ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
WAVERLY JACKSON, a 6-foot-3, 303-pounder from South Hill, has made a big name for himself on the Hokies' defensive line.
There's no need for the faithful at Lane Stadium to ever perform ``The Wave.''
Hokies fans, you see, already have a Wave. A tidal Wave, in fact.
``Big ol' Waverly Jackson,'' said Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech's football coach, as he burst into a wide grin. ``That's one big ol' hunk of football player right there, let me tell you.''
All-America end Cornell Brown is the undisputed cornerstone of Tech's 1996 defense, but the undeniable anchor is 6-foot-3, 303-pound tackle Waverly Arthur Jackson.
``One of the strongest football players you'll ever find,'' said Bud Foster, the Hokies' defensive coordinator.
Anybody wishing to run the football between the tackles on Tech this season will have to deal with Mr. Jackson. He's the Hokies' inside traffic cop. And more times than not, he apprehends his man.
Jackson does it with sheer size, brute strength and a relentless work ethic, all of which he cultivated as a youngster growing up on the tobacco fields of South Hill.
``If you grow up in the country like I did,'' Jackson said, ``you're just kind of naturally bigger and stronger than these city boys.
``When I came home from school, I had chores to do. I split wood. I stacked wood. We had a wood heater, so when you got home, you'd better make sure that wood was done. Then, you did your homework.
``I think my shoulders are so wide because I was always swinging that ax, busting wood. And my legs are so big, I think, because I was always walking around them tobacco fields.
``It was hard work, believe me. Hard work is good for you, though.''
Jackson brought those work habits with him to Tech. Since arriving on campus as a big but basically unheralded recruit out of Park View High School, Jackson has had a solid career.
``Whether he was starting [23 of 36 games] or coming off the bench behind Jim Baron,'' whom Jackson shared time with in 1994 and '95, Foster said, ``Wave has always come to play. He knows the game, and he plays the game hard.''
Jackson realizes he may have to play harder this fall. Tech lost five of its top seven defensive linemen off last season's Sugar Bowl champion squad. Untested Brad Baylor (tackle) and Danny Wheel (end) have joined Jackson and Brown up front.
``Wave and I have to show the way for the younger guys,'' Brown said. ``I plan on doing that, and I'm sure not worried about Wave. I know he'll be there.''
After the South Hill experience, Jackson is just glad to be in Blacksburg.
``My first time ever out of South Hill, really, was when I came up here on a recruiting visit,'' Jackson said. ``I was like, `Whoa, this is like a major city.' I was just a little-time country boy, and I loved Virginia Tech.
``I never had [a] car when I was young. I drove plenty of tractors on those tobacco fields, though. My parents had a car, not a good car, but I always had to work to prove to them I could be responsible enough to drive it.
``Sometimes on Saturdays, they'd let me go out on the town. I'd go down to McDonald's and sit and talk with my friends. That was a big-time thing for us.''
The biggest thing going back then in South Hill was Jackson's half-brother, Ben Coleman, who went on to star at Wake Forest and now plays for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
``We're real close,'' Jackson said. ``He's the one who really got me interested in playing football and going into the weight room so I can be strong, because that's one of my strengths.''
No kidding. Jackson is a tireless disciple of Tech strength coach Mike Gentry's program.
Jackson's blue-collar business paid off this past June, when he won the overall title in the Hokies' ``Ironman'' contest. The competition included such feats as running the steps of Lane while wearing a 20-pound vest; bench-pressing a pole with two buckets of concrete on each end; and pushing a station wagon 70 yards.
``I was just coming off knee surgery, so I was surprised I did so well,'' Jackson said. ``Talk about a test. That car push, that's the challenge boy, that's the man-maker.''
In August, Jackson turned some more heads when he decided to go after a record that had stood at Tech since the late 1980s.
``When I first got here, I noticed the bench-press record was 475 pounds, done by Al Chamblee,'' he said. ``I say to myself then, `Man, you've got to be a stud, just a beast to do that.'
``I was doing 330 in the bench when I first got here. I gradually built up to 450 last spring.
``Then, one day in August, I was in the weight room working out with Shaine Miles, Torrian Gray and some others. It was time to max out, and Shaine says, `Go for it, Wave.'
``I said go and I just blasted it up there. I put 475 pounds over my head. I don't know how or can't explain how I did it.''
Just another hay bale back on the farm, right?
``Yeah, when I first got here, these guys used to rag on me about being from the country,'' Jackson said.
``They'd say stuff like, `Yeah, he's so strong because he toted all that hay.'
``Plus, people always made fun of me because I'm 6-3, 300 and I've got this little kid's voice. I don't know where that came from. But everything's cool now.''
Especially back home.
``I think they're proud of me,'' Jackson said. ``I proved to them that a little country boy can come out and go to a major university like Virginia Tech and have success.
``Many people think since you grew up in South Hill, that you don't really see too much. But there's other stuff out there. You've just got to go and get it.''
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Virginia Tech defensive end Waverlyby CNBJackson harasses Akron quarterback Willie Spencer in the Hokies'
season opener. color.