ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
THE BILL IS IN for 30 seconds of post-game celebration at Victory Stadium: $4,000.
With Victory Stadium's goal posts laying at their feet, Salem High School football players and fans marched triumphantly out of Roanoke on Saturday with a coveted state championship crown, ready to party.
The hangover from all that post-game celebration arrived Monday, when the Salem school system got hit with the bill: about $4,000 for new goal posts, estimated John Coates, Roanoke's director of parks and recreation.
Coates says he received a call from Salem High School Principal John Hall Monday morning, in which the principal offered to cover damages for the posts, which are less than 7 years old.
Fans in the stands Saturday thought the goal posts looked awfully puny, given that one set toppled in about 15 seconds and the other soon followed.
The crowd roared in response, with many Salem fans laughing at how flimsy the posts were. Others poked fun at the overall condition of the decades-old stadium.
"Tear 'em down!," yelled one fan as the first set of goal posts tumbled. "We'll just buy the city some better ones."
Hall says the cost of the new posts sounds about right.
"Our guys were the ones who did it," Hall said. "It's like any other piece of property we damage. We certainly will pay for it," he said.
Although Hall is proud of the Group AA Division 4 crown, the same isn't necessarily true for the post-game behavior of the fans.
"I don't want to make it sound like I approve of people tearing down goal posts, because I don't." Hall said. "I definitely don't approve of people going out and tearing somebody else's property down." The money for repairs will come from the school system's budget, not the city of Salem's, he added.
"It's kind of unfortunate," Coates said. "I guess sports fans will be sports fans. I suppose they certainly had something to be excited about."
In the future, however, parks and recreation may want to take a cue from Roanoke County's Cave Spring High School. Last year, officials there hit upon a rather novel goal-post-preserving solution: They circled the posts with guard dogs following games.
It worked.
Staff writer Todd Jackson contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB