ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601300021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-11 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HIGH SCHOOLS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
A television report aired during the past week detailing the legal troubles of three former players from Halifax County's 1991 Group AAA Division 6 football championship team.
In the report, an interesting issue was raised by Halifax County Commonwealth's Attorney John Greenbacker. He said, ``I have always wondered whether or not it's good to give youngsters the trappings of success and public adulation so early in their lives because of sports when there is a very high likelihood they cannot sustain them.''
It sounded as if Greenbacker was saying high school athletes were overpublicized and saying the media was a reason these three football players were in trouble with the law. Greenbacker and others seem to feel youngsters can't always handle the attention.
``My interpretation of what John was saying was that we realize that on our teams, that we get a certain number of children we would describe as at risk,'' said Larry Clark, Halifax County's principal. ``In cases like that state championship team, where they received numerous accolades and awards, some of these at-risk kids have to return to reality at some time.
``From my perspective as a principal, we help kids. We don't harm them by involving them in success. At some point, reality does return and one has to face whatever situation they're in. Just because they have to return to reality doesn't mean they'll do something wrong.''
Clark says that while three athletes from the 1991 team had trouble with the law, five others who were from similar backgrounds - Daryl Medley at Virginia, Aaron Brand at Emory and Henry, Daniel Ward at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Joe Wilkins at William and Mary and Alfred Fort at South Carolina State - have gone on to play college football.
Several coaches and athletic directors also took exception to Greenbacker's quote.
``Obviously, he must not have had a lot of experience with student-athletes in sports,'' said William Byrd athletic director Jane Layman, who also is a member of the Virginia High School League's executive committee. ``There are some children at our school and all over the state of Virginia where sports is the one thing that keeps them in school. Sometimes we try to get kids involved in three sports so that we can keep an eye on them,''
George Miller, assistant principal and football coach at William Fleming, also disagreed with Greenbacker's assessment.
``Kids who went wrong later [after sports] were taught the same principles as other kids who went on to be successful and received the same publicity,'' Miller said. ``They just chose the wrong route after they received the publicity.''
Ed Scott, Patrick Henry's football coach, said he hoped Greenbacker wasn't implying these former athletes were in trouble because of sports and the attending publicity athletic success can bring.
``If you look at criminals in our society, most were not athletes,'' Scott said. ``If an athlete gets in trouble, it gets media attention. If another student gets in trouble, they don't get media attention.''
Scott cited the University of Nebraska, where a number of football players on this past season's national championship team have had brushes with the law.
``I don't have proof, but take one fraternity on the campus, put it under the same scrutiny, compare its performance with the football team and the football team might look a little better,'' Scott said.
Greenbacker, before becoming a lawyer, was a reporter at The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk. He knows a quote taken out of context can be misleading and says the television report did not give a complete picture of his feelings on the Halifax County cases.
``The fact we give them [athletes] this adulation and treat them as special people has some of these individuals thinking they can do no wrong. That worries me,'' he said. ``I've seen people make excuses and run interference for them. I was talking about how I thought this was a sad situation.''
Compare this with what happened at Nebraska, where many people feel coach Tom Osborne ran interference for some of his players, and it puts a different spin on what Greenbacker said.
``I said sometimes sports magnifies good character. If they don't have strong roots, sports won't enhance them,'' he said. ``Some of the bad apples, because they're such special people, have the notion that they may be more leniently treated by the law. Can you blame them for getting that notion when they see the Cornhuskers episode?
``I don't want people to say I'm against sports. It seems athletics is one way people can get that type of adulation. It's transient. It's fleeting. The people I've prosecuted were not nice people to begin with and they showed tendencies when they were heroes that they could do no wrong. When you mention them and they're athletes, supporters of athletics come forward and say you're slamming football.
``Not so. What I'm focusing on is heroes and why we make them what they are.''
GREEN FEELING PATRIOTIC: A familiar name in Roanoke Valley basketball is interested in the Patrick Henry boys' job that will be vacant when Woody Deans retires after this season. Former Roanoke College coach Ed Green, who made the Maroons one of the most successful NCAA Division III programs in the region if not the country, plans to apply.
Green left Roanoke to become athletic director at Coastal Carolina. He has been out of athletics for the past several years, however, and is an assistant principal at a public high school near York, Pa.
Green is interested in returning to the Roanoke Valley and also would like to get back into coaching. He showed interested in the boys' basketball job at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg when it was open three years ago, and was one of the finalists for that position before it went to Mike Dufrene.
THEY RULE: Look for high school football games to get longer in the fall after the National Federation of State High School Associations changed one rule for the 1996 season.
The game clock will stop on a change of possession and won't start again until the next snap. This year, the clock started on the referee's ready-to-play signal after a change of possession. Estimates are games will run three to four minutes longer.
One other change protects the center in a kick formation. Defensive players no longer will be able to charge a center until he is able to block.
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