THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 TAG: 9604230111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 307 lines
On some spring afternoons, nearly 5,000 varsity athletes from South Hampton Roads high schools are running, jumping, kicking, throwing and hitting in up to 100 events. Last Tuesday, The Virginian-Pilot sent nine sports writers and seven photographers out to capture the activity inside and outside the lines.
Baseball: Indian River at Norcom
NO GAME TODAY: FIELD A MUDDY MESS
The infield is unplayable from overnight rain when school is dismissed at 2:15 p.m., but Norcom coach Leroy Williams promises a maintenance crew will be there within an hour to drag the dirt.
The crew doesn't show, and neither does Indian River.
Braves coach Steve West was told that the game had been postponed, so he canceled the team's transportation, Williams says. It's just as well since the field is a muddy mess.
The maintenance crew must have arrived and, not seeing anyone, left without unloading its tractor, Williams surmises.
Michael Fiala, a freshman scheduled to pitch for Norcom, is subdued, but not disappointed that his game is one of 14 canceled by the weather on this day.
``I'm glad,'' he says. ``This gives me another day to rest.''
Not everyone feels so magnanimous. Shortly after Williams and his players depart, umpire Chip Smith pulls up, ready to work.
``I've been rained out of eight high school games this spring,'' he says. ``That's cost me $400.''
- ROBIN BRINKLEY
Girls soccer: Deep Creek at Oscar Smith
WHEN ADRENALINE PUMPS, STUDIES GET THE BOOT
More than an hour before the 5:30 p.m. kickoff, Jamie Burke sits in a hallway at Oscar Smith High with her black backpack. But the books strapped to her back are the last thing on the goalkeeper's mind. The same goes for other players who are supposed to be in a pregame study hall.
Katie Rose is getting her ankle taped. Michelle Peberdy is making out a roster. Others simply pace back and forth, talking.
Some are studying - or claim to be - in a nearby classroom. And all of the Tigers already have their uniforms on.
``It's hard to focus on (studying),'' says Burke, who has a 4.1 grade-point average. ``Sometimes you have work to do and you're trying to get it done because you know you won't do it later. But you get adrenaline and sit there and your mind starts to wander, `What would you do in this situation, or what if this situation comes up?' ''
Says Peberdy, ``You don't feel like doing your homework. You just got done with school, so you don't want to study. I haven't failed yet.''
Coach John Kraemer understands.
``They're excited and anticipating the game,'' he says. ``They're restless, so it's hard for them to get focused.''
Getting focused isn't a problem during the game. The Tigers score three early goals, one by Peberdy, and Burke doesn't allow a goal in a 5-0 victory.
- JAMI FRANKENBERRY
Girls tennis: Nansemond River at York
A BUS TRIP ISN'T SO BAD IF YOU PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT
Every day, half the teams that play high school sports board school buses bound for their opponents' playing fields.
Some rides are little more than a hop and skip.
Others, like the one from Nansemond River to York, last longer - 55 minutes to be exact - but the Warriors' girls tennis team came prepared.
A deck of cards, a notebook of compact discs, a bottle of body lotion and a little imagination make the 40-plus-mile ride whiz by for the dozen or so girls dressed in tennis skirts and shades.
The games begin even before coach Darryl Yandle pulls the bus out of the lot. Brianne Cheaves finishes telling a joke that her fellow freshmen aren't following and launches into a slap-happy version of patty-cake.
The Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel is fast approaching, and Rebecca Sherard shuffles the cards. Dealing them out, she announces she wants sixes. ``Go fish,'' Megan Grady tells her.
Cheaves isn't playing. Nestled in her seat, she writes ``Chapter 18'' at the top of a notebook page. A teen romance novel, she explains, that she and her best friend have co-written for years.
``Fives? 10s?'' Ashley Alston asks, announcing that a game of Crazy Eights is next.
The card game is delayed as Grady holds her breath in the tunnel. Her teammates cheer her on, and she's almost blue in the face when the bus reaches the Peninsula. ``Forgot to make a wish,'' she grumbles.
Cynthia Evans listens to Garth Brooks as she drinks red Gatorade, while the upperclassmen in the back chat biology.
``Did you ever have to do a worm?''
``Nah, we did a crayfish.''
Evans pulls out the body lotion. ``Guess how much?'' she says to Elizabeth Pearson, who's talking SATs with Lindsay Duke. ``$1.50. Big Lots!''
Pearson props her legs against the window, rubbing in the pinkish lotion. As the bus turns into an Amoco station off the Fort Eustis exit, the smell of ``Country Apple'' fills the air.
