THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 29, 1994 TAG: 9408290121
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: College Football
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
If last year is history, then three, four, five years ago is ancient history. For Norfolk State's Darnell Moore and Aaron Sparrow, the road to success does not detour down Memory Lane.
Sparrow and Moore don't have much interest in reminiscing about their glory days at Wilson High, or an inglorious season last year at Norfolk State.
Says Sparrow: ``I can't worry about, hey, (Moore) was my high school coach. That's in the past. Right now, he's my college coach.''
Says Moore: ``That stuff's all behind us.''
There's too much in front of them to waste time looking back. Moore took over as the interim coach in May. When the Spartans open the season Saturday against Virginia State, he will have had three weeks of practice to install his system, which will feature Sparrow at quarterback.
Of course, it's that scenario that has Norfolk State fans excited: Moore on the sidelines, Sparrow behind center. As Hampton coach Joe Taylor said: ``We all know what happened the last time those two got together.''
Anyone remotely familiar with local high school football knows what happened. Under Moore, Portsmouth's Wilson High was a power, winning two state titles in three years. The first came in 1989, Sparrow's junior year. Wilson had a fearsome defense, to be sure, and some talented receivers, but the main cogs were a coach and quarterback so in tune that words often weren't necessary.
``Toward the end of Aaron's career, it was like they were able to read each other's mind,'' said Joe Ladisic, who was an assistant at Wilson. ``Aaron would make a bad pass, and he'd come to the sideline smiling. He knew what he had done, and Darnell didn't have to say a thing.''
That kind of familiarity came with experience. By the end of his junior year at Wilson, Sparrow had started most of three seasons under Moore.
``Everything I know about playing quarterback, coach Moore has taught me,'' Sparrow says. ``I mean everything.''
They met - or, rather, collided - one day on the basketball court, when Sparrow was in the eighth grade.
``He was checking me, and I went up for the ball and 'bowed him in the jaw,'' Sparrow says.
Moore absorbed the blow and looked at the size of the kid who delivered it.
``Like to come out for football next year?''
Sparrow wasn't sure. He was planning a baseball career.
But when football practice began the following year, Sparrow was there. Sort of.
``He was just standing off to the side, throwing the football, and I asked him to come out,'' Moore says. ``I loaned him the money for a physical. He came back a couple of days later and gave me my money back.''
Finally, though, Sparrow returned to stay. His plan: to be a big, nasty, pass-catching tight end.
``I mean, I was big,'' he said. ``I was about 6 feet tall and about 175 in the ninth grade.''
Moore had other ideas. He told Sparrow he would be a quarterback, and a good one.
By the fourth game of his freshman year, Sparrow was starting. By his senior year, he was one of the country's top-rated quarterbacks, considered on a par with Heath Shuler and Jason Stanicek.
But Sparrow's Division I plans never materialized. Although he was a solid high school student, graduating 36th in a class of 152, he wasn't able to attain the SAT score needed to receive a Division I scholarship. Rather than go to prep school, he enrolled at Norfolk State.
Sparrow was required to sit out his first year. He started the following season, and made the All-CIAA rookie team.
Despite his success, Norfolk State struggled through a 3-7 season, and coach Willard Bailey was replaced by Archie Cooley.
Sparrow lost his starting job to Kermit Buggs. More significantly, he lost his confidence. When he did get to play, he was looking over his shoulder, knowing that a mistake would likely land him back on the sideline.
Sparrow finally left the team with three weeks to go in the season, accusing Cooley of verbal abuse and saying he no longer could stand the constant criticism.
He returned to the team after three days, recanting nothing, and said he planned to transfer after the season. He attempted just four passes in the final three games.
When Cooley resigned in April, Sparrow put his transfer plans on hold. When Moore got the job in May, Sparrow knew he wouldn't have to go anywhere.
Neither Sparrow nor Moore is interested in rehashing last season. For Sparrow, it was a bad dream. For Moore, it was not much better. He found himself in the untenable position of working for Cooley, caring for Sparrow.
``I can't say that he had too much to say because of his job,'' said Cynthia Williamson, Sparrow's aunt. ``His just being there was a help.''
``He was there for me,'' Sparrow says.
Moore thinks Sparrow might have left the team sooner if he had not been on the coaching staff.
``He was able to get through it,'' Moore said. ``And now it's all behind us.''
Ahead is a reunion season. So far, it's been a happy one. Sparrow, noticeably more relaxed, has been throwing the ball with confidence and emerging as a team leader.
``I am more relaxed,'' he said. ``I know what he expects. But the thing I have to do, I can't get lazy on him, being that he was my high school coach. I try to put that in the back of my mind.''
Moore is trying to do the same, but he admits that it is reassuring to have a familiar face at quarterback.
``There's a comfort level as far as my knowing what he can do,'' Moore said. ``He's daring, and at quarterback you've got to be a little daring.''
Moore was known for a daring, diversified offense at Wilson and says he plans to use an expanded version of it at Norfolk State.
Ladisic, for one, can't wait to see it.
``You should see the film,'' Ladisic said. ``Watch Aaron fake a handoff in the middle of the line, take seven steps back with the ball behind him like he doesn't even have it. They'd tackle the running backs and he'd wind up and throw the ball 60 yards on target.
``It's going to be nice to see Aaron get his shot again.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Paul Aiken
Norfolk State quarterback Aaron Sparrow and coach Darnell Moore led
Wilson High to the Group AAA, Division 5 state title in 1989. But
the two are looking to the future, not the past.
by CNB