ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130054
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: High Schools
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
Credit an ill wind for for pushing the Salem-Pulaski County High football game on the Spartans' field from Friday to Saturday.
This is the clash that usually attracts the most attention in Timesland during that part of the season prior to the start of the district races.
Salem football coach Willis White believes in playing games when they're scheduled, no matter the weather. Most of the time, he gets his way.
Except when hurricanes come along.
The Salem-Brookville game, postponed this past Friday to Saturday, was only the second home Spartan game delayed since White became coach in 1983. The other occasion was in 1989 after Hugo visited the area and the City of Salem decided it wouldn't be in good taste to play football at the stadium with a shelter set up at the Salem Civic Center.
It was the same scenario when Fran whistled through Virginia last week. There was nothing White could do to avert back-to-back postponements as this week's key clash with Pulaski County is being pushed back to Saturday.
White says this delay is partially his responsibility because of a deal he cut with Cougars coach Joel Hicks.
``I told Joel that if I played on Saturday and he played on Monday, I'd have an advantage,'' said White. ``So we decided that if either one of us had to play Monday, we'd push our game off to Saturday.''
Try as he might, Hicks wasn't able to convince Amherst County to play Saturday afternoon. The hurricane hit that area harder and Lancers officials decided to play Monday, prompting the delay in the Pulaski County-Salem contest.
NEW SHAWSVILLE COACHES: Shawsville came up strong in hiring a couple of winter sports coaches. The Shawnees lured Fred Horeis to coach boys' basketball while Mike Blankenship will return as head wrestling coach.
Horeis was a successful girls' basketball coach at Parry McCluer where he made the Fighting Blues a much stronger program. He was an assistant coach to Len Mosser, Jr. at Salem High and then to John Shotwell at James River.
LIBERTY INJURY: Liberty's Sue Cowlbeck, one of the top girls' basketball players in Timesland, was awaiting final tests on her right knee after she injured it in the opening game of the season against Bath County.
``Originally, they thought it was a bruised cartilage,'' said Liberty coach David Grant. ``Now they fear it might be an ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] damage. If it is, she's probably out for the season.''
Grant says Cowlbeck has already had a couple of offers from Division II schools to continue her basketball.
TOUGH SHAWNEES: Shawsville girls' basketball coach Tracy Poff says he might have the best team since he's been at the school. He also knows he's in a tough district.
``The Three Rivers District is the toughest [in Group A] from the top to bottom in the state. Our third place team could go 16-4 and not get out of the district. You have Floyd County, Radford and Glenvar - three class programs. They've all won region titles [the last few years] and been to the state.
``We're a dark horse - a big-time dark horse . You can't count Auburn and Giles out. You don't know what's going to happen, but Floyd County and Glenvar knock heads in the first district game.''
WAVE MEMORABILIA: Last year, Mark Perkins put together tape replays and broadcasts of some of Narrows' most memorable moments in football when Harry Ragsdale coached and made the Green Wave one of the state's top high school programs in the early 1960s.
Perkins has done it again with a 1996-97 calendar that goes through next August. Each month has a picture depicting a moment in Narrows football history.
Before the calendar starts are two picture pages including a team photo of the 1939 undefeated state champions, pictures of some of Narrows' greatest players and coaches, and a roll call of the championship teams.
The calendars are reasonably priced at just $5 and well worth that for any Green Wave fan. Anyone interested can pick up a calendar from Narrows' athletic director Rick Franklin or contact Perkins at his home (540) 921-2735.
A BIG LOSS: Over the years, a sportswriter comes in contact with many people.
Most are either coaches, players or fellow writers. A few of them are fans, who enjoy sports.
One of those was the late Fred Deans, who died last week after a lengthy illness. In my estimation, he was on my all-time list of good sports fans and as nice a person as one could want to meet.
If Fred Deans played sports, I wasn't aware of it. I got to know Fred Deans as the father of Woody Deans, the former boys' basketball coach at Patrick Henry.
If there was a PH game, Fred and Woody's mother, Beverly, were almost always at their customary spot behind the Patriots' bench to support one of the most successful boys' basketball coaches in Roanoke history.
When Woody Deans retired last year, two Group AAA state titles on his resume, his friends gave him a roast as a thank you for the years of excellent Patrick Henry basketball. Fred Deans, who at the time was in the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Salem, was conspicuously absent. That was when it was apparent how sick he was.
The only other time Fred missed one of his son's important public appearances came when PH took two trips to Hawaii. Woody's mother attended, but Fred didn't.
I often wondered about that, but until the other day I didn't know why Fred Deans failed to follow PH across the Pacific. He didn't go because he still grieved for friends lost at Pearl Harbor during the sneak Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941.
Burrall Paye, who was Woody Deans' most bitter rival, remembers that Fred Deans always talked to him. ``He'd come around and shake my hand,'' Paye said. ``When Woody was scouting, his father sometimes went with him. I got so I'd always look for him when we play Patrick Henry.''
Jerry English, former Northside coach when the Vikings were in the Roanoke Valley District matched against PH, said you could always pick out where Fred Deans was sitting. ``He would make an effort to come over,'' English said.
``When I was finished talking to my team, he'd come over and say what a good job I had done.''
After retiring as coach, English's second career involved doing color commentary with Jim Carroll on his broadcasts. ``Mr. Deans always came down and said something to Jim and I about the broadcasts. He was very positive. I suspect he did this with other coaches.''
English compared the Deans' relationship to that of himself and his father.
``I know Mr. Deans was a major part of Woody's life. I know my dad came to my games. You always had someone to go back and talk to. Mr. Deans was just a special part of Patrick Henry.''
The Deans family will miss Fred terribly, but they'll have the memory that he was a unique man, in his own way, in the world of sports.
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