``Are we lost?'' Cheaves asks.
Yandle returns with a soda - and apparently directions. ``Don't say nothing,'' he declares sheepishly.
Fish has become Crazy Eights in the front and Evans is mouthing a country song as the bus finds the York lot. Evans pops off her headphones and says, ``Oh, man. I remember playing here last year. I lost.''
- VICKI L. FRIEDMAN
Golf: Norfolk Christian, Norfolk Collegiate and Hampton Roads Academy at The Hamptons
ASPIRING DESIGNER DREAMS OF A COURSE WITH NO WIND
A wicked wind followed early-morning showers, signalling players that this would be a day for high scoring.
One lone spectator - a reporter - joins the three coaches and their players for the match.
One player, Norfolk Collegiate team captain Michael Reina, is studying the course especially hard. Each hole placement, sand trap and tree-lined fairway catches his eye.
It's been that way wherever the 17-year-old senior plays. And he has been in every match Norfolk Collegiate has played since he was an eighth-grader.
Reina, Collegiate's No. 1 player, shoots 40-45-85. He had hopes of a round in the 70s until the wind kicked up at the outset of the back nine.
``Maybe I can design a course that wind won't be that much of a factor,'' says Reina. ``Swirling wind always bothers me.''
It's a dream now, but Michael always carries his ideas home and puts them on paper. While most players aspire to be a Curtis Strange, Reina wants to lay out golf courses. He's been accepted at the University of Virginia, where he plans to major in architecture.
``At home I've drawn up a lot of courses,'' said Michael. ``Once we took a vacation to Denver and all the way on the drive I spent drawing.
``I study all the courses I play. The woods, the water, the sand traps. I make mental notes. Each time I play I usually take something under consideration in designing a course.''
Reina had the wind at his back on the first hole at The Hamptons. The second hole was much tougher, with the wind in his face.
He goes home wondering if that's the way it should be.
- BILL LEFFLER
Softball Princess Anne at Salem
THE LEFTFIELDER IS MY MOM
After a grueling day of chasing down fly balls in leftfield, Salem's Michelle John heads to the sidelines to chase down her 1-year-old son, Eric.
John, 19, missed part of last season to have her baby. But she and husband Robert, 23, decided she should return to the sport she loves for her senior year.
``I don't mind at all,'' says Robert, who works nights and brings their son to all his mother's games. ``We enjoy watching her play.''
In Salem's 12-8 loss to Princess Anne, little Eric, dressed in a baseball warm-up suit and a ball cap, sees Mom go 2 for 4 and score two runs.
John is hitting .371 and is one of the team's best defensive outfielders. Despite her hectic schedule as a student, mother, wife and athlete, John doesn't see herself as different from the other players.
``It's not that hard,'' says John, who carries a B average. ``I get out of school at 12:30 and I get to go home and play with Eric. Then I go to practice.''
Salem coach Larry Bowman says John is one of his most dedicated and determined players. She spent many offseason hours in the batting cage after posting a disappointing .286 average last year.
``Just being through what she's been through, she appreciates that game more,'' says Bowman. ``Most people wouldn't even come back out. But I never had a doubt in mind.''
- PATTI WALSH
The baseball umpires: Kellam at First Colonial
UMPS DRESS FOR FAIR OR FOUL WEATHER
Wardrobes on wheels. That's the best way to describe the automobiles of umpires Pete Cartwright and Louis Bagley.
With a slight wind blowing before the game, the pair dresses in the school parking lot.
In each vehicle - Cartwright's navy GMC truck and Bagley's blue Ford Mustang - are enough clothes for a rack at a department store: three pairs of gray slacks, three light-blue dress shirts and T-shirts. Then there are the accessories: shin guards, chest protectors, athletic supporter and cup, socks, belts and face masks - all neatly compartmentalized.
The pair knows a thing or two about the traveling wardrobe changes. Both men call high school and college games from mid-February to mid-November.
``We live like gypsies for eight or nine months of the season,'' Cartwright says.
After strapping, buckling, lacing and zipping all their articles, the officials are off to the field for another assignment.
In turns out to be a routine afternoon - no coaches or players screaming in their faces, no parents yelling expletives, no fans following them to the parking lot after the game.
``Generally speaking, it's unusual to have problems,'' says Cartwright, who once had his windshield broken when upset players threw rocks at his car.
After the game, the equipment is neatly placed back in baskets, work clothes returned to the racks, and their civilian gear is back on. Just another day for the men in blue.
