ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603030015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
MEMO: longer version ran in the New River edition
Scott Holleman spends every summer lugging around rocks for his father's construction business. In a few years, he should be remembered as part of the foundation of Shawsville High School's wrestling program.
Holleman, a senior 171-pounder, was there when his eighth-grade science teacher, Mike Blevins, helped start the program in 1991. It was his friendship with Blevins, as much as his love for the one-on-one contact, that got Holleman interested in the sport. ``He was like one of the guys out there,'' Holleman said.
Blevins, now the coach at Rural Retreat High School, will be at the Salem Civic Center today when Holleman takes his last crack at winning a Group A championship. ``I've put in five years,'' Holleman said. ``I hope it pays off this year.''
It looked like it did in his Group A quarterfinal match Friday against Tom O'Neil of Brentsville, when Holleman pulled away in the final period for a 7-2 victory. He'll face Jon Pollock of Riverheads in a semifinal match today.
``I feel very confident,'' Holleman said. ``But my hardest matches are ahead of me.''
Under the tutelage of co-head coaches Dean Hall and Jeff Maynard, Holleman and the Shawnees made a drastic turnaround from 1994-95, when Shawsville went 1-12. This season, it wrestled to a 5-3 record with two wins over New River District champion Christiansburg and Pioneer District champion James River.
``They told me when I got here, `We're used to losing,''' said Hall, a two-time state champion at Christ Church Prep in Virginia Beach. ``I said, `Well, I hate losing, so it's gonna change.'''
While it might be awhile before it's at the level of a Radford or Floyd County, Holleman is the only senior on the Shawsville team, so the improvement likely will continue.
``We're all cheering for each other,'' said Floyd coach Barry Hollandsworth.
Radford, however, upped the ante by landing a school-record four wrestlers - Stephen Murphy (125), Mike Dunbar (145), Peter Lee (152) and Elmo Dunbar (215) - in today's semifinals and closing Friday night in second place in the team competition.
Other Timesland wrestlers in the championship semifinals include Floyd County's 103-pound Joseph Goorskey and 140-pound Kamal Chantal, James River's Shawn Brown (125), Grayson County's Chip Pack (189) and Covington's Jason Stanier (275).
Wrestling begins today at 10:30 a.m. with semifinal matches. The finals are scheduled for 7 p.m.
see microfilm for scores
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB