ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997 TAG: 9702260068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
A basketball history lesson is growing on coaching trees at the Salem Civic Center these days.
Most of the roots are in coach Bob Johnson's program at Emory & Henry, which finished its season Saturday at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament in Salem.
Two of his former players and assistants, Mark Hanks and Pat Paye, coached Liberty and William Campbell, respectively, to victories in the Region III boys' tournament that opened Tuesday night at the civic center.
Another of Johnson's proteges, Mike Cartolaro, was the head coach at Virginia High School in Bristol when Paye was an assistant there. Cartolaro is now at Altavista, which competes in the same new Group AA district - the Dogwood - as Paye's team. One of Paye's assistants at William Campbell is Derek Elmore, an E&H alumnus.
These coaches also have ties closer to the Salem arena than the ODAC school two hours south on I-81.
Hanks is from Pulaski County, Cartolaro from Buena Vista. Elmore played at Northside. Paye, a William Byrd graduate, is the son of retired William Fleming coach Burrall Paye.
``Hanks, Cartolaro and Paye, the common thread they all have is that they just love to watch people play,'' Johnson said. ``Some people love ballet or music. Those guys love the game, the way it's played, the performance.''
Johnson's coaching sprouts also have reached Division I. Robert Lineburg (Radford) is an assistant at Southern Methodist, Jimmy Allen (Northside) is at Navy. The success story among the group, however, is Hanks.
He was at E&H when Johnson was hired in 1980. After two seasons, 84 points and 68 assists, the 6-foot-1 guard quit playing and turned to coaching. He and Cartolaro were college roommates.
Hanks, in his seventh season at the Bedford school, has the state's top-ranked Group AA team (23-1), with the only loss to Oak Hill Academy. That follows last season's 25-0 state title squad.
Hanks' 22-5 team in 1995 reached the Group AA semifinal round. Most of this season's Minutemen are underclassmen, too.
``Mark really took some knocks, some tough seasons early,'' said Johnson, recalling the Minutemen's seven victories in the first two seasons combined under Hanks. ``He just has that enthusiasm.''
Hanks has more than a good team. He has a solid program.
``What Coach Johnson taught me was to have a firm belief in what you're going to do,'' Hanks said after Liberty's 68-49 victory over Blacksburg. ``When I went to Liberty, I had this stack of stuff I wanted to do.
``One day I went down to Emory before a football game and sat down with him. He said, `You can't do all of this. What do you believe in?' I said, `Man-to-man [defense].' He said, `Then why do all of this?' He was right.''
Paye had some tie-loosening moments Tuesday in his Generals' 48-47 victory over Jefferson Forest - apparently not as anxious a time as his father, however.
Burrall Paye and his wife, Nancy, don't watch their son coach these days.
``They skipped a game, and we beat Magna Vista, which was ranked fourth in the state [in Group AA], and then won a few more in a row,'' Paye said of his 13-11 club, which was an upset winner in the Dogwood tournament this past week. ``Now, they won't come back.''
So, as Paye got his first victory as head coach on a floor where his dad guided the Colonels to many triumphs, the former Fleming coach who was sitting at home got occasional updates from press row.
On a Paye phone, maybe?
Will Pat's parents visit the civic center Friday night for the Generals' Region III semifinal against Salem High School?
``Not a chance,'' the Campbell coach said.
While men to whom he taught the game were winning at the civic center, Johnson was in town, too. He made a scouting trip to Fleming's Northwest Region date, checking prospects.
``It's an accumulation of things,'' said Pat Paye, 31. ``From my father, I got a passion for the game, and playing for and working with Coach Johnson added on to that.
``I think one thing we all picked up is that he's so very demanding that he makes you not only a better player, but a better person. He teaches you more than basketball.''
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