Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507180141
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nelson Prillaman could see it coming.
``I started four days ago drinking water and Gatorade and eating bananas,'' he said. ``Anything to get some potassium in me. You can't come out to something like this cold-turkey.''
``Something like this'' was the steamy tennis venue hard by the Roanoke River at River's Edge Sports Complex, and the occasion Sunday afternoon was the Commonwealth Games of Virginia.
There was nothing cold about it.
``Man is it hot,'' said Skip Hamilton, Prillaman's partner for the men's 35-and-over doubles final against Greg Dunn and Alan Bartley.
Actually, everything Prillaman touched Sunday was hot. Particularly his tennis racket. The Collinsville loan officer justified a No.5 state standing in the U.S. Tennis Association 35s rankings and No.9 doubles rank with Hamilton by spending a productive day on the frying pan-like asphalt courts.
Prillaman routed Earl Dodson of Roanoke 6-1, 6-1, then teamed with Hamilton to overwhelm Dunn and Bartley 6-2, 6-3.
``Earl is a really good player and we've played half a dozen times or more, but when he plays me, he seems to have a mental block against winning,'' Prillaman said.
In that respect, Dodson may not be alone. Prillaman has come a long way since taking up the game a month out of high school.
``I've been playing 20 years now and I'm getting near 200 career wins,'' he said.
Prillaman had a feel for the game almost from the start. His first formal training in the sport came in a class at what then was Ferrum Junior College, where he was a student. Bud Skeens, the tennis coach of long and illustrious standing at the college and the teacher of the class, liked what he saw and invited Prillaman to come out for the team.
``They didn't cut anybody, so I'm sure I was 36th out of 36,'' he said. ``But the next year, I had worked my way up to eighth.''
Most of Prillaman's tennis playing these days is at tournaments around the state. Occasionally, he ventures down to Greensboro, N.C.
``He's single, so he can play just about every weekend,'' said Hamilton, who is married and has three children and not very much time.
Actually, Prillaman has two state doubles rankings. When he plays with Earl Weaver of Lynchburg, they're the top-ranked pair in the state.
``But Skip and I are the defending champion here, so I'm not going to ask somebody else to play if Skip's in town,'' Prillaman said.
Hamilton is an interesting enough story himself. He grew up a member of a tennis-playing family in Pennsylvania, but went to the University of Tennessee on a diving scholarship. He resumed playing tennis when his diving days were done.
``Now I play just enough to keep a ranking,'' he said.
Elsewhere in the tennis competition, Virginia Tech teammates (and former teammates at Blacksburg High School) Marek Pfeil and Pablo Schurig slugged it out in the men's open final, with Pfeil dusting Schurig 6-2, 6-1 and occasionally exclaiming in his native German.
Jackie Mayrosh stopped Betsy Mierzwa 6-2, 6-1 in the women's open final.
by CNB