ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
Most retired coaches miss the competition and their players, but they don't miss the road trips.
In the past few years, the coaching carousel has spun faster and faster as men and women who dedicated their lives to working with high school athletes have jumped off to pursue other goals.
This past year, three Blue Ridge District girls' basketball coaches stepped down after long and successful careers.
In the Roanoke Valley District, all five schools have lost their boys' basketball coaches in the past 16 months. In football, only Pulaski County's Joel Hicks has been on the job as a head coach for 10 years or more.
Do coaches miss sports after they leave them? Or are they like Radford's Norm Lineburg, the Timesland coach with the longest tenure in football, who won't retire and have to worry about what they miss in coaching.
Here are what some of the more prominent former coaches have to say:
Larry Carter, Lord Botetourt: Carter last coached football four years ago. He's still involved in high school sports as an athletic director and track and field coach. Carter was best known as a football coach, though, and rumors persist that he might return to the game if Botetourt can't find a teaching opening to offer a head coach for the fall.
Carter, though, counts himself as a retired football coach with pleasant memories of a game in which he guided a couple of schools - Hopewell and Patrick Henry - to the Group AAA playoffs.
What does he miss most about coaching football?
``Third down and three. That's the one down that makes it the most exciting,'' Carter said.
Sherley Stuart, William Fleming: Stuart is the athletic director after retiring as football coach two years ago. At the end of this school year, he also is stepping down as athletic director.
``I miss being asleep and dreaming that I'm not ready to play a game,'' Stuart said. ``I would dream that we hadn't worked on this or hadn't worked on that. Then I'd wake up and it was just a dream.''
Benny Gibson, Franklin County: Gibson is the principal at Franklin County, the Timesland high school with the largest enrollment. He once was the school's football coach.
``Just the contact with the kids,'' Gibson said when asked what he misses about coaching. ``It's a different game as principal. You see them in a different light. In football, I got to know them a lot better. I'd see all sides of a kid, at their best and at their worst. But I'd have 50 kids, and now I have 2,000 students.''
Len Mosser Jr., Salem: Mosser plays golf and watches son Jason play football, basketball and tennis. He was the boys' basketball coach at Cave Spring and Salem, following in the footsteps of his father, Len Mosser Sr., the longtime coach at Patrick Henry.
``I miss the excitement of game time, that competitive edge of getting fired up for games, getting the kids ready to play,'' Mosser said. ``I miss seeing the kids improve over a season and seeing teams come together. I teach, so I still get to see kids in a one-on-one relationship.
``It's a little different than being on the floor, getting pumped up at game time for the big games.''
Len Mosser Sr., Patrick Henry: Mosser was the second boys' basketball coach at Patrick Henry, before retiring to become an administrator in the Roanoke city school system.
``Just being with the kids, nothing else,'' he said when asked what he missed. ``Wins and losses weren't that important now that I look back.''
Mosser admits he notices coaching openings. but adds, ``I'm not interested.''
Rudy Lacy, Cave Spring Lacy retired as boys' basketball coach after the 1982-83 season, his 26th, though he continued to coach golf. Lacy, 65, has retired from teaching.
``I had been in basketball a long, long time. I just thought everybody did that every year,'' he said. ``It took a little while until I got used to being out of it. I missed the excitement and the butterflies before each game. You gradually start doing other things and find out that you have a lot more time to do things you want to do.
``Hey, we were in the [1969 Group AA] state championship game against James Monroe. We were one down with a few seconds left. Steve Wheeler hit a shot to put us ahead. We ran down the floor and thought we had won it. They took a desperation shot and some guy tipped it in. The excitement of games like that I miss, though you win some and lose some.''
Dave Petersen, Blacksburg Petersen is assistant principal at Blacksburg after leaving Salem, where he was the boys' tennis coach. He also coached girls' tennis when Salem was a Group AAA school and the boys' and girls' seasons were different.
Petersen goes to all the Blacksburg boys' and girls' tennis matches. He is a sort of volunteer adviser and one of high school tennis' most knowledgable former coaches. He watches son Paul play tennis and junior varsity basketball for the Indians.
``On cold and rainy days, I don't miss coaching tennis,'' Petersen said. ``On nice, warm days, when I walk out of my office there is this empty feeling. It's one of those things where you think, `I kind of miss it.'
``There have been a few days where I've been asked to fill in and run a practice for tennis. It's like a time machine. You never walked away from it. It's like I never left.''
Dick Kepley, Patrick Henry Kepley was the boys' basketball coach at PH before Woody Deans took over and guided the Patriots to a pair of Group AAA titles. Kepley won a state championship as head coach at Jefferson, then moved to PH where his teams remained state powers.
``I miss the experience of sitting on the bench and getting after it,'' Kepley said. ``I miss the competitiveness you have against other teams. I really enjoy seeing teams using presses and teams doing things what we did with our press. I see some teams not pressing and I wonder why. I enjoy watching teams that have an offensive scheme, to see how they're getting their points.''
Kepley coached before the advent of the 3-point shot, but he says that shouldn't change anything. ``I was always a believer in offenses starting inside and working out,'' he said. ``Some people have offensive schemes of taking 3-point shots, but there's more to it than that.''
John Shotwell, James River: After a long and successful career as a boys' basketball coach, Shotwell remains in coaching with golf and softball. He is retired from teaching, but Shotwell stays busy running a bed-and-breakfast in Buchanan.
``I miss just being able to talk basketball with the kids,'' he said. ``We'd talk basketball any free time we had in the hallway. I got real close to my players. I'm close to my softball players and golfers, but I don't miss the trips and being out late at night.''
Husky Hall, Martinsville: Hall was the state's winningest public school boys' basketball coach when he stepped down, and he won numerous Group AA titles. He also was the school's golf coach. Two years ago, Hall retired from coaching and teaching.
Hall was playing golf this past week when he was called for this article. He then headed to Augusta, Ga., to watch the Masters. Like all ex-coaches, he surely misses the game. He was just too busy with golf to tell.
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Carter, Stuart, Petersen.by CNB