THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996                TAG: 9601030191
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER       PAGE: 15   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: SPORTS EDITOR 
SOURCE: BY PATTI WALSH, SPORTS EDITOR 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines

HERE'S TO THE OTHER PATTY, MY MOTHER

Each time the New Year comes around, I promise myself I'll start working out. Or get better organized or pay the credit cards off.

But this year I'm going to stick to my resolutions. I have no choice.

As the new Clipper sports editor, I'm on the other Patty Walsh's turf again.

And it's time - as proud of my mother as I may be - to stop riding the name.

No, I'm not the girls basketball coach at Oscar Smith. No, I didn't play basketball at Old Dominion with Nancy Lieberman and company when the Lady Monarchs were ranked in the top 20 during the late 70s. No, I wasn't the first basketball player at Norfolk Catholic - male or female - to score 1,000 points.

But, yes, I am still a gym rat and I guess that's why I'm here.

For all the times Mom (otherwise known as ``Big Patty'' to our mutual circle of colleagues and friends) hauled me to basketball and softball practice. . . for all the times we screamed at the television when my Cowboys were pounding her Redskins. . . for all the times she donned field hockey goal keeper equipment while I worked on my fast ball in the back yard, I thank her. I thank her for instilling a love of sports in me. And for supporting me in all my endeavors, even if I did break a couple of windows when my changeup was high and though I never grew into the power forward she wanted me to be.

But here I am - all 5-foot-2 of me - still carrying the burden of living up to her big name, well-noted in sports before I was ever a sparkle in my Dad's eye.

Everywhere we go, friends ask her when she started writing for the paper. Her players - girls ages 14 to 18 - still call me ``Little Patti.'' And somewhere, I'm sure, coaches wonder whether my unique situation has any influence on my writing.

I'm not making any campaign promises, but in no way, shape or form, does Mom have anything to do with what I write. Painstakingly, we have learned to separate the professional from the personal.

And as the Clipper sports editor, I will strive to be fair and offer a wide variety of coverage. Feel free to give me a call with story ideas or to tell me what you think. (Another of my New Year's resolutions is to be where people can find me.)

But ultimately, I'm still the woman the other Patty raised me to be, at home running around the gyms and the playing fields.

Like mother, like daughter. Only I'll have a notebook and pen in hand. by CNB