ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FERRUM
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
FERRUM SOCCER STANDOUT Shannon Sayre may be the reigning Ms. Richmond, but the last thing on her mind is looks.
The people who run the Ms. Richmond beauty pageant probably didn't have this in mind three weeks ago when they were envisioning their ideal crown bearer:
An agriculture major from the Washington, D.C., suburbs who drives a 1984 Camaro, detests makeup, abhors buying her clothes from anywhere more expensive than Wal-Mart or Pic and Pay shoes, but would like to pursue a career in modeling.
And did we mention she's a senior sweeper, the toughest position on the field, for Ferrum's women's soccer team?
``Nothing goes together,'' said Shannon Sayre, 21, the reigning Ms. Richmond. ``There's nothing wrong with that because I'd hate to be like everybody else.''
Uh, that's not a problem. While 27 fellow contestants fluttered around Richmond's Carpenter Center on Sunday, Sept.14, chasing down their makeup people and hairdressers, Sayre sat in a pair of jean shorts, her hair in a bun (her favorite style) and gobbled down a snack with her family. She was in no rush. She did her hair and makeup in 10 minutes.
Told there would be a casual wear portion to the competition, most of the contestants sported sleek business suits. All Sayre brought with her from Ferrum were her trusty flannels, oversized jeans and black Doc Marten rip-off boots.
``Flannels are nice and warm, and you can never be too warm here at Ferrum,'' she said.
With its stress on appearance, the pageant must have been foreign to her. Sayre had never been in a pageant, and only entered this one when she received a card in the mail inviting her to try out. ``Like Publisher's Clearing House,'' she said.
When she won, it was like someone showed up at her doorstep and gave her a million bucks. For a few seconds, she was a different person, crying and grasping the hands of the runners-up. ``Their hands had to be blue, I squeezed them so hard,'' she said.
Hours earlier, as she sat in Richmond with her mother, Suzi, Sayre questioned whether she should go ahead with the whole thing. ``I needed to be home in sweat pants, in front of the TV eating popcorn on my bed or something,'' Sayre said, ``not worried about how I look in front of these people or what I'm going to say.''
Shannon's mother raised her to think that way. Accept all people for what they are and the same will happen to you. Suzi Rine didn't worry about what people thought of her when Shannon was young, even though her occupations - racing dragsters, driving tractor trailers and working as a narcotics cop in D.C. - were anything but conventional.
Sayre is a beauty queen who places little stock in appearances, and she's much more sensitive and welcoming because of that. A single incident in the fifth grade made almost as strong a mark as her mother did over all those years.
Sayre and a few classmates were helping their teacher clean a storage closet after school. She sat on a shelf moving books, her hair flowing down to her waist. As she shifted her position, a ventilator fan above her head sucked her long hair up to the ceiling and pulled it out at once. ``Gone,'' she said.
``When you're in fifth grade, and you're starting to get your personality and your confidence and you have to wear a wig that is so obvious, the kids make fun of you. I never knew if people were my friends so they could get more information on what happened to me, or if they could say, `I'm the friend of the girl that wears the wig.'''
She got rid of the wig when she entered the sixth grade and a new school.
``All I had was straight hair with one curl in the back like little boys get,'' she said. ``People would call me a boy and it was embarrassing. After that, I was a very hard person.''
Ferrum soccer coach Tom Thatcher is glad for that. As the Panthers' defensive anchor, Sayre is a three-time team defensive player of the year and two-time all-Dixie Conference selection.
``She adds a whole lot of personality to the team,'' Thatcher said. ``She can take a hit with the best of 'em and does not want to sit down.''
Even though she now must play beauty queen along with her other roles and responsibilities, Sayre refuses to be set on a pedestal. Not enough room to move.
While at school, she prefers the wide, open expanses of Ferrum's soccer fields. At home in Springfield, she likes to drive her tractor in her job at the Occoquan Regional Park.
``There's nothing worse than walking around with a bunch of girls who are so worried about where they buy their clothes and what label is on the inside of their shirt,'' Sayre said. ``I'd rather have a migraine than do that, because at least I can be comfortable in a pair of sweat pants and lay there in bed and sleep or something.''
``She's not exactly a fashion statement,'' her mother said. ``She always says to me, `I'm not like the other girls.' I say, `I don't want you to be like the others.' She's just herself.''
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WALKER NELMS. 1. Shannon Sayre is a three-time defensiveby CNBplayer of the year for the Ferrum women's soccer team. 2. FERRUM
COLLEGE. Accustomed to collecting athletic awards, Shannon Sayre
took home the trophy in the Ms. Richmond pageant. color.