Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230069
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CHRIS KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS LENGTH: Medium
In the case of Kay Rakes and her daughter Pam Monk, intra-family competition is nothing new. The pair have competed against each other for as long as they can remember in almost every sport. Basketball, tennis, golf, backgammon - you name it, they have played it, most likely in head-to-head fashion.
Recently the pair came full circle when they coached against each other for the first time. In the battle of wits, when both were prowling the sidelines, Rakes' girls' tennis team from Narrows rolled over her daughter's team from Giles.
"I was psyched about coaching against her, but we knew how it was going to come out [the result of the match]," said Monk, who has only one experienced player on her team. "I am looking forward to beating her."
"There were mixed emotions, because you have feeling for both sides," Rakes said of their encounter. "It was easier with tennis, because you can only talk to people when they are changing sides."
For Ken Rakes, Kay's husband and Pam's father, this sort of competition is something to relax and enjoy, as well as avoid getting in the middle of.
"Both of them are real competitive, but they never got angry with each other," Ken Rakes said. "I enjoyed listening to them bait each other before games, though it was always on a very polite level."
The one thing all agree on was the time when the competition was at its most intense. It reached a crescendo when Kay Rakes coached her Peterstown, W.Va., team against Giles where Monk was a player. Peterstown drilled Giles during Monk's sophomore and junior seasons.
"I was crushed," Monk said of the defeats. "I went to my room and didn't want to talk to anyone."
But during Monk's senior year, the tables were turned, and the Spartans defeated Peterstown by one point twice.
"I enjoyed shaking her hand after those games," Monk said with a laugh.
Those battles on the hardwood also led to Ken Rakes' most memorable moment of the rivalary.
"Pam came down the court and hit a long jump shot," he said. "Kay started clapping her hands and said, `Good shot,' but the very next moment she was screaming at her team not to let her shoot from out there again."
Now that the two have moved their battles to the tennis courts, it seems Monk may hold the upper hand in the long run. She played on Emory & Henry's girls' team and helped her mom coach at Narrows three years ago.
"She knows more about tennis than I do," Kay Rakes said. "Even now, I will tell her what one of my players is struggling with, and she will make suggestions."
Because the public focus of their rivalry is on their travails on the sideline, don't be fooled into believing the two never lace 'em up and go at it anymore. They still play tennis and backgammon on a regular basis, and they have recently added golf to their agenda. "She kills me in golf," Monk said.
While both have enjoyed competing against each other, the rivalry was temporarily put on hold when Monk, after receiving her master's degree from Virginia Tech, moved to Raleigh, N.C., where she worked in the North Carolina State sports information office. Monk re-emerged in the New River Valley when she married Danny Monk, an associate athletic director at Virginia Tech.
Whether Monk and Rakes are separated or not, the one thing that seems unlikely to change is their competitive nature and their enjoyment of sports.
"We both want to win, and the same is true when we are coaching," said Monk. "She wants to beat me as bad as she can, and I want to beat her as bad as I can. We are both sports junkies."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***