MAY 6, 2013 PlAY BY PlAY 1 · · 2014-02-07MAY 6, 2013 PlAY BY PlAY 1 Vol. 9, No. 8, May 6,...

MAY 6, 2013 PlAY BY PlAY 1

Vol. 9, No. 8, May 6, 2013Vol. 9, No. 8, May 6, 2013

2 PlAY BY PlAY MAY 6, 2013

A utomotive executive Dave Sarmadi has recently joined Elliott Automotive Group in Staunton and it appears to be a perfect

match. Dave has nearly 35 years in the industry and has established a glowing reputation with thousands of car owners during that time. Owner William Elliott and his son Ryan welcome someone of Dave’s experience and integrity as the Staunton dealership’s new president and general manager. Elliott Automotive Group has been part of the Shenandoah Valley landscape for more than 50 years and now features six outstanding franchises under one umbrella – Chevrolet, Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Chevrolet and Cadillac have been among America’s most famous automotive brands for more than a century – and newer models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler, Chrysler Town and Country minivan, Chrysler 200, Dodge Dart and Ram trucks have earned the right to join them. These are automobiles you can trust. Elliott has a huge inventory of new vehicles and offers great deals, great service and great people to work with. We also have a wide array of pre-owned vehicles as well as a service department and a body shop staffed

with employees with extensive experience. We offer a free in-spection to all owners of our automobiles. Elliott has established a valuable name of its own during its half-century of business, and Dave Sarmadi only adds to that image. Maybe it’s time you take a short drive up Interstate 81 and allow the team to introduce themselves to you. It might just be the perfect match. Come see why the Elliott team is a group you can trust.

1100 Greenville Avenue, Staunton • Just off Interstate 81 at exit 220 (less than 90 minutes from Roanoke) • Call Dave Sarmadi at (540) 293-4620

Dave Sarmadi joins Elliott Automotive Group!

Dave Sarmadi,President

William (left)and Ryan Elliott


Articles local Runners Share Boston Marathon Memories ............................. 10 Roanoke’s laura Dodson Boosts Maroon Tennis Team ....................... 12 Titan Carolyn Bethel Belies Stereotypical lumberjack .....................13 Roanoke College lacrosse has Distinct local Flavor ..........................14 Salem Baseball has New Sox in the Drawer.........................................15 Junior Golf Tour Introduces Youth to the Game .................................16 Upcoming Race for Open Space Walks the Walk ................................18

Extras Playmaker Spotlight .......................3 Ask A Ref ...........................................6 Snapshots of the Season ...............9

Sarah Cutright,Guilford softball

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Sponsored by:

PLAYMAKERSpotlightThe Vinton native was named head women’s basketball coach at

Radford University on April 24, the program’s seventh head coach since it acquired Division I status. McGuire has served as assistant women’s coach at the University of Richmond the past five seasons, help-ing the Spiders post a 101-60 record and earn five postseason berths during his tenure. For the past two seasons, Florida Basketball magazine named McGuire one of the top assistant coaches in the nation. A William Byrd High School and Roa-noke College graduate (class of 2000), McGuire served as an assistant men’s basketball coach for the Maroons for one season before moving to the high school girls’ ranks. During six seasons at Byrd and Hidden Valley, his coaching record

Mike McGuire,Radford basketball

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The Guilford College senior, subject of a profile in last month’s Play by Play, completed her

finest softball season in 2013, finishing her season with a batting average of .438, third highest in school history. Her on-base percentage of .500 ranked among the highest in the country. Cutright, a Hidden Valley graduate, who played catcher and first base for the Quakers, led Guilford this past season in home runs (6), doubles (11), RBI (31) and walks (11). She ranks highly on the school’s

career list in several offen-sive cat-egories, including third in fielding percent-age (.965), home runs (13) and putouts (538). A two-year captain, Cut-right earned the prestigious Nereus C. English Athletic Leadership Award. A dean’s list student with a résumé stocked with extracurricular activities, Cutright will earn her degree in computing and information technology.

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PlaybookOpinions Todd Marcum ......................................... 4 Mike Stevens .......................................... 5 Christian Moody ................................... 6 Walker Nelms ......................................... 7 Mike Ashley .......................................... 19

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was 105-52. The Titans won back-to-back Group AA state championships in 2007 and 2008, going 55-5 during that period. McGuire moved to Rich-mond along with his top Hidden Valley High School player, Abby Oliver. Mc-Guire plans to discuss with Oliver the possibility of her joining the Highlanders as an assistant.

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Cutright receives award from coach Dennis Shores

McGuire (left) and Radford AD Robert Lineburg address the media April 24

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Page 16Page 16


Tribute to a ballplayer: Dustin Hayth

Players in this Issue

P.O. Box 3285, Roanoke, VA 24015 (540) 761-6751 • E-mail: [email protected] the Web: www.playbyplayonline.net

and at www.facebook.com/playbyplaysports©Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. No part of Play by Play may be reproduced by any means or in any form without written permission from the publisher. Play by Play is published every

fourth Monday. Deadline for submissions for the June 3 issue is May 20.

Publisher/Editor John A. Montgomery

Graphic Designer Donna Earwood

Contributors Mike Ashley Rod Carter leslie Coty Donald Earwood Tommy Firebaugh Brian Hoffman Sam lazzaro Bo lucas

Todd Marcum Gene Marrano Joyce Montgomery Christian Moody Walker Nelms Mike Stevens Bill Turner

Cover photograph by Mike Stevens

TODDS AND ENDSby ToddMarcum

Now with color

on every page. Call

John Montgomery

at 761-6751 to

place your ad.

IF SHEER LOVE FOR THE game and drive to excel makes you a great ballplayer, Dustin

Hayth might be the best player I have ever known. The former Patrick Henry ath-lete recently passed of a sudden, mysterious illness. An apparently healthy, strapping 19-year-old died at Carilion Roanoke Me-morial Hospital of a respiratory ailment Tuesday, April 9, after a brief illness. An autopsy is being conducted. At his visitation and funeral, there was an under-standable air of shock as friends, family, for-mer teammates and coaches gathered to ask just why. I coached Dustin in travel ball and knew him through baseball for a number of years. My son, Trenton, played with him and is currently on the team with Dustin’s brother, Corey, a good player in his own right. His

dad, John, and I have watched more than a fair amount of games together. Through the years, I am sure I have coached at least a couple of hundred young men and wom-en. Few stuck out like Dustin.

He had verve, energy, and a love of competi-tion that I have seldom seen. “I remember in his seventh-grade year seeing the name ‘Hayth’ on the roster,” said middle school wrestling coach Doug DePuy. The name struck a familiar chord.

DePuy, who had come out of retirement to coach the Woodrow

Wilson team, had coached John Hayth at Jefferson High School in 1973 and remembered him for his intensity and competitive drive, traits he soon found that

the younger Hayth inherited. After a good seventh-grade year, Dustin would go undefeat-ed in the eighth grade and win the city middle school wrestling championship. “You just couldn’t ask for a bet-ter kid,” said DePuy. “He was a leader and always stepped up to do what needed to be done. Dustin was class.” Jon Kaufman coached Dustin and his best friend Elijah Tack-ett in travel and youth base-ball and agrees wholeheartedly. Kaufman’s son, Will, now a col-lege baseball player, was a cou-ple of years older but Dustin and Elijah always hung around the ballfield when Will’s teams were playing. Eventually the team ad-opted the pair as mascots. Soon they would join the team for real. Eventually Dustin would play every position but first base for Kaufman. “No matter where I played him, he played well. Any time I was putting a team together, I want-ed Dustin on it,” said Kaufman. “Even as a kid, he was like talking to an adult. He got everything you were saying. He was unbelievably hard on himself, but a pleasure to coach.” Dustin also loved hunting and fishing. After graduating from

Christiansburg High School in 2012, he was employed at Sports-man Campground in Radford. Dustin was the kind of kid you couldn’t imagine such a tragedy to befall. He was a young man who liked to take his shirt off — and who could blame him? He had a physique like a Greek stat-ue. He was as intense as any player I ever knew, but when he walked off the field, he had a good-na-tured smile and a happy-go-lucky attitude that drew people like moths to the light towers at a night-time baseball game. He had a natural charisma that was rare, a huge heart, and an innate good-ness that made the world a better place. Kaufman summed it up best when he said, “Dustin was just an easy-going kid you couldn’t help but like.” When I was growing up, there was no better compliment a coach could pay a young man than to say, “He’s a ballplayer.” That meant a kid had talent, was fearless, put the team first, and always could be counted on to deliver. It was the ultimate praise. Here’s to Dustin Hayth. I’ll al-ways remember him. The kid was a ballplayer.

Patriots commit to college ball Three Patrick Henry students signed colle-giate letters of intent in the PH gym April 18. Pole vault-er Caroline B r a i l s f o r d , who holds vir-

tually all the school records in the event, will join the track team at the Universi-ty of North Car-olina. Caroline also excelled in volleyball. A l l -T i m e s l a n d swimmer Jon-athan Gomez

Dustin Hayth

Hayth responded well to instruc-tion from his various coaches

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See MARCUM, Page 8

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Motorcyclist is back in the saddle againOPEN MIKEby MikeStevens

IT’S HARD TO SAY WHICH hurt worse — his back or his pride. Either way, Bobby Maid-

en, Jr. was a broken man. Two hundred miles from Salem in the tiny town of Disputanta, Maiden was flat on his back, covered in dirt and as close to death as a man could be. “It was a rough day…the roughest day of my life,” he says. The fact that Maiden is alive today and can walk is nothing short of a miracle, but as you’ll soon find out, walking was never what inspired

him to get better. Rather, getting back on the same horse that threw him to the ground is what fueled his recovery and eventually made him one of the most unlikely champions you’ll ever meet. Maiden hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in 25 years when he began racing motocross in 2006. For three years his teenage son raced with him, but by 2009 he was traveling solo to the American Motorcyclists Association’s sanctioned tracks for races in Virgin-ia, North Carolina and Maryland. Racing Kawasaki KX250 and KX450 motorcycles

from late winter through November became a way of life almost every weekend. In September of 2009, he headed down Route 460 and eventu-ally rolled into the South Fork Motocross Park in Disputanta, Va., near Sussex. It was Labor Day weekend and Maiden knew he had a lot of work to do. He was now riding in a Pro Class event, which was a major step up from where he’d raced most of the previous three years with his son. Practicing by himself on the track, he could easily handle the speed of this division, but he soon realized that with motorcycles and veteran riders all around him, it was a dif-ferent story. “I know now that I wasn’t men-tally ready for it and that I was riding above my limit,” he says. “When you are bike-to-bike it takes a mental state of mind that I just wasn’t ready for at that time.” It would have been nice to re-alize this before he was nearly paralyzed and had to spend nine months of his life rehabbing his way to the point where he could just stand up straight and walk, but his stubborn, competitive streak wouldn’t let him back out of the event. At a section on the course known as “Rhythms,” riders have to nego-tiate and clear a set of double jumps while traveling at about 45 miles an hour. Maiden was rolling through the jumps just fine until he cleared one and noticed a rider in front of him was going about 15 miles an hour slower. If he had been more experienced, he may have been able to an-ticipate the scenario better, but by the time he saw the rider in front of him, he had only two choices — plow into him or violently hit the brakes on his own bike. The brakes worked, the bike stopped dead in its tracks and avoided hitting the other competitor, but Maiden was thrown off of the motor-

cycle, knocked unconscious and injured far worse than he knew at the time. “I don’t know how, but when I came to, I was standing and some guys helped carry me to my truck,” he says. “I knew I was hurt, but more than anything, I was scared and really in what they call ‘injury denial.’” As luck would have it, his son was just 90 minutes away in Virginia Beach with some friends and he immediately called him to come to his aid and drive him back to the Roanoke Valley. Moments after he hung up the phone, the pain in his back intensified to the point that he could no longer hold himself up in a sitting position and when his son arrived, he was flat on his back and could barely move. “I knew I was hurt, but I didn’t want to go to a strange hospital that far from home,” he says. “So I managed to get in the truck and my son drove me three-and-a-half hours back home.” Maiden didn’t feel any better when he got home, but neither did he feel much worse. He just wanted to stretch out on his bed and go to sleep. He now knows it’s a wonder he ever woke up again. The next morning, he couldn’t lift his head and could barely move his extremi-ties. Rescue personnel had to transport him to LewisGale Medical Cen-ter and eventually to Carilion Roanoke Memorial where doctors told him he had broken the T6-Thoracic vertebrae in his upper back in four different places. The swelling in his back and neck was so intense that surgeons had to wait two days to operate. They placed two six-inch titanium rods and 10 screws in his upper back to repair the break and give him a shot at being able to stand up straight and walk again. Maiden spent two weeks in the hospital, another month in rehab and

missed 10 weeks of work at the fami-ly-owned Maiden and Sons garage on Market Street in Salem. When he finally returned to the shop, he was moving slowly, but thankful to be up-right. When any indi-vidual, including professional and recreational riders, has a motorcycle accident, there is no “in-between.” He or she either quits riding alto-gether or gets back in the saddle. “Nine months after the accident I didn’t get back on the bike because I

had a death wish,” he says. “It was because I believed in something and I just had to figure out a way to do it and stay safe this time around.” In 2011, with two rods in his back and reminders of the accident still very vivid in his mind, Maiden returned to racing in an amateur class made up of drivers over the age of 40. It was a smarter and more con-servative approach that immediately paid dividends for him. He ran 24 races that year won a handful of events, never crashed and at the end of the season was crowned the series champion. One of the stops

Bobby Maiden, Jr.

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Maiden (in the lead) hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in 25 years prior to 2006

See STEVENS, Page 8


Football has indeed reached a crossroads

Ask A Ref

Q.

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To inform fans of the games’ finer points, Play by Play publish-es “Ask A Ref,” a chance for fans to ask a question about specific sports rules, preferably those related to high school or the NCAA. Contributor Bill Turner raised an interesting question that Play by Play posed to Roger Ayers, a Roanoke-based NCAA bas-ketball official who worked into the Elite Eight in this year’s tour-nament and has Final Fours on his résumé.

Following the severe leg injury and subsequent opera- tion on Louisville’s Kevin Ware, he was still in uniform for his team’s next two games in Atlanta and his name was written in the scorebook. If a situation had come up where free throws would be shot without the possibility of a live ball fol-lowing a miss, could Ware have been sent to the court to take the shots?

Good question. Legally yes, and I believe I would let him. I would let the other coach know that as soon as he’s done shooting, he’s leaving the court. And the reality is, he couldn’t take the crutches. As officials, we have somewhat elastic powers.

See MOODY, Page 8

FROM MY VANTAGE POINTChristian Moody

IS MAY TOO SOON TO TALK about football? Of course not. It’s never too soon to talk about

football. Especially since football is changing and everyone who is part of the game — players, coaches and officials — have to change, too. The changes that are being legislated into the rules involve protecting the players’ heads. Concus-sions are the top concern for everyone associated with the game, and the changes coming to football reflect that. A new rule in NCAA football now mandates that a defensive player will be ejected if he targets the head of a defenseless player. Without getting into the specific definitions, that could be a major penalty this fall. Want to know who’s on board with the change? Virginia Tech defen-sive coordinator Bud Foster and defensive line coach Charley Wiles.

They know a thing or two about coaching de-fense and certainly take pride in the success their players have shown. You might expect a change that puts more scrutiny on defen-sive players to be frowned upon by Foster and Wiles, but that’s not the case — the new penal-ties will only affect Tech players if they decide to hit in a method the coaches don’t teach. “Always, always see what you hit,” Wiles says. “Never drop the head. That’s as simple as it gets. You can’t launch yourself and you can’t lower the head.” Launching is, as the name implies, jumping toward an opponent head first, like a missile,

to hit him high. In addition to being dangerous, it’s not fundamentally sound football. Foster says the Virginia Tech staff wants its players to tackle with

solid fundamentals, and those emphasize a wrap and tackle far more than a hit. “Just hitting and thinking that’s all they need, that’s a collision-hit. We get p----d off when they collision-hit. We don’t teach that.” A solid runner will be able to withstand a collision-hit and shed the tackle. The problem with good, fundamental tackles is that they rarely get added to television highlights. The successful collision-hits grab the attention. “We call it going across the bow, like the bow of a ship,” Foster told me. The perfect tackle has a defender mak-ing contact with a ball carrier, shoulder to waist, looking right at the ball. The angle of the hit makes it hard to run through, plus the tackler is in position to wrap his arms around the waist and bind the legs. “We teach a lot of roll tackle, tackling be-low the waist, almost like you’re lassoing a calf,” Foster says. Not only is this the way Tech teaches tackling, Foster and Wiles say it’s the way youth coaches should teach tackling. “Maybe we should be doing seminars for youth coaches,” Wiles says. He won’t have to because the NFL, in partnership with USA Football, will be of-fering youth coaches training on how to coach by teaching the proper tackling and running techniques. Hopefully, instruction will be offered in our area. One change that has to be made is in the psyches of coaches and par-ents. Many of us are proud of our kids when they make big hits, even in practice. That’s where the real teaching takes place. Officials are in-structed to penalize hits to the head, but by the time the action hap-pens in a game, chances are it already happened in practice and was reinforced. Make no mistake, it’s a hard call to make and nearly impossible to call consistently. As an official, I know very well that action that looks like illegal helmet contact to one guy might not look like it to another. To the observer, the legality of a hit almost always depends on whether you’re rooting for the team of the hitter or the one who just got hit; will the penalty help your team or hurt it? That always seems to matter far more than the safety of the players in the immediate aftermath of the hit. Helmet contact has been a point of emphasis for years and will be again, but the issues aren’t as pronounced as they are in college foot-ball, says Steve Fleshman, commissioner of the Western Virginia Foot-ball Officials Association. “You really don’t see that much launching in high school football be-cause the players just aren’t fast enough or haven’t learned to play that way,” Fleshman says. While launching, as defined in the NCAA, does not exist in the high school Rules Book, it would still be a foul for helmet contact. It just doesn’t happen very often. At junior varsity down to peewee football, the players simply don’t have the speed or strength needed to hit like that. The concern at those levels is leading with the top of the helmet. Fos-ter says he wants to see “eyes to the sky.” When the facemask is pointed straight to the ground, there could be trouble for the player making the hit, including a ball carrier. The NFL recently made headlines by announcing that runners can be flagged for leading with their helmets. That rule might be new to the

Bud Foster

Cave Spring graduate Michael Cole had two interceptions for Virginia Tech last fall before a severe neck injury ended his career

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Racing on the road with Eric DanielsenI AM A MOTORSPORTS JUNK-

ie. It’s something I just can’t help, it’s in my blood. For more

than five decades, I have loved the sound of race engines. The way race cars look as they flash by. And the smell of hot, high-oc-tane exhaust. I always dreamed of being a racer myself and while I dabbled in it for a bit with racing go-karts and modified street cars, I never had the means to really enjoy the sport big time. Then I met Eric Danielsen. I met Eric at an event in 2007. We talked about racing and about Virginia International Raceway (VIR) near Danville. Eric said that he volunteered at VIR as an SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) corner worker and invited me to become a corner worker as well. After some thought, I decided, “what the heck” and in March of 2008 I showed up at VIR, ready to work. If you are a regular Play by Play reader, I’m betting you prob-ably know Eric. He is the owner of All Star Impressions, a leading trophy shop in Roanoke. You may also know him by the car he drives, a red Acura with huge white letters proclaiming it an “SCCA pace car” spon-sored by, you guessed it, All Star Impressions. Eric is an interesting guy. At age 7, he attended his first race with his dad (Vern), a Can-Am event at Road Amer-ica in Wisconsin. Eric’s dad worked “tech” at the races, inspecting the race cars and making sure their set-up was within the rules. Eric, on the other hand, really liked to watch the corner workers because they carried cool equipment and “really big knives,” he says with a laugh. Little did he know the stage was set for his future in rac-ing. After a stint of organiz-ing and administrating Road Rallies in and around Roa-noke, in 2000 Eric turned his attention to the newly reopened VIR road course as a flagging and com-munications corner worker. By 2004, Eric had earned a national license. Since then he has worked an incredible number of races at the most iconic race tracks on the planet, including four United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and five Rolex 24-hour sports car en-durance races at Daytona International Speedway. Twice he has worked corners at Sebring for the 12-hour race. He worked the Indy car race at Baltimore, the inaugural United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, the Petit LeMans race at Road Atlanta and last year, the 24 hours of LeMans in France. For most race fans, just being a spectator at those tracks would be a dream, but to stand poised, ready to react, only feet away from the rac-ing surface with race cars going by at more than 200 mph is an invigo-rating experience. When Eric is not chasing races around the globe, he is a fixture at

IN THEREARVIEWMIRRORWalker Nelms

VIR. If you’ve never been to VIR, you’re missing one of the best race tracks in the country. It is a natural-terrain road course of just over 3.25 miles in length. Originally built in the late 1950s and then later dormant for about 25 years, it reopened in 2000. At VIR, Eric is a flag chief for the North Carolina Region of the SCCA. The role of a flag chief is to recruit, train and assign flaggers. Often, dur-ing the race, he is the man in the control tower, dispatching fire and rescue personnel and constantly communicating with the corners who are calling in accidents and monitoring race action. Yogi Berra was once credited with saying, “Don’t make the wrong mistake.” Nothing could be more appropriate direction to corner work-ers at a race track.

Minor mistakes can and will be made during the course of the race, but making “the wrong mistake” could have se-rious consequences for every-one. Eric and other workers in race control strive to see that never happens. So as 2013 gets underway, it’s back to VIR for a year filled will sports car racing, remember-ing that a bad day at the track will always be better than a

good day at work. And Eric’s already planning his return trip to LeMans. Bon voyage, buddy! (If you are interested in becoming a corner worker at VIR or beyond, contact Eric Danielsen at [email protected]. If you love racing, you won’t regret it.)

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Eric Danielsen, pictured at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, has worked many big races far from home

The neon sign illuminated during the 2012 24 Hours of LeMans

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MoodyFrom Page 6

on that tour was a return trip to Disputanta to face the same track that broke his back just two years earlier. “There’s no doubt it made me question my sanity and I’d be ly-ing if I said it wasn’t on my mind,” he says. “Honestly, I was so ner-vous I thought I was going to puke.” Most weekend warriors would have considered that type of suc-cessful comeback and champi-onship a crowning accomplish-ment, but not Maiden. The only way he could truly put the de-mons of his crash in 2009 behind him for good was to return to the AMA Pro Class and prove that he was now better qualified to race with the big boys. “My riding still wasn’t where it needed to be so I got serious in every phase of my life before that season,” he says. “I ate right,

StevensFrom Page 5 slept right, trained right

and most importantly got my mind right,” he says. “I made sure I was the best husband and father I could be, paid all my bills and cleared my mind, so I wouldn’t have any ex-cuses.” The self-imposed “house cleaning” pro-duced incredible results. He won race after race, finished in the top three on a consistent basis, eventu-ally captured the 2012 Pro Class Championship, cul-minated the season as the series top rider and stayed injury-free. “I didn’t want to come out and toot my own horn, but I knew that I was final-

ly a pro rider,” he says. “My fellow competitors couldn’t believe that I would come back and race with rods in my back much less win back-to-back championships.” Despite the success, Maiden isn’t ready to stop racing just yet. In fact, Carlene, his wife of 27 years — the same girl who made him quit drag racing motorcycles in the early 1980s — has become his biggest cheerleader. She ac-tually thinks it pretty cool that her 51-year-old husband is a Pro Class Motocross Champion. “I constantly hear the com-ments from people who say this is a young man’s sport and that I should give it up, but for me this is a lifetime achievement and I re-member each and every day how lucky I am,” he says. “I just know that if you have a passion for any-thing, you need to do it until it hurts.” And Bobby Maiden, Jr. is living proof of just that.

MarcumFrom Page 4

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will join Division I Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey. Jona-than, who moved to Roanoke prior to his senior season, is one of the best swimmers this area has ever produced. Soccer star Tricia Jessee signed with Wa s h i n g t o n and Lee Uni-versity. Tri-cia was also a standout third baseman for my Roanoke Stars tee ball team, but that was a few years ago. Another city prep star commit-ting to play college ball is Wil-liam Fleming’s Tyler Chumbley, who will be playing football for Bridgewater. Tyler was the subject of a PbP article in his junior year when a blood clot in his leg nearly derailed his football career. It’s a nice comeback for a truly good young man.

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NFL, but it has been in the high school Rules Book forever. Flesh-man says it’s common for a player to lower his head and shoulders when preparing for the impact of a tackler. Many times helmets come together in this action, and that’s part of football. But when a runner lowers his head and drives into a defender, that’s a rules vio-lation. “When a runner uses the hel-met to try to punish the tackler, that’s when we have to flag it,” says Fleshman. Want to know how serious the NCAA is taking the idea of pro-tecting the head? Here is the mes-sage given to a group of officials who attended the Blue Ridge Football Officials Clinic held at the Hotel Roanoke in March: “We’re going to take the head out of football. If you’re not going to call it that way, we’re going to take you out of football.” Those words were delivered by one of the most influential and accomplished football officials

in the country, Gerald Austin. Austin was an NFL official for 25 years, mostly as a referee. He called three Super Bowls, two while wearing the white hat. He is now the coordinator of foot-ball officials for Conference USA. He’s a guy who knows a thing or two about the game. His Roanoke audience was a few hundred foot-ball officials, from guys on Divi-sion I conference rosters to those just breaking into the high school game and calling many more peewee games than varsity con-tests. Players have to get the message that, while football is and always will be a violent sport, hits with the helmet and hits to the oppo-nent’s helmet must be eliminat-ed. Can coaches learn not to glo-rify collision-hits? Can they learn not to argue about penalties that are meant to improve safety? No one wants a player leav-ing the field strapped to a board. Flagging an illegal hit is far more about preventing a head or neck injury than it is assessing a 15-yard penalty.

Some people think football is getting too soft. They might have a point, but football has to change to better protect the player or the sport will die. What could kill football? Liti-gation. There are already lawsuits in place that were brought about because of the devastating re-sults of head injuries. Retired NFL players have the largest class action suit out there, but other lawsuits are in the works. A helmet manufacturer and a high school’s coaching staff were recently found liable for brain damage suffered by a high school football player. The award was nearly $5 million. If it continues, there will be no way to coach or officiate the game because the cost of liability insur-ance will be prohibitive. I hate to say the sport is at a crossroads, but it really is. The future is going to depend as much on volunteer coaches of our youngest players as it will the mega-business of NCAA and NFL football.


Snapshots of the season

More Kiwanis AwardsThe April 9 Salem Civic Center banquet also featured all-star basket-ball players, coaches and officials. The coaches of the year, both state champions, were Salem boys’ coach Kevin Garst (above, second from the left) and Salem girls’ coach DeWayne Harrell (far right). They are pictured with Salem Kiwanians Buddy Rodgers and Ray Byrd. Below, Commissioner of the Western Virginia Basketball Officials Association Jerry Spangler (left) presents the outstanding official of the year award to André Levisy.

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Jackie Bradley, Jr.Last year the outfielder was wowing the locals as a member of the Sa-lem Red Sox; on Opening Day 2013 he was in the starting lineup for the Boston Red Sox. Roanoke Valley baseball aficionados were scratching their heads as to who was the last Salem player to make the meteoric

jump so quickly. Bradley had three walks and scored two runs in his major league debut, but was sent down to AAA Pawtucket after hit-ting a slump.

45th Annual Kiwanis AwardsAmong this year’s Unsung Heroes winners was lord Botetourt basketball player Kennedi VanRavestein (below right, pictured with her coach, Chuck Pound). This was the third con-secutive year VanRavestein was so honored. Boys and girls recipients from 13 area schools were selected by their coaches.

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Senior Golf Tour WinnersRichard Smith (top) of Southwest Roanoke County was the overall win-ner at the Roanoke Valley Senior Golf Tour’s 2013 opening event played April 15 at Roanoke Country Club. Smith, playing in Division 2 (handicaps 13-18), had a net 66. The Division 1 winner (handicaps 0-12) was Sher-wood Woodford of North Roanoke County with a net 69. The Division 3 winner (handicaps over 18) was Thax-ton’s Tom Garland with a net 69.

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Impressive LineupWhen Roanoke native and current University of North Florida AD Lee Moon (second from left) addressed the Roanoke Valley Sports Club on April 15, he was in some fast company. Pictured with Moon are: (from left) club president Dave Ross, Steve Hale, Willis White and Blake Owen. Former high school football coach White was honored as the club’s first “legend”; Hale and Owen played for White at Patrick Henry and Salem, respec-tively.


by Mike Ashley

B O S T O NLocal runners share 2013 Marathon memories

Swing for Disaster Relief.Please join us for our 27th Annual Swing for Disaster Relief Golf Tournament on June 27, 2013 at Roanoke Country Club. Enjoy lunch and on-course beverages

during play as well as a cocktail hour, auction and awards ceremony following the tournament.

Thursday, June 27th, 2013Roanoke Country Club

3360 Country Club Drive NW Roanoke, VA 24017

For sponsorship and registration information please contact Nikki Brown-Kasey at [email protected] or

by calling (540) 985-3541.

Proceeds provide relief for individuals and families affected by disaster throughout the Roanoke Valley and greater Virginia Mountain Region. When disaster strikes, the Red Cross is on scene providing food, shelter, clothing,

and emotional support. Last year in our region alone the Red Cross provided 732 families with disaster assistance.

PAM RiCKARD DIDN’T hear the explosion. It was four blocks away as she entered

the downtown Boston YMCA, where she was staying. “I heard and saw what seemed like emergency vehicle Armaged-don all of a sudden,” she says. “I was walking around the corner and police cars and fire engines and ambulances were every-where automatically.” Rickard, who was the subject of a 2012 Play by Play story, had

completed her fourth Boston Marathon about 18 minutes ear-lier on that fateful April 15, cover-ing the 26.2-mile course in 3:46 despite four stops for some physi-cal issues. It wasn’t her best time but one that put her ahead of the coming events that would trans-fix the world. At the time, Rickard’s reac-tion was, “Uh-oh, somebody’s in trouble. I didn’t even think about it being the Marathon.” But it was the Boston Mara-thon, the 117th running of the event with over 27,000 runners

and thousands more spectators and volunteers crowding the course. At 2:50 p.m., a bomb went off on Boylston Street near the finish line, followed by another bomb eight seconds later less than a block away. Three specta-tors would be killed, and another 140 injured. “When I got to my room my phone started going off,” recalls Rickard. “My oldest daughter was first. I got a text from her, ‘Mom, are you okay? What’s going on?’” Rickard tried to text back that she was fine and to find out what her daughter meant, but her texts wouldn’t go through. Neither would calls as the lines jammed. Rickard got on her laptop and found out what was going on, and was able to allay family and friends’ fears through Facebook. And Rickard recalls feeling guilty at the time. “I almost wanted to be there (at the finish line), to be able to help some-how.” Once people were actu-

ally able to talk to her, they most wanted to know was Rickard afraid to run in marathons again? The answer came less than a week later when Rickard not only ran in her hometown Blue Ridge Marathon, the first major mara-thon following Boston, she ran the earlier “Official Unofficial Double” just prior to the actual Roanoke event. She ran two mar-athons that Saturday following the Monday tragedy, something she had been planning for a long time but was now even more de-termined to do.

* * * Riner native Justin Mosby, who ran cross-country at Radford Uni-versity and now works there, was also in the Boston Marathon, run-ning along with his wife, Kirsten. He ran his first Boston Marathon in 3:00:26, finishing at approxi-mately 1 p.m. Kirsten, who start-ed in a later wave of runners, finished in 3:28, nearly an hour before the first bomb went off. Like Rickard, they plan on re-turning next year, though Mosby said he wants to see the format and just how many runners there will be. The largest turnout ever is expected, and Mosby expects the whole weekend prior to the Mon-

Pam Rickard ran the BR Marathon twice, five days after Boston

Rickard (left) and her family members were glued to the TV for several days

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day run to be filled with more events and more competitors. “I think it’s going to be crazy and the race might be second-ary to everything that weekend,” he adds. “I’m pretty sure we’ll be there. I don’t know why we wouldn’t.” It’s already a big turnaround for Mosby, who had “thrown run-ning out the door” after a pretty good RU cross-country career that wrapped up in 2000. He be-gan retraining as a distance run-ner in earnest a couple of years ago. Boston, though, was just his and Kirsten’s second marathon. “It’s such a great event, ev-eryone is so helpful,” he says of the Boston Marathon. “Kirsten started later than I did so she had more time around others to get that feel. Somebody lent her a shirt. When you run past the universities there, there’s a flavor to the celebration in every neigh-borhood you run through.” Rickard talks about how spe-cial the Boston Marathon is, and partly because competitors must qualify to run in the event. “It’s the best of the best and you have to qualify according to your gen-der and your age but it’s also the very best runners, too,” she says. “Running is the one sport where I get to compete in the exact event in which my heroes are compet-ing. It’s like playing in the Masters against Tiger Woods or playing in the Super Bowl or World Se-ries when you run Boston or New York.” Mosby, in his first Boston Marathon, loved the excited kids along the way that gave high fives or offered water. He loved run-ning by the colleges — Boston

College, UMass, Tufts, Wellesley — particularly Wellesley where coeds line the side of the course calling for kisses from male run-ners. “No, I didn’t do any of that,” he says. “I was worried Kirsten

was still too close behind me.” The Mosbys were back together on the famed Boston Commons when the bombs exploded. He explained that with so many run-ners coming into the finish, the earlier finishers just keep moving along. “There are so many people coming in behind you, you just get your stuff and you go,” he says. “You get your water, you get your medal, you get your grab bag and you go. You can’t go through the finish and then just loop back

around like at a 5K, and find your buddy. The fencing continues on so you just go find your bus where you put your stuff before the mar-athon.” That’s where he and Kirsten met back up, and then they began walking and looking for their car. While they were talking to police officers to get directions, Kirsten thought she heard the blast. “We were talking to them and then their radios just went off, and it was like 10 air-traffic controllers trying to communicate at the

same time,” he says. They began hearing bits and pieces from other runners arriv-ing at the Commons, and then they watched some of the events through the glass at a local pub. The fast-arriving rescue person-nel were the big tip-off, though. “At the time, you didn’t know if you had run right past it and didn’t know,” Mosby says. Mosby expects spectators to do more to police future such events, though he admits a military pres-ence could be an option, too. The thing that struck him most in his first running in Boston was how quickly impatient city-dwellers turned into concerned helpers for all the visitors to the city. “They were trying to get people off the street and keep everyone safe but they helped you get to a phone and addressed your concerns.” Local friends came and picked up the Mosbys and they came back the next day for their car. Rickard says security was tight at the airport leaving Boston but no one was complaining. She had her bags checked twice. Rickard had kept a longstand-ing personal tradition at Boston,

Rickard (left) posed for a pre- race photo with an officer who later was pressed into duty

Justin and Kirsten Mosby ran Boston for the first time in 2013

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her 28th marathon, of having her picture taken with a local police officer before the race. She was shocked later to watch broadcast coverage that night and see the same officer in a photo. “I just knew he was in the thick of it from where he was on the street.” ESPN aired portions of the Blue Ridge Marathon, and even in-terviewed Rickard for a feature. They couldn’t have found a better spokesperson for the sport. “We toed the line on Saturday because it was the first Ameri-can marathon after Boston,” she says. “And for people to not shy away from it, to not be afraid…I heard there were 15 people that moved from the half-marathon to the full (Blue Ridge) marathon, so there were people that hadn’t trained for the full but changed at the last minute to honor those that couldn’t finish the full mara-thon in Boston.” Rickard will be part of next year’s Boston Marathon no mat-ter what the qualifications are. “You couldn’t keep me away,” she says. “I’ll go back even if I don’t get in (the marathon). I’ll volun-teer, be a spectator, whatever.”


LAuRA DODSOn KNEW that she might be her own worst enemy when it came

to her competitive nature on the tennis court. The 2009 River Ridge District Player of the Year, Dodson was undefeated as a high school se-nior and weighing several schol-arship opportunities when she had epiphany of sorts. “My whole life I wanted to play Division I tennis,” she recalls. “And I just sort of at the 11th hour felt like I didn’t want to do that. I think I was kind of burned out.” Enter Roanoke College, just down the road from her Cave Spring haunts, and Dodson start-ed to feel more and more comfort-able with the idea of becoming a Maroon, like her father, Earl. Four years later that decision is looking pretty good, Dodson a key for one of Roanoke College’s best teams ever. The Maroons are ranked 19th and have already equaled the school record for vic-tories (13) in a season, as they ad-vance in the Old Dominion Ath-letic Conference Tournament. “I don’t think we’ve ever been ranked like this before and we won the first round of the ODACs (with a 5-0 win over Randolph),” she says. “We’re doing really well.” Dodson is perhaps soft-serving on her assessment. Not only are the Maroons setting team records but Dodson is putting together another possible All-ODAC sea-son, something she has already done three times as a second-team selection in No. 1 singles and doubles. Dodson had a 13-5 singles re-cord last year, 11-3 in 2011, and 12-4 as a freshman in 2010 as a freshman. She has a 46-16 career doubles mark at Roanoke. Only this year Dodson dropped down, now playing No. 2 singles and even sometimes No. 3. Coach Justin Fainter has a near embar-rassment of top talent in his pro-gram this season. The fact that

Dodson could make that adjust-ment has been a key in the Ma-roons’ best season ever. “She’s really just so supportive of the team,” says Fainter. “She does such a great job for us, lead-ing by her example more than her words. She is so good at playing through things when she’s not at her best, and we really appreciate what she has done for us.” Fainter has racked up a 26-10 record in his two seasons at Roa-noke, back-to-back 13-win cam-paigns, and actually at 13-and-counting this season. Like Dodson, he backhands praise to others. “I inherited a lot of talent with Corbin (Leitch) and Laura,” he says. “They’ve been great lead-

ers for us. The players are why we’re ranked so high in the re-gion.” The Maroons come down the stretch without their No. 1 seed this season, sophomore Jennifer Antoszyk missing time for per-sonal reasons. She, Richmond na-tive Leitch and Dodson have all played No. 1, perhaps the biggest reason for the Maroons’ march to that 13-3 record and eight straight wins down the stretch. Again, though, none of that is possible without Dodson decid-

ing the team was more important than her seed. “I think there’s definitely a feeling that we have more unity on the team, and that’s something we had to do,” she says. “That’s a difficult thing to do in tennis where you’re not really out there together (in sin-gles matches). I think being one of the oldest players, they look to me.” While Antoszyk, who has been regionally-ranked in the ITA At-lantic South Region most of the season, and fellow senior Leitch are great players, Dodson is right there, too, though this has been a trying year for other reasons. Dodson is 9-3 in singles this spring, including an 8-2 mark in

ODAC play, where the Maroons finished behind only regular season champ Washington and Lee. Dodson’s heavy class load this spring has limited her practice time. Prior to post-ing a No. 1 doubles win with talented Briell Smith against Randolph, and also lead-ing her singles match before the team result was decided, Dodson had to miss the two prior team practices because of school work. It’s maybe not how things would have gone at a Division I program but Dod-son has brought that kind of competitive intensity to all her pursuits. “My class load has been ri-diculous and I’ve missed a

lot of practices and had a lot of nights where I slept four hours,” she says. “I never played anything but No. 1 in high school and here, but I’ve actually enjoyed it this season. I’ve had great, competi-tive matches. You still just get out there and play the person on the other side of the net. It doesn’t matter if you’re No. 1 or No. 6.” Having fun and encouraging that competitive nature was what her father had in mind when he started taking Laura out to the Rivers Edge complex to hit balls

when she was two years old. She remembers using a racquet-ball racquet before she was big enough to hold a tennis racquet. With her father and her young-er brother, David, the second-seed on the Hampden-Sydney men’s team, she almost always has ready practice partners. By the time she was in middle school, Dodson was taking les-sons from local instructor Mike Johnson and honing the game that would make her an ace at Cave Spring High School. Dod-son was undefeated her senior season, and played No. 1 for four seasons for the Knights. Dodson was the subject of a Play by Play article in 2009 as she was winding up her high school career. These days, Dodson teaches middle school clinics for Johnson. As she wraps up her stellar playing career, Dodson is dream-ing about another court. She’s currently applying to law schools, including the College of Charles-ton in South Carolina. “I’ll find out in the next cou-ple of weeks,” she says. “I guess I’ve been interested (in law) for a couple of years. I think I would be good at it.” No argument here. Dodson has produced great net results every time she’s shown up at a court.

