ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997 TAG: 9703070035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
Springtime played tag with the sporting public of the New River Valley this week.
Monday, cold drizzle fell in somber veils that shrouded tennis courts, golf links and baseball diamonds in a silver sheen.
Elsewhere, softballs rattled sharply off the built-to-take-it paneling in the snug, concrete-floored gymnasium at the New River Valley Fairgrounds. The basketball goals with the fraying nets at either end and on each side of the Dublin gym recalled the current sports season. The bats, shin guards and leather worn by the athletes working out under the basketball goals spoke of another, gentler time of year, and seemed out of place inside.
Not so gentle was the sentence of punishment for throwing drill offenses. Penitents who couldn't throw straight were sent spread-eagled to the floor where they were compelled to perform push-ups. These being first-year softball players errant heaves were frequent. The guilty took their exercise cheerfully and without prompting from higher authority.
Across the soggy valley, outdoor athletes were driven indoors, and in both Pulaski County and Floyd County high schools had to schedule their workouts around the still alive and breathing basketball teams. This year, the boys are carrying the Buffaloes banner, and girls are wearing the gold and burgundy of the Cougars as each team prepares for state tournaments this weekend.
Of course, as they say in Comprehensive Coachspeak, there were, "distractions.''
As basketballs dribbled and whistles blew, the thoughts of Floyd County sharpshooter Jason Dalton and assistant hoops coach Skip Bishop must have occasionally strayed to the great outdoors. Bishop is also the baseball coach and Dalton one of his best players, but they had other sporting business to tend to first.
Similarly, Cougars Robyn Bower, Mouse Blevins and Sharmon Underwood had one foot in one season and the other in the next. One day last week, basketball coach Buddy Ferris gave his deserving Group AAA Northwest Region champions the day off. Bower, who plays a lot of basketball, rested. Underwood and Blevins, who hoop fewer minutes, went to softball practice.
The next day must have been a particular strain for the indoor confined. The more fortunate of winter's discontented were set free to carry forth across the land.
In Blacksburg, they gathered in one of Virginia Tech's vast parking lots, where young ladies with flowing locks zigged and zagged atop swiftly rolling in-line skates. They came out to pull two-wheeled carts, clubs clattering, between the bare old oaks at Tech's golf course. They came out dressed in running gear to push babies in lightweight chariots at a brisk trot down Patrick Henry Drive.
They kicked soccer balls, occasionally where they intended. They hit baseballs, occasionally out of the infield.
The gloom returned the day after and so did the falling weather and its promise of soggy socks and stinging fingers. Most stoic of all were the bare-legged distance runners, who, like football, soccer and lacrosse players, have accepted quietly their fate as endurers of the whims of climate.
Such is the harsh truth of life during springtime. The gym at the fairgrounds doesn't have enough floor space to run an 800.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB