ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230098
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN A. MONTGOMERY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
It's 5 o'clock on a Monday afternoon in May, long after his students and other faculty members have gone home. Ed McMichael, dressed in soccer gear, briefly rests behind his teacher's desk at Patrick Henry High School. It's going to be an exceptionally difficult week.
McMichael's teaching regimen at PH - his first priority - involves the rigor of overseeing complicated biology labs, including the necessary preparation work at home. After all, teaching high school science is not exactly the aspiration of study hall monitors.
And then there's the matter of managing his soccer responsibilities, a full-time job of its own. The 42-year-old coach takes an active role in four different soccer organizations.
McMichael is the boys' soccer coach for the PH team, which just last week advanced to the Roanoke Valley District championship game. He also is head coach of the Roanoke RiverDawgs, the local semi-professional team. In a typical fall, McMichael serves as an assistant coach for the Roanoke College men's team, and he's recently committed to a stint as one of two master coaches within the Roanoke Star youth soccer club, a position where he will help develop that program's coaching staff.
"I don't know that I've brought that many new people into soccer,'' McMichael said. "But I hope I've helped promote an interest in the sport among those people in Roanoke that already play it.''
McMichael grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, then enrolled in Lynchburg College, where he played soccer in the mid-1970s. Later, he earned a master's degree in marine biology at the University of South Florida, and worked in Florida, Louisiana and Alabama before taking a teacher's position at the Governor's School in Roanoke in 1987. Five years ago, he moved to PH.
"I came to Roanoke very circuitously,'' McMichael said. The trim and well-conditioned coach has been running around the valley from soccer field to soccer field ever since.
He assisted the PH team for two years before becoming head coach five years ago.
In fall 1993, McMichael joined Roanoke College's soccer staff, helping to guide the Maroons to finish among the final eight teams in the Division III national tournament in his first year. Last year, he took over the RiverDawgs team on Memorial Day weekend.
It sounds like an inordinate number of soccer balls in the air, but McMichael knows how to control them.
"Roanoke College plays in the fall," he said, "so that's no problem. And the RiverDawgs heat up (most of their games are during May, June and July) about the time PH cools off." But last week, for example, the RiverDawgs had three practices and a game, and PH had one practice and two games.
In the coming year, McMichael will return to the Star, a select, year-round traveling program that he has worked with previously. "[Star executive director] Danny Beamer and I've known each other for a long time,'' McMichael said.
"He knows I'm a parent and a coach, as is Roanoke College athletic director and head men's soccer coach Scott Allison. Danny approached Scott and me about coaching the coaches, helping them work with the youth. Scott convinced me we could do it. Club practices are held later in the day, after college practices are over. I figured if Scott thought we had enough time to do both, it was OK to give it a shot.''
What does McMichael do for recreation? He enjoys traveling, especially snorkeling in Florida. He also maintains a large garden with his wife, Betsy, manager of The Soccer Stop.
"Oh, and I also play soccer in the old men's league,'' McMichael said. "And if we're short on players at a RiverDawgs' practice, I might fill in there a little bit, too. But I'm not exactly a factor [on the playing field]. I'm more like an extra body.''
Most people who know Ed McMichael - and his schedule - have suspected that an extra body was at work all along.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY Staffby CNBEd McMichael gives some pointers to members of the Patrick Henry
boys soccer team during a championship game against Cave Spring.