ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260032
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
MEMO: Also ran in September 26, 1996 Neighbors.
As a high school sports coordinator for this paper, I rarely have to write stories about deaths and serious injuries.
That has changed this fall. It's all too remindful of some of the more painful stories I wrote early in my career concerning serious neck injuries that left young athletes paralyzed for life.
One mishap claimed a state championship wrestler who was also a college football prospect. As far as I know, he never walked again.
Another happened to a football player, whose high school had been suspended from athletics for a year because of a fight the previous season in which this athlete had not taken part. The school was ordered to run a full intramural program to fill in for the missing interschool competition, and this athlete was injured during one of those games.
I did not attend the game nor write about the neck injury to Salem football player Chance Crawford, who has overcome adversity from being paralyzed to become one of the Roanoke Valley's leading citizens. I am all too aware of his story, though, and know a little of what he has gone through.
This fall, though, death has been an unwanted visitor into Timesland athletics. The latest tragedy came Saturday when Magna Vista boys' basketball coach Jim Young was killed in a car accident.
Anyone who ever wrote about, or coached and played against Young realizes what a marvelous person he was. Young was the epitome of high school athletics, fiercely competitive but gracious in victory or defeat.
While talking to Young's friends for a story on his career, one of my favorite yarns was passed on by ex-Martinsville High coaches Mel Cartwright and Husky Hall. They coached Young in high school and remember him getting a cut on his forehead from a sledding accident during a snowstorm in 1961.
``I told him the night before, if it starts snowing, don't get on a sled. The first thing he did was get on a sled and he slid into the truck,'' recalled Cartwright.
Hall remembers the innovative Cartwright cutting off the bill of a baseball helmet and fitting it on Young so that he could play a basketball game against Martinsville's archrival Drewry Mason, the same school where, two decades later, Young would coach teams to three Group A state championships.
``Jim wanted to play so badly,'' said Cartwright. ``The helmet didn't bother him, and he scored 19 points that night.''
Cartwright returned to coaching last year as Young's assistant at Magna Vista, and he planned to help his protege again this year.
Two Timesland coaches also lost their fathers. One was former Patrick Henry boys' basketball coach Woody Deans, whose father, Fred, passed away earlier this month.
The other was Walter Karnes, father of Staunton River girls' basketball coach Tom Karnes, who died unexpectedly last week.
Tom Karnes was most touched when his team sang at his father's funeral and volunteered to be flower girls. ``They prepared a song [``Working to Get to Heaven''] to sing at the funeral, and that was the most touching thing done for me,'' said Tom Karnes.
In his grief, Karnes returned to coach his team in an important Seminole District game at Jefferson Forest on Thursday.
``After what they did, I had to be there. I didn't want to let them down,'' said Karnes.
His girls had one more gift for their coach as they upset Jefferson Forest, the preseason favorite to win the Seminole District, 40-36.
There is no joy in writing about tragedy, either death or severe athletic injuries. Earlier this fall, I wrote a story about former Salem football player Stephen Maggenbauer. After suffering a neck injury as a high school sophomore, he was warned that if he continued to play contact sports, he might be paralyzed for life.
Maggenbauer suffered through not playing football in high school and college. He vowed to come back and did, as an offensive coordinator at Glenvar.
That's why people say that from tragic circumstances, people get stronger. In the coming days, three Timesland families will need that and heed those words in realization that better times will be coming.
BRIGHTER FUTURE: Despite losing its first three football games under new football coach Danny Dodson, the future might be better for Craig County.
The former Pulaski County football player came in trying to recruit numbers so that the Rockets can reverse a losing trend. His efforts have been successful with 40 players participating on the varsity and junior varsity levels.
Last year, there were only 11 players on the junior varsity and 13 on the varsity according to Tom Rudisill, the school's athletic director. For a school with 210 enrolled in grades nine-12, Dodson has a high participation percentage. It's also interesting that only three of the Rockets are seniors.
LOST CENTER: Salem center Ryan Poff suffered a knee injury against Pulaski County and underwent an MRI earlier this week that will determine if he can play any more this year.
Poff is only the third sophomore to start at center, a key position, under Salem offensive coordinator Billy Miles. The other two were Kris Sweet and Rob Vaughan, both of whom were great high school players.
STILL A.D.: Former Pulaski County athletic director Ron Kanipe is still in the business. Just before school started, he accepted a position as the athletic director at Western Albemarle.
Kanipe had been in the Pulaski County system for 22 years. While he's dropping from Group AAA to Group AA ranks, Kanipe will oversee a program that has 44 teams, counting junior varsity and ninth grade, compared to 34 or 35 teams at Pulaski County.
GET YOUR TICKETS: It's less than a month until two of Timesland's premier coaching names, Norm Lineburg of Radford and Bob Williams, who formerly was at Parry McCluer, enter the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame.
Lineburg is still active, seeking a third state football championship. Williams retired two years ago after winning five state championships.
Anyone interested in going to the Hall of Fame banquet in Charlottesville can do so by ordering tickets from the Virginia High School League, 1642 State Farm Blvd., Charlottesville, Va., 22911. The banquet is slated for Wednesday, Oct.16, at 7 p.m. at the Omni Hotel.
The cost of each ticket is $30 for a prime rib dinner, and reservations must be received by Monday, Oct.7. There will be no tickets sold at the door.
LENGTH: Long : 113 linesby CNB