ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997 TAG: 9704080093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HARRY MINIUM LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Derita Ratcliffe will oversee Tech's policy dealing with off-the-field problems, a plan she helped devise.
Virginia Tech officials on Monday announced that Portsmouth native Derita Ratcliffe will oversee a plan designed to end a string of embarrassing off-the-field altercations involving athletes in the last 17 months.
Ratcliffe, a 1985 graduate of Norcom High School, has been named to the newly created position of assistant athletic director for student services.
Ratcliffe, who had been director of student life for the athletic department, will implement a newly adopted system of tougher punishment and preventative counseling for athletes, athletic director Dave Braine said.
Ratcliffe, a 30-year-old James Madison University graduate, has worked at Tech since 1994, when she was named assistant director of student life.
She is a clinical psychologist who worked at a drug treatment facility for adolescents in Chesapeake before going to Tech.
She helped author the plan endorsed by Braine and university president Paul Torgersen in February to deal with off-the-field incidents.
The plan calls for more counseling of athletes and for Braine, rather than coaches, to mete out discipline for altercations. The plan also includes mandatory sanctions against athletes charged with a crime.
``Derita is the ideal person to put this program in place,'' Braine said. ``She is a clinical psychology major who has devoted her life to serving as a bridge-maker to student athletes.''
Most problems have involved football players, including eight players indicted in November for assaulting two Tech students. Ratcliffe said she will work more closely with football players at first, but eventually will work with athletes in all sports.
Ratcliffe said each incoming Tech athlete will be assigned a ``mentor,'' a graduate student who will help the freshman deal with the transition to college.
Each mentor will work with five athletes.
``Graduate students have been through the same experience as the athletes and have been through it successfully,'' she said. ``Who is better to help you other than someone who's gone through exactly what you're going through?''
Freshmen athletes also will receive career counseling, training in how to deal with the media, counseling in how to deal with the transition to college and will be urged to communicate when they are having problems that could lead to off-the-field incidents.
``There are a lot of services we need to provide to our student athletes that we haven't been providing,'' she said. ``We need to have greater communication between the coaches [and university counselors]. We can't help athletes if we don't know what kind of problems they are having.''
Ratcliffe said her work with the football team began this winter when she interviewed each of Tech's incoming recruits.
``I met one or both parents for each of them,'' she said. ``I tried to get a sense as to who each person was. I wanted to know more about a person than he's 6-foot-5 and runs a 4.7 40.''
She said she is confident the plan will end, or at least reduce, the number of off-the-field incidents.
``I believe it will,'' she said. ``When you get a group of individuals who feel ostracized and admired at the same time, they have a receive lot of conflicting messages. That's not easy to deal with when you're 18 years old.''
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB