THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701220109
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: 72 lines
Bobby Pannenbacker is giving up football - starting with the Super Bowl.
After eight seasons as head football coach at Maury High School, Pannenbacker announced last week that he was resigning to pursue other activities.
First on the list: A 10-day trip with Operation Smile to Nicaragua. Pannenbacker leaves Saturday with his daughter Lauren for what he expects will be a teaching mission.
Only thing is: ``I'll miss the Super Bowl,'' he says. ``Imagine a football coaching missing the Super Bowl.''
Pannenbacker, 46, a wide receiver in high school and defensive end at Ithaca College, will miss coaching, too. He's done it for the last 24 years starting with an assistant's job in Long Island, N.Y., his hometown.
Pannenbacker and wife Peggy moved here in 1979 after making the drive down the coast and falling in love with the area, so much so that much of his New York family has since followed him. He landed a job that fall at Independence Middle School in Virginia Beach, and in 1982 became the coach at Norfolk Academy.
``Probably one of the highlights over there was beating Woodberry Forest,'' says Pannenbacker, who led the Bulldogs to three TCIS championships. ``We also played the first overtime game in the Tidewater area against Nansemond-Suffolk, and we won that one.''
Pannenbacker, who also teaches health and physical education, took over at Maury in 1989 without even having to change much of his wardrobe, he notes. ``Maury's colors are orange and blue just like Academy's.''
The Commodores won three Eastern District titles (1989, 1990, 1993) under Pannenbacker, who has coached such area greats as Shawn Knight, who later quarterbacked at William and Mary, and 1994 Tidewater player of the year Charles Jackson, now with Hampton University.
His coaching philosophy stressed family, school and football, in that order. Under Pannenbacker, Maury always played among the most difficult non-league schedules in the area.
``You don't make your reputation from playing nobodies,'' Pannenbacker says. Maury played Bayside the year they were a state playoff team and, ``We were the only ones to beat them'' during the regular season. ``We've played First Colonial ever since I've been here.''
The 1993 team is one of his favorites. Six of Maury's eight wins came in the final quarter. ``That was a truly exceptional bunch, kids that I still have a lot of contact with,'' he says.
Pannenbacker's most memorable win came during the 1990 season over Granby in the last 27 seconds, thanks to a trick play. After quarterback Tony Hall sprained his wrist in the waning seconds, Pannenbacker sent him in motion as a decoy and the ball was snapped to fullback John Quinerly. Quinerly threw it to Darius Blount for the score.
``It's the only play we had left to do,'' Pannebacker recalls.
As last season wound down, Pannenbacker decided it would be his last. He plans to continue working for the city and he hopes at Maury.
Without football, he's eager to focus on other activities. In addition to being youth coordinator for Operation Smile, he plans to pursue other athletic activities within the city that he's not ready to discuss.
And he will be on the sidelines more often, not just at Maury, at Norfolk Academy, too, where his three daughters are athletes. All three are on the field hockey team. Lauren, 18, also plays lacrosse; Kristin, 15, swims and plays soccer; Meghan, 14, plays volleyball and lacrosse.
Along with the camaraderie among the coaches, Pannenbacker says he will miss Friday night football. But he adds, ``It's time. It's time. Twenty-four years is a long time to do anything. There's plenty of things left for me that I still want to do in my lifetime.''
And what won't he miss?
Easy, Pannenbacker replies. ``Those hot days in August.'' ILLUSTRATION: Bobby Pannenbacker
Maury football coach
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW