ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 20, 1996 TAG: 9612200011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
One muggy August night in Radford, a visitor to the local university was pulling into the parking lot while halfway listening to a program on his tinny-sounding car radio.
The radio station offered a decidedly more highbrow programming bill of fare than the listener was otherwise accustomed to. Nevertheless, the driver found himself drawn in by an essay by a courtly old gent, a professor from Duke University.
You could picture the old man digging ashes and half-baked debris out of his pipe and smoothing the leather patches on his bony elbows as he read his essay.
His topic was a student who, years after she had left his class, had penned him a letter with the startling news that his lessons had made a major impact on her life.
Obviously touched, the man urged listeners who had been similarly influenced by a teacher, to call or drop them a line. ``Do it now,'' he said.
Meadow Overstreet, a high school point guard of uncommon ability from the suburbs of Atlanta, never heard this radio essay. Yet one day recently, this 12th-grader was moved to take up her pen and write the praises of a coach for whom she hadn't played since she was a freshman in high school.
Said she of coach Mickey McGuigan of Blacksburg High: ``If they are willing to learn and they have a goal, he will help bring out the best of a person's qualities on the court.''
The best of Overstreet's qualities have apparently been brought out on many courts. Since leaving Blacksburg, where she was a backup point guard on the 1994 state Group AA championship team, she has played at two of the bigger high schools in Georgia, the most recent being South Gwinnett.
It's been a rather astounding run for the 5-foot-7-inch Overstreet, who has known only six defeats in three-plus years at three high schools. South Gwinnett is the top-ranked AAAA team in the state and is cruising along at 9-0, she said by telephone this week. She is the starter at the point.
``It's been cool so far,'' she said.
Her best basketball may well be ahead of her. After serving in a backup role a year ago at South Gwinnett, she earned an invitation to a preseason all-star tournament late this summer and was spotted by coaches from Mississippi State and invited to visit the school.
``I couldn't see myself living in Starkville, Miss., but I decided to go anyway,'' she said.
Her opinion changed as soon as she set sneakered foot on the east central Mississippi flatlands of the campus.
``I fell in love with the coach [Sharon Fanning], I liked the players, and I liked everything about the place,'' she said. ``I was planning on going to South Florida, Georgia Southern and Pitt to visit and was going to make up my mind and sign in the spring. But after I saw Mississippi State, it was like, why wait?''
McGuigan saw Overstreet's potential years ago when he first spotted her, as a ninth-grader, in one of his summer camps.
``She had talent and I asked her to try out for the varsity,'' he said. ``She seemed nervous about it, but she did fine.''
She backed up starter Mary Thorn, one of the linchpins of McGuigan's second state championship squad.
``Meadow pushed Mary and made her better,'' McGuigan said.
Over the years. McGuigan has spoken several times to Overstreet by telephone. The Indians could have used her the past two years, although McGuigan, certainly out of respect for the players he did have, didn't say so.
It's been difficult in Indian land in recent campaigns, especially this past season. It was Blacksburg's first in the killer Blue Ridge District, home of two-time defending state champion Lord Botetourt. Blacksburg struggled throughout and, as most coaches would, McGuigan took it hard.
Further, two coaches whose careers had paralleled his, Radford's Brenda King and Botetourt's David Wheat, turned in their whistles this year. Coaching, often a solitary endeavor, got to be a little more isolated and lonely.
Then along came word from Overstreet.
``Mickey sets high standards and he makes you do it for yourself,'' she said. ``I've never had a coach like him and I've had a lot of coaches. I've taken everything he's taught me and kept it with me all this time because I know I'll never have another coach like him.''
When informed later that she had said that, McGuigan's voice caught ever so faintly.
``I've got three kids now,'' he said. ``I've got an 11-month-old [Katy] in my arms right now, to go with a 41/2-year-old [Scott] and a 12-year-old [Emily]. All the time I spend with other people's kids makes me wonder if it's all worth it.
``Then you hear something like this from Meadow and you think maybe it is.''
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Meadow Overstreet is a senior point guard for Southby CNBGwinnett High in Georgia.