- JAMES C. BLACK
Boys soccer: Cox at Kellam
TEN ROWDY ROOTERS SHOW THEIR SPIRIT
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The sound thunders through the stands and rattles the press box windows.
Kellam Crazies founder Nick Haszko and senior classmate Marc Collins are busy beating on a pair of big bass drums, while eight other Crazies chant and cheer.
It's impossible for the small crowd of spectators to speak to one another. Public address announcer Chris Worst is barely audible.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The Crazies are just too loud, but no one except a handful of Cox fans seems to mind. Their team is getting whipped by Kellam.
Ahead 3-1, the Knights are just minutes away from beating Cox for the first time since soccer became a Beach District varsity sport in 1977.
It doesn't matter that the temperature is dipping into the low 50s and that a wind-driven rain is drenching the action.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The beat goes on.
When Kellam scores again, the Crazies go . . . well, crazy. Out comes a plastic horn, and that's a problem. Several weeks ago the Crazies increased the volume with an air horn, but complaints prompted Kellam athletic director Roy Ammons to put a stop to it.
When Ammons hears the plastic horn, he heads into the stands and confiscates the bright-yellow noisemaker.
But the beat goes on.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
- LEE TOLLIVER
Boys tennis: Wilson at Deep Creek
IT'S TOUGH TO LEARN THE ROPES ACROSS THE NET
The loud ``pop'' of the ball rocketing off the strings of Josh Asble's racket is unwelcome to the Deep Creek sophomore, for since he forgot to apply topspin and has a stiff wind at his back, the next sound heard should be the ``ching'' of his forehand crashing into the fence.
But before it can get there, Wilson's Tim Reardon puffs out his chest, leaps into the air and bunts the ball in the opposite direction.
Touching the ball before it hits the ground, regardless of where a player is standing on the court, is against the rules. But there are a lot of rules in tennis. And since Reardon had never played a match before he got cut from the baseball team and settled into the No. 3 singles spot three weeks ago, how's he supposed to know them all?
``Tim!'' shouts Wilson coach David Littlefield, a wide smile creasing his face as he flings his ballcap to the ground in mock disgust. ``You can't do that!''
Reardon responds with a shoulder shrug and a half-smile.
``Whatever,'' he says.
For Littlefield, it's more like whatever it takes - to put a team on the courts. Freshmen Jack Wright, Aaron Cross and Ryan Duncan, Nos. 4-6 in the order, also made their tennis-playing debuts in the season-opener three weeks ago.
``Funny thing is, we won that match,'' says Reardon midway through his team's 9-0 loss to the Hornets. ``Now that we've got some experience, seems like the game's a lot tougher.''
- PAUL WHITE
Boys lacrosse: Catholic at Cape Henry
FRIEND HELPS FAN BAG A NEW SPORT
Wearing a baseball cap and tennis shoes, Elwood Craft aligns a seat cushion in the stands and settles in to watch his first game of high school lacrosse.
Craft, who appears to be in his late 40s, is a sports fan. He talks of fishing and tragic sports injuries, of Langley Speedway and NASCAR greats. But he doesn't have much to say about lacrosse.
He's at the game because of Cape Henry defender Jason Johnson, who bags groceries with Craft at Food Lion. Craft - ``In the business 34 years'' - listens carefully as Chris Grazel, who is dating Johnson's mother, explains the game's finer points.
Soon, Craft is relishing hard hits and enthusiastically tracking goals. He celebrates often as the Dolphins set a school scoring record in a 21-3 win.
By the second half, Craft is pacing the sidelines, chatting up spectators and hunting down loose balls.
By the game's end, the pairing of Craft and lacrosse is a hit.
``I liked it,'' Craft said. ``I liked it a lot. Boy, they sure do hit out there.''
-REA FARMER MEMO: Introduction to this collection of articles appears on page C1.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos, The Virginian-Pilot
BETH BERGMAN
A Salem player tries to leg out a single.
MORT FRYMAN
Oscar Smith coach Andy Overton gives Heather Hardin a few pointers.
HUY NGUYEN
Ashley Alston, Brianne Cheaves and Rebecca Sherard get ready to
deal. At left: Lindsay Duke hustles.
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The "Kellam Crazies" whoop it up during the Knights' game with Cox.
MARK MITCHELL
Deep Creek's Josh Asble takes a break during his match with Andy
Thomson of Wilson.
Color photos
Salem's Michelle John with son Eric.
Kellam's John O'Mara jumps into a celebration after the Knights'
first goal in a 4-1 win.
by CNB