THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601050196
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Leffler
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Watching Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz work on the sidelines as the Irish lost to Florida State 31-26 in the Orange Bowl, I found myself thinking the same thoughts I had the first day we met.
At the time, he was an assistant coach at William and Mary.
We ate together at a luncheon during the annual spring football game at Williamsburg.
This guy looks like a comedian, I thought.
After an hour together, I hadn't changed my mind.
This guy is a comedian, I thought. Well, Holtz has gone on to become one of the most successful coaches, with even a brief stint in the National Football League and now an apparent lifetime job at Notre Dame.
Coaches aren't picked because they look like coaches.
But sometimes you wonder what they would be doing if appearances weren't deceiving.
Carl Rhodes recently stepped down from the coaching ranks at Churchland after serving as the Truckers' baseball coach since 1973.
I watched Rhodes' on-field decorum through most of those years and I never changed my mind. He made me think of my movie hero - Hopalong Cassidy.
Nowadays Dave Willett is the athletic director at Wilson but he coached at Cradock. When he was the Admirals' golf coach I pictured him as a country music singer, Doodling Dave or Whispering Willett.
I still have visions of a bald Duke Conrad with a goatee. Whether he's piloting Churchland's undefeated girls basketball team or leading the boys soccer squad to a district title, I can see that frightening image he casts as a wrestling villain. Conrad, the Duke. How could you improve upon that name?
And what about Mrs. Duke Conrad? That's Bobbi Conrad, who coaches the Churchland girls softball team. Just when I decide she should be a lead ballerina, an umpire makes a call that she doesn't approve. Then she's a coach's wife, definitely a coach's wife.
A law-and-order man, that's the image cast by Norcom football coach Joe Langston. It always seemed strange to me that his wife, Barbara, worked for the Police Department and not her hubby. I figured that was the place for Joe. Barbara could start gymnastics for the Greyhounds.
Norcom's varsity baseball and junior varsity football coach Leroy Williams always presents that happy smile, a peppy bounce and an all's-right-with-the-world-and-let's-praise-the-Lord look. He's the guy I want greeting folks if I ever open a casino.
Every time I see pro basketball coach Pat Riley at work I feel it's really a commercial break. He has that GQ look. So does Churchland basketball coach Mac Carroll. I wonder if Mac would look more like a coach if he hung a towel around his neck and carried a clipboard. Maybe even biting on the towel once in a while.
Somehow it's hard for me to visualize Lew Johnston getting down into the face of one of his Western Branch football players and telling him he might be better qualified to play the piano rather than right tackle. A bank president - or at least a vice president. That's the Lew Johnston I see.
Reminds me of another former Western Branch football coach. I always thought Art Brandriff would be an ideal high school principal. Wonder where he went when he left coaching? by CNB