ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
David Wheat, who got his start in coaching when his daughters began playing recreation league basketball, is giving up his job at Lord Botetourt after guiding the Cavaliers to back-to-back girls' state titles the past two years.
Wheat, a Harvard graduate, is returning to full-time management consulting at the end of the school year. It is the same job he had before he became a teacher and ultimately a coach for the Lord Botetourt girls' basketball team for the past eight years .
``I made the decision late in the summer,'' said Wheat. ``Certainly, I'm going to miss the people here - the students and the players, the day-to-day contact with all these people.''
Wheat's eight-year record is 135-57, but it's in the past two seasons, with guard Sara Moore and center Sarah Hicks leading the way, that the Cavaliers have dominated Group AA with a pair of titles. Only William Byrd stayed with the Cavaliers, who beat the Terriers in the 1995 state championship game and this year in the state semifinals.
Wheat says the past year was his biggest challenge. ``Everybody was gunning for us, literally from the day we won the state title a year ago. The TV guys said the pressure would be on us to win [because all but one player was back].''
The pressure mounted when Byrd beat the Cavaliers in the first game between the two teams and Hicks went down with an injury that sidelined her for several games. That turn of events, though, showed Wheat he had something special in this year's team.
``Last year when we lost the first game to Byrd on Brandy Allen's shot in overtime, we went to Salem, still dragging our tail, and they beat us,'' said Wheat. ``This year you had to wonder how the team would respond after the Byrd loss when Sarah was hurt. The girls responded very well when we played Blacksburg in that next game and I knew they had grown up from a year earlier.
``The thing that is a hallmark to this team is their incredible desire and dedication to succeed and win.''
Wheat arrived in Botetourt County when he was in the consulting business and running a firm with offices in Washington and Houston.
``I needed a place I considered beautiful to live in with good airline service to Washington and Houston. This spot, with the Blue Ridge mountains, was the place,'' said Wheat.
``I still want to teach, but I also want to devote more time to my consulting business. So I'm looking for a way to do both,'' added Wheat, who will work on his doctorate in political science while teaching part-time on a collegiate level.
Wheat never played college basketball. After coaching in rec league, he helped at Botetourt Intermediate and then moved to Lord Botetourt High School where he was head junior varsity coach one year. When the varsity coach at Botetourt retired, Wheat took the job.
``Coaching the young ladies at Lord Botetourt has been a wonderful experience,'' said Wheat. ``I will miss them more than they will ever know. I was overcome by emotion after our victory in the state championship game when I realized that it was my last game and, for me at least, that particular journey was coming to an end.''
At Lord Botetourt, Wheat taught advanced placement courses in American government and politics. His wife Cynthia, a first-grade teacher in Botetourt County, will continue in her position. His daughter, Amy, is an attorney in Houston while his youngest daughter, Autumn, is a business major at Roanoke College.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. File photo. Sara Moore, the Group AA girls'by CNBbasketball player of the year, helped Lord Botetourt to back-to-back
state titles. 2. ERIC BRADY Staff. David Wheat compiled a 135-57
record and won two Group AA titles in eight seasons at Lord
Botetourt. color.