2 p.m. May 14 at the Virginia Tech baseball field, where they will play their home games. Players from Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Auburn, Floyd County, Radford, Giles, Narrows and James Monroe High in West Virginia are eligible.
SOCCER SEMINAR: Members of the Radford High soccer team donated a recent Saturday morning in order to enlighten a team of 6- and 7-year-olds on the finer points of the sport.
``The eyes of our players were as big as saucers the whole time,'' the coach of the little guys said.
There is nothing terribly unusual about such benevolence - similar ``clinics'' are occasionally put on by athletes and coaches in other high school sports - but such accounts are nice to hear no matter how often they're told.
FOOTPRINTS ON HIS HEART: Narrows lost a baseball game to Bland not long ago by the score of 11-10. The tying and winning runs resulted from balks, two of seven called against Green Wave pitching.
But that was a minor annoyance for Narrows coach Rick Franklin in comparison to a play in which one of his baserunners was called out at the plate after a batter was hit by a pitch with the sacks full.
``The umpire said he hadn't touched the plate,'' Franklin said. ``He showed me a footprint beside the plate and said that that proved that our player hadn't touched the plate.
``I told him that there was only one footprint there. Where do you think the other one was? On the plate, probably.
``I wish our umpires would go on strike.''
FACELIFT:New hardwood floors, paint and handicapped-access bleachers are going into the gymnasiums at Giles and Narrows high schools, the first major renovations at those facilities since they opened. The work is scheduled to be finished in time for the start of girls' basketball practice in August.
Ray Cox is a Roanoke Times & World-News sportswriter.
by CNB