Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It lasted longer than Cal Ripken's feat of playing in more than 2,130 consecutive baseball games.
It started when newspapers still used typewriters and was still going when they all had switched to computers.
It began when O.J. Simpson was playing for the Buffalo Bills and outlasted Simpson's biggest victory of his life in a Los Angeles courtroom.
When North Cross started a string of non-losing football seasons, there were still high schools named Andrew Lewis, Lexington, Natural Bridge, Drewry Mason and Jefferson in Timesland. They're all closed as high schools, victims of consolidation.
A running back by the name of J.B. Barber had starred the year before at Virginia Tech. Now his sons, Ronde and Tiki Barber, are at Virginia doing a number on Atlantic Coast Conference schools. They weren't even born when the streak started.
Norm Lineburg won his second consecutive Group AA state title at Radford a year prior to the streak's opening act when the Raiders posted a 6-2 record in 1973. Lineburg has had some great teams since, but the Bobcats haven't hung up another state championship banner.
Bob Williams began and finished a Virginia High School League Hall of Fame coaching career at Parry McCluer during the streak in which he won five state titles.
When Fuqua handed North Cross its fifth loss Friday, it ended any chance the Raiders had of avoiding a losing season. Of course you could see it coming as North Cross had scored only one touchdown in four games.
No player in that game had been born when the streak began. Many of the parents of those players hadn't met each other when the Raiders started winning.
Jim Muscaro has been the head coach since it started. His career opened with a 2-6 mark in 1972 and then North Cross started winning.
In that span, the Raiders collected eight Virginia Independent Conference titles and one state championship. The only blemish to the record came in 1991 when North Cross went 4-4.
Consider that in most years, the Raiders play only eight or nine regular season games and it becomes more difficult to finish .500 or higher.
So who is the new king of non-losing streaks in Timesland? That honor is now shared by Pulaski County and Martinsville. Neither team has had a losing record since 1978.
Martinsville went 4-6 in 1978 when other Piedmont District schools refused to play the Bulldogs. So Martinsville had to play some Group AAA schools and ended up with a sub .500 mark.
Pulaski County went 3-7 in 1978 and decided it was time to change coaches. In came Joel Hicks and out went the Cougars' losing ways as they went 9-3.
Pulaski County has had only one brush with a below .500 record in 1990 when the Cougars suffered through a 5-5 year.
Hicks, whose current team is 3-2, continues as the Timesland coach with the most consecutive winning seasons - 27. He hasn't lost since his first year as a head coach at Big Creek (Warr, W.Va.) when he was 4-6.
``My first year of coaching, I had just gotten out of college. I still needed two classes and I had just gotten married. So I went back to school in the summer to finish work on my degree. I was late coming to Big Creek. They had already had a week or so of two-a-days under someone else,'' Hicks recalled.
Without the personal touch, Hicks says his team went 3-7. ``We got a forfeit from some team, but I only remember the losses,'' he added.
Muscaro's 22 consecutive seasons without a losing record was Timesland's longest. That's because Hicks' high school career went on hold for three years while he served as an assistant at West Virginia.
``I hope ours doesn't come to an end this year,'' said Hicks, realizing that his team is rebuilding after a great run the last few years.
HOT SALES: Mark Perkins, who put together a videotape history of Narrows football including an audio cassette of the broadcast of the 1961 New River District title game against Blacksburg, reports that orders have exceeded 100 in the past few weeks. He's heard from Narrows graduates all around Southwest Virginia including one from 1932.
Perkins received a lot of help from Mrs. Harry Ragsdale, wife of the late Narrows coach and mother of Steve Ragsdale, current coach at Giles.
With the Virginia High School League holding Hall of Fame induction ceremonies later this month, it's remindful that Harry Ragsdale is missing from the Hall and can be nominated by any member school.
It would be a nice gesture if Giles, a bitter foe of Narrows, took the opportunity to make the nomination for its coach, who has led the Spartans to two state championships and currently has them ranked No.1 in the Group A poll.
BY THE NUMBERS: In the first Virginia High School League point standings released going into Friday night's games, Salem and Alleghany are ranked 1-2 in the state in Group AA Division 4 ratings.
And they both won, so what's next? The moon?
Among the state's top 10 teams, seven are from Region III - Rockbridge County (fifth), Amherst County (tied for sixth) and Liberty and Martinsville (ninth). It makes for an interesting season to see which three don't make the playoffs.
Cave Spring might not make the top 10 in the Associated Press Group AAA rankings. The unbeaten Knights also get mercifully teased by other fans as being the best team in Group AA since four of five victories have come against that classification.
Through it all, Cave Spring was ranked 10th in the Group AAA Division 6 ratings and are fourth in the Northwest Region. It means if the Knights keep on clicking against Group AA teams (Salem remains) and don't disintegrate against the Roanoke Valley District, they have an excellent chance to make the playoffs even if they don't win a district championship.
On the other hand, Giles, rated No.1 in Group A by the Associated Press, stands only fifth in Division 2. However, Giles is top ranked in Region C. Also, Radford is ninth, ahead of once-beaten Lebanon and PH-Glade Spring from the Hogoheegee District.
These are only numbers and they play strange tricks. So keep tuned to the last week when they'll fit nicely into place.
DOWN, NOT OUT: You can imagine the panic that people must have felt when Staunton River girls' basketball coach Tom Karnes fell to his knees and seemed to collapse as his team finished up beating Altavista 48-40 last week.
Not to worry, except for the moment. Karnes was suffering only from a hot gym that was stuffy from the passing of tropical depression Opal plus the medication he was taking for a viral infection.
After being checked out and released, Karnes was back in school the next morning and he didn't even claim a day of sick leave. ``I'll be here as long as this ornery life will permit,'' he said jokingly.
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in October 12, 1995 Neighbors.