ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130128
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
Casting a narrow shadow on the Narrows High practice field, Don Lowe was looking fit and trim this week as he discharged his duties as football coach.
``Down three sizes,'' the guru of the Green Wave said. ``Lean year around here.''
Part of the reason is diet.
``All he eats anymore is apples and bananas,'' Narrows assistant Rick Franklin said between the signals he wig-wagged to the defensive unit in a seven-on-seven drill.
One might also pick up a hint or two hundred that another reason for Lowe's new look may be the familiar coaches' condition of perpetual worry.
It's the time of year when even those who wish Lowe well have to appreciate that people in his profession have much on their minds.
Among the issues occupying Lowe's thinking these days are: the Giles High offense, the Giles defense and the recent history of the Giles-Narrows football series, which is dominated by Spartan blue, red and white instead of Narrows' green and gold.
The old rivals will engage in a continuation of gentlemanly (mostly) hostilities in this historic series tonight at Ragsdale Field.
That's Ragsdale as in Harry, whose gallants single-winged their way for decades of Green Wave glory. That's not Ragsdale as in Steve, Harry's boy and the coach across the county at Giles.
If Giles puts up many more years likes the ones its had on the football field lately, they're likely to be naming something for Steve in that end of the county, too.
That's part of what's eating at Lowe and, really, all of Narrows. In his five years as coach, the Spartans have won every time, including a major hammering last year.
The Spartans are off to a ferocious start this year, too, having flattened Blacksburg and Floyd County by a composite 86-13 in the first two games.
The past is for historians and coaches. The now is for the players.
``We play well and we'll win,'' Narrows lineman Chris Martin said.
The renewal of the Giles-Narrows series is something a little more complicated than winning and losing, although that is and always will be the major issue.
``This is the best week of the year,'' said Franklin, like Lowe and Steve Ragsdale a Narrows alumnus. ``Everybody loves it. People tell [Narrows players] that they don't have a chance, that they can't win. They don't care. This is the only time they'll play in front of 6 or 7,000 people. They'll remember this all their lives.''
If there was ever a time for Lowe to dust off his best Winston Churchill and Jim Bowie oratory, this is it. Embattled Narrows is down to its last 24 football players, prompting a gentling down of practice drills because of the specter of injury.
Nobody needs to be reminded that in football, as in other endeavors, quantity doesn't necessarily equate with quality. Narrows has guys who can play, it just doesn't have much depth. David Turner, the dagger of a tailback, had 187 yards rushing and two touchdowns as Narrows gored Garden 30-14 last week. Quarterback Jeff Bowers and running backs Dalton Smith and Heath Fleeman of the Hungry Hollow Fleemans chipped in on the 365-yard rushing attack.
Mighty Giles is no Garden, nor was it in 1981 when it probably had the best Group AA team in the state. The Spartans were coming off a 14-0 state championship season back in the days when wearing a state crown meant something because there were only three of them instead of the six the Virginia High School League confers now.
The game was close and the hour late and Narrows, trailing, was faced with fourth and way long in Giles territory. Green Wave coach Bill Patteson decided to go for it.
Jeff Williams, a Narrows assistant coach now but a sophomore defensive back for the Spartans then, can see it now like one recalls automobile accidents and other traumas.
Williams can see Narrows end Bobby Williams decoying through the Spartans secondary; he can see quarterback Rocky Blankenship, subbing for the injured Mike Burton, look off Williams and turn his attention the other way to throw a swing pass to running back Stacy Billos; he can see Billos get the first down and almost score; he can see the go-ahead TD that followed.
``If I had one to play to do over ,'' Williams said.
Sometimes, one play is all you have.
``This is a big week for us,'' Turner said. ``Big rivalry with Giles. Always was a big rivalry. And it always will be a big rivalry, for a long time to come.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB