ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 19, 1996 TAG: 9612200050
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: NEIGHBORS EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
At a time when high schools change coaches at the drop of a hat and colleges and pro teams fire them nearly as often, the Salem High School football staff is the exception to the rule.
When Willis White was hired to coach at Salem starting with the 1983 season, he filled out his staff with John Hinkle, Marty Yuhas, Billy Miles, Steve Oliver, Larry Bradley, Danny Wheeling and Tommy Barber. Jerry Scharnus joined the staff the next year. Fourteen seasons and one state championship later, the same group remains together.
Consider that in the same period Patrick Henry, the school White left for Salem, has gone through four head coaches if you count Mike Sisler, who served as interim coach after Dennis Vaught resigned.
Only four head coaches in the Blue Ridge and Roanoke Valley districts - Northside's Jim Hickam, William Byrd's Jeff Highfill, Pulaski County's Joel Hicks and Blacksburg's Dave Crist - were at their posts when the Salem staff was put together. But they've all had to change or revamp their staffs numerous times since then.
White's only changes have come when Brian Hooker, a former Salem quarterback, became a volunteer assistant and worked his way onto the staff. When Hooker left in 1991 to coach Glenvar, Hal Adams became a Salem assistant. When Adams left after the 1995 season to become a minister, White didn't replace him.
``Salem told me to find the people I wanted and they would find them a [teaching] job,'' White said. ``It was a unique situation. It was a new school system. This probably wouldn't happen today. I didn't think the staff would stay together this long. Coaches, as a rule, are an antsy bunch. They bounce around.''
Hinkle (Carroll County), Bradley (Grundy and Lexington) and Barber (Galax) are all former head coaches, adding to the unique quality of this group. Yuhas and Miles were on the staff of Carl Richards, who was fired to make room for White. Wheeling was teaching in the Salem system, but he wasn't coaching.
Oliver moved with White from PH, and Barber, Hinkle and Bradley were hired from outside the system. Scharnus had coached at PH with White, but he retired and went to work for Dillard Paper Co. After a year off from football in 1983, he was ready to come back. And White was more than willing to hire him.
``I talked to everybody who was coaching [with Richards] and wanted to stay,'' White said. ``Out of four or five, I only picked two.''
So how has this staff beaten the odds - as well as a number of opponents - and stayed together? The key may be that none of them seems to have an ego, starting with White.
``We're kind of at opposite ends of the spectrum,'' he said of his staff. ``We're good for each other. We balance each other out. I have a tendency to lay back and relax. Then there's Miles. He sometimes shatters my peace and tranquility. He keeps me alert.''
Miles is the emotional one on the staff. He'll tell you in an instant that he wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a shouter and a stomper, but he's remained cool enough to call most of the offensive plays during his tenure as a White assistant.
Miles played for the now-defunct Andrew Lewis High School, and if anyone is Salem through and through, it's Miles. Three of his sons have played for him. He says a combination of things have kept this staff together.
``One, you have to be happy at what you're doing,'' Miles said. ``If you want to be a coach or do anything in life, you have to be given responsibility. All our coaches have a significant responsibility. Willis lets them carry it through.''
White agrees that's a key. ``Most coaches are happy as long as they're coaching,'' he said. ``The quickest way to make a coach unhappy is not to let him coach.''
Miles said there's more to it, though.
``The second thing deals with the work atmosphere, the community, the school,'' he said. ``I can't imagine any job being better than coaching in Salem, Virginia, because of the community support and because of the school administration. It's an extremely good environment.
``Third, everybody truly understands the responsibility of each coach. We used to have meetings [at the start of each year] to explain responsibilities. Now we push a button and take off. No one wonders if it will get done.''
Scharnus understood all this from working with White at Patrick Henry. He was upset with some things going on in the Roanoke school system, such as the decision to drop middle school football and was ready to coach again.
``After one year, I missed it,'' Scharnus said. ``I thought it was time to come back.''
He asked White for a job, but when it appeared there were no openings at Salem, he was ready to accept a spot on Hickam's Northside staff.
``Coach White told me 15 minutes before I was supposed to take the Northside job'' that Salem had a vacancy, Scharnus said. ``My head hit the ceiling, and I came directly over to Salem.''
Scharnus said he had never thought about the longevity of the Salem staff. ``We're really happy where we are,'' he said. ``We get along together. There's no reason to leave.''
Scharnus interviewed at PH when Vaught left. ``I told them just to take my name off the list, that there was no way I could take'' the kind of pay cut that would have been required, he said. ``When you look at the situation you're in and you're happy, why do you want to leave unless there's something better? I don't see anything better with the facilities and the pay.''
Off the field, the Salem coaches don't socialize. They meet for three hours each Sunday during the season, but White doesn't try to monopolize their time and take them away from their families.
``Everybody sort of goes their own way. The common bond is football,'' White said. ``As far as I know, no one is the other's best friend.''
Scharnus, for one, likes it that way.
``We see each other enough during the season,'' he said. ``That's good enough.''
This year it was good enough for a Group AA Division 4 title.
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Salem High School's footballby CNBcoaching staff, headed by Willis White (center), has been together
for 14 years. Assistant coaches that stand behind White are (from
left) Danny Wheeling, Steve Oliver, Marty Yuhas, Billy Miles, Jerry
Scharnus, Larry Bradley, John Hinkle and Tommy Barber. color.