ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997 TAG: 9704210125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
Mary Copenhaver, who has a 368-140 career record, cites health problems as the reason for leaving a job she says she hates to give up.
Another successful Timesland girls' basketball coach has retired.
George Wythe's Mary Copenhaver added her name Friday to a growing list of notable coaches who are leaving the sport that has been Timesland's most successful at the state level.
Since 1982, Timesland schools have won 13 of the possible Group A and AA titles. Copenhaver's 1989 Wythe team won the Group A title. She was Group A runner-up twice, once at Wythe and once at G.W. Carver in Henry County.
Copenhaver, 49, whose daughter Merrily will be a senior next fall on the Wythe team, says a lot of little things led to her decision. Copenhaver will continue as a physical education teacher at Scott Elementary in Wytheville.
``I haven't felt well physically for 18 months,'' Copenhaver said. ``It's nothing major. Just pressure. When you're not healthy, something in your life has to give. Your choices are your family and career.
``I hate to give it up. There will be lots of things I'll miss. But when they decided to add an extra week [girls' basketball starts a week earlier next summer], that was another reason.
``I've been doing this half of my life [24 years] and that's scary. Al [her husband who coaches the Wythe boys' team] is glad, though he's not contemplating doing the same thing.''
School officials were surprised at the resignation. and said once the resignation was accepted by the Wythe County School Board, the job would be advertised.
``This was a surprise to me. Mary's been a tremendous person, a dear friend of mine and a super coach,'' said Rusty Beamer, Wythe's athletic director and an assistant principal. ``I told Mary, `It's going to be hard to replace size 33 shoes for basketball.' She's known around the state.
``I know she's thought long and hard about this. That's the one question I asked her when she told me.''
Alan Cantrell of Floyd County and Mickey McGuigan of Blacksburg are now the only active girls' coaches in Timesland with a state title to their credit. Both have won twice in this decade.
Copenhaver joins Salem's Dee Wright, who won a state title at Radford, Lord Botetourt's David Wheat and Radford's Brenda King, who have decided to retire this year. Wheat and King won two state championships apiece.
In previous years, Carver's Lenora Compton (who followed Copenhaver at that school), Radford's Chris Garber and Blacksburg's Warren Murphy left with state titles on their resumes.
Fieldale-Collinsville's Marcia Mincer and Northside's Marilynn Bussey, two other long-time and successful coaches, also retired this year.
Copenhaver built the Carver program from scratch. Her last team there in 1985 was the state runner-up. Then her husband got the boys' job at George Wythe after he had been an assistant at Carver when that school won the first of two Group A titles in three years in 1986.
The Copenhavers were considered one of the nation's few husband-and-wife coaching teams. Mary Copenhaver had a 191-56 record at Carver and was 177-84 at Wythe for a 23-year mark of 368-140.
This year's team struggled to 10-12 for one of the few losing records of her career.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Copenhaverby CNB