Dodson drops down to help Roanoke tennis move up by Mike

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Laura Dodson accepts a new role

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Basketball chart updateLuke Hancock, the Louis-

ville junior who graduated from Hidden Valley High School, gained national attention for be-ing named the most outstanding player in the NCAA Final Four af-ter our April issue was published. He averaged 8.1 ppg, 1.4 apg and 2.6 rpg. He shot 43 percent from the field, 40 percent on 3-pointers and 76 percent on free throws. We inadvertently overlooked Georgia State sophomore Miran-da Smith, a Patrick Henry gradu-ate, who played in 28 games, started four, and averaged 4.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg.

• • •


Carolyn Bethel has always set her goals highA SK CAROLYn BETHEL IF

she’s excited about becom-ing a lumberjack and you’ll

probably generate a smile, a snicker and an affirmative nod. It’s not the ax-wielding timber-cutting profession she’s thinking of, however. This “Lumberjack” comes with a capital “L,” as in the school nickname for Northern Arizona University. Bethel will take her cross-country and track talents to the Flagstaff-based college this fall, looking to extend the impres-sive running performances she has established during the last four years at Hidden Valley High School. Her quest for excellence has re-sulted in two consecutive Group AA state cross-country individual championships in the fall of 2011 and 2012. This past November Bethel pulled away in the last stretch of the 5K course at Great Meadows, a rolling equestrian facility located in The Plains, Va., finishing 20 seconds ahead of Cave Spring standout Katie Fort-ner, with a winning time of 18:11. Bethel’s credits her running prominence to the opportunity of fol-lowing two older sisters — along with what she con-siders a lack of tal-ent for other sports. “I’ve had speed from the begin-ning, but I have always had bad hand-eye coor-dination,” Bethel says. “In softball I could get around the bases fast, but had trouble hit-ting. In basketball I could race up and down the court, but ran into problems taking the shots. I was even good at hide and seek when I was little. “My sisters suggested that I try track. I fell in love with running

from the beginning. It was the at-mosphere with running that held my interest. For me, it was the perfect fit.” Bethel started organized run-ning in the seventh grade and began running track and cross-country for the Hidden Valley varsity her freshman year. “I was good at track, but I liked cross-country better,” Bethel says of her early introduction to the sports. “Cross-country is such a men-tal game. I learned early on that half of your success comes from being tactical. Competing with girls like Annie LeHardy (a 2011 HV graduate and UNC-signee), I told myself, ‘If they can do it, I can, too.’” Bethel smelled success quickly. “I was able to stay close with them at first, [and] then when I finally beat Annie, I knew I could be very good at this if I kept working,” she says. Bethel says cross-country and track require a considerable de-gree of training, and she was pre-pared to focus on the necessary commitment. “There’s a lot of training if you

want to be among the top perform-ers,” she says. “You can’t just show up. Every meet re-quires 4-5 days of preparation. There are warm-ups, stretching and proper hydration. Everything needs to be in place. “There are no days off. As a team in cross-country we know virtually every race course, every sinkhole, ev-ery mud-hole, ev-

ery patch of grass. We know ex-actly where to run.” Bethel didn’t become compla-cent after her early accomplish-ments. “I’m never satisfied,” she says

with a laugh. “I always compete against myself, telling myself I could do better. When I won the state cross-country in 2012, my time was two seconds better than the previous year.” Bethel has also been a top track performer, particularly in the 800 meters and her favorite, the 1,600-meter run. Bethel has had numerous dis-trict and regional top-3 finishes and has been named all-state in track six times (three each in in-door and outdoor). Bethel was the 2012 indoor state champion in the 1,600 meters and runner-up in the 3,200 meters. In 2013 she re-peated as indoor state champion in the 1,600 meters and was state champion in the 1,000 meters. She has twice been named a New Balance All-American. Bethel faced an aggravating setback in late-February after the indoor state meet, when she de-veloped Achilles tendinitis that required her left foot being placed in a walking boot for three weeks. The injury resulted in Bethel missing the indoor track nation-als and early team events in out-door track this spring. She competed in outdoor track for the first time this season the second week of April at Floyd County, and recorded a win in the 3,200-meter run in the Colo-nel Classic at the William Flem-ing track later that week. Bethel acknowledges Hidden Valley cross-country and track coach Dan King for his influence in helping her become a top-tier runner. “It’s indescribable,” Bethel says of King’s assistance. “He’s fun to be around and he matches my personality. But his biggest influ-ence on me has been as a motiva-tor. “During a race he’ll yell at other girls, ‘Good job....keep it up.’ I can be leading and he’ll shout at me, ‘What are you doing?’ It makes me go that much faster.” Bethel says her greatest chal-

lenge this year has been time management. “There are morn-ing workouts, evening workouts, and school in between. At night there’s homework. I didn’t get a lot of sleep; often about four hours a night.” But dealing with obstacles hasn’t slowed her down. “I’ve been through some un-usual stuff in my high school running,” she says. “In my soph-omore year, I got into this thing where I threw up in the second mile of every cross-country race. I just kept running and blamed it on heat and lack of preparation. I made the necessary adjustments, the problem went away, and it boosted my confidence. I know now I’m capable of winning any race, but I always know I can’t control another runner’s perfor-mance. No matter how well you run, someone else may just be better on a given day.” Bethel’s college choice of Northern Arizona was not by ac-cident. King recommended the school, attending there himself 1-1/2 years as a distance runner before joining the military. The school’s geographic eleva-tion came into play, too. “The altitude there is a huge factor for a runner,” Bethel says. Flagstaff’s elevation is 6,910 feet,

by Bill Turner

Hidden Valley senior Carolyn Bethel carries a 4.125 GPA

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See BETHEL, Page 17


Local talent fuels Maroons lacrosse

by Gene Marrano

BUOYED BY END-OF-THE-season wins over No. 4 Ste-venson and No. 12 Washing-

ton and Lee (ranked eighth when they met), the Roanoke College men’s lacrosse team — ranked No. 8 in Division III nationally at press time — hoped to make some noise in the postseason. After ad-vancing to the NCAA semifinals in 2011, head coach Bill Pilat’s team didn’t make it out of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference playoffs a season ago. If the Maroons (13-3 as of April 25) make it back to the NCAAs, they can thank in part a trio of local kids for playing a major role. Pilat, in his 25th season at

Roanoke College, doesn’t remember having three players from local high schools on a

roster at the same time, all making an impact. That trio includes freshman midfielder Joey Dishaw (Salem High School), senior captain midfielder Kyle Smith (Patrick Henry), and another freshman that plays at-tack — Will Pilat (Hidden Valley). Yes, Will Pilat is Bill Pilat’s son, and he was one of the top scor-ers for the Maroons this season. “I think it’s probably the most [local high school products] we’ve had at one time,” says Pilat, reflecting over two-and-a-half decades. Pilat believes

it is a sign that valley high schools are turning out good lacrosse players — adding that other

ODAC teams also feature Roa-noke Valley high school gradu-

ates on their rosters. “We see them all over,”

says Pilat. Salem, Patrick Henry, Wil-liam Flem-ing and

North Cross School have varsity-level teams. Cave Spring, Hid-den Valley and William Byrd field club teams, even though they compete against varsity squads. Cave Spring and Hidden Valley split their combined club team two seasons ago

due to growing popular-ity. Will Pilat played for the combined team be-

fore Hidden Valley split off. “They’re improving year to year,” says Bill Pilat of the club programs. “The kids are [also] playing at a younger age in the youth leagues. That helps to put a stick in their hands earlier.” Will Pilat played in county recre-ation leagues “forever,” and his dad was involved with getting those leagues off the ground. It helps to have a well-re-spected men’s program like Roanoke College in the area: youth league and high school teams have practiced at the Salem cam-pus and attended Maroons games. Pilat thought Will “would be OK” at the Di-vision III level, even with the “big jump” from a high school club team. Sharp stick skills and the ability to use both hands on the attack (“He’s almost ambi-dextrous,” the coach says) have helped Will find his niche. “He’s worked real hard.”

It’s been “fun” to coach his own son, Pilat says, although assistant coach Zach Thomas works more closely with the offense than he does. “That’s been a good buffer — [Thomas] has to make the deci-sions more than me sometimes.” No special rules for Will, of course, and if he isn’t doing what he is supposed to do, “he hears about it. He’s worked his way up [to a starting position].” Will Pilat grew up around the Maroons program, taking road trips to games, hanging out at practices and in the locker room. His twin sister Emily played la-crosse for a while — and now keeps statistics at the University of Mary Washington for the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. “I get treated the same as ev-eryone else on my team,” says Will Pilat, “but sometimes at practice he’ll ask me [about class work]. He’s still my dad, so that’s cool.” Will approaches his father as the coach during practices and games; only once can he re-

call really being razzed by his Maroons team-mates about playing for his father. Joey Dishaw’s father (Joe) also played the game at Roa-noke College and is one of the owners at Mac & Bob’s restau-rant. His son, a multi-sport player at Sa-

lem High School, is smart, strong and fast, according to Bill Pilat. “He’s been playing lacrosse a long time — a good, steady, all-around player.” Dishaw’s father was on the NCAA championship team with fellow Mac & Bob’s owner Bob Rotanz in 1978, but he doesn’t talk about it much. The younger

See LACROSSE, Page 17

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New Sox hope to set themselves apartWHEN ALEx WiLSOn

took the mound recently for the Boston Red Sox, he

became the 19th former Salem Red Sox player to move from ad-vanced-A ball to Beantown since the 2009 season. This year an-other crop of hope-fuls has arrived, high draft choices in many cases that came to town with expecta-tions. Third baseman Will Middlebrooks, now a bud-ding star, became a key player in Boston less than two sea-sons removed from Sa-lem — so the bar has been set high. Towering (6’6”) lefty Henry Owens expects “tougher hitters” in moving up from low-A Greenville, where he was 12-5 with a 4.85 ERA in 2012. Through four Salem starts his earned run average was about one-third of that this season, so maybe the first-round 2011 draft choice is a fast learner. Owens says he is able to throw his off-speed pitches for strikes, which is an asset. The 2011 Louisville Slugger All-American and Mr. Baseball in the state of California wants to learn command of the game this year, slowing it down or speeding it up when he needs to. “Keep a good tempo — throw more strikes, less walks,” says Owens, who gave up basketball and football in high school to focus on baseball. Pitching downhill — taller pitchers have been the rage re-cently — means more leverage. It’s easier to induce a ground ball, harder for batters to get on top of the pitch. “Their eyes say yes but their hands say no — that’s a [phrase] we use,” says Owens. Owens is a likely candidate for early promotion, 22 strikeouts in his first 21 innings pitched. Third baseman Garin Cec-chini (check-keeny) was the lead-

ing hitter on the Salem Red Sox through late April, batting .361 following a streak of 13 hits over eight games. The fourth-round draft pick (Barbe High School, Lake Charles, La.) had 51 steals for the Greenville Drive in 2012. “I just want to go out and get

better. The main goal is to be a big leaguer and to be at Fenway,” says Cecchini. “You want to be one percent better

every day…at any part of the game.” Cecchini gave

up a baseball scholarship at LSU in order to become a mi-nor leaguer right out of high school. Cecchini isn’t worried

that Boston may have their third base-man for the next decade (Middle-brooks) in place

already. “As long as I go out and play the game that I know how to play, everything is going to take care of itself. I can’t worry about who is in front of me or behind me. If I do, then I’m not focused on the task at hand.” In fact, Cec-chini looks to Middlebrooks as a role model. Shortstop Deven Marrero made the jump from Lowell in the short season New York-Penn League to advanced-A ball this season, but as a college player at esteemed Arizona State he had a head start. In any case, the ev-eryday grind “is a different style of baseball than college ball. That’s definitely the biggest thing I learned last year.” (At press time, Marrero was sidelined by an injury.) A 2012 first-round pick, Marre-ro became the first player invited to Boston’s major league spring training camp a year after being drafted since Scott Hatteberg in 1992. Growing up with cousins Christian Marrero (an outfielder in the Braves system) and Chris Marrero (a first baseman for a Nationals farm team) helped De-ven learn the game quickly.

Any pressure about being a high draft choice is “over with,” says Marrero. “I’m the same as all these guys — just trying to make it.” Former Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez, like Marrero of Cuban ancestry, was a mentor growing up. Ordonez was friends with Marrero’s father. “I practiced with him…and learned from him,” says Marrero, a Miami resident who is also pals with Orioles third baseman Manny Machado. Jackie Bradley, Jr.’s jump from Salem in 2012 to Fenway Park in 2013 has whetted several Salem players’ appetites. Marrero rec-ognizes that hard work in spring training paid off for Bradley (al-though the latter has been tem-porarily sent back to AAA after an 0-for-20 slump). “That’s some-thing that all the young guys in this clubhouse are trying to look up to — how he did it, how he

by Gene Marrano

went about his business. We all want to be in his shoes next year — that’s our dream.” Second-year Salem manager Billy McMillon says “there is no denying that some guys are com-ing in with expectations. I’m go-ing to be really interested to see how they compete playing in this league, against teams over and over again.” It’s about development, not winning, says McMillon. “The ultimate goal is to prepare guys to help the [Boston] Red Sox play October baseball, [but] if guys perform we should be in a lot of ballgames. We’ve got a lot of high dollar guys here.”

Pitcher Henry Owens is 6’ 6”

Garin Cecchini

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by Christian Moody

Junior Tour grooms youthfor links competition

JUNIOR GOLF HAS NO greater advocate in the Roa-noke Valley than Tommy

Joyce. The PGA professional at Hunt-ing Hills Country Club — his new location following many years at

Hidden Valley — will be the orga-nizing pro for the Roanoke Valley Junior Golf Association’s Junior Tour again this summer. It marks the 14th year for the junior tour, now a staple among school-aged golfers in the region. Joyce has help. Seven clubs, five of which are private, open their courses to the ju-niors for tournaments (see inset box). The pros at those clubs offer instruc-tion and rules lessons in addition to the access of the golf courses. Point standings are kept and a tour champion is crowned at the end of the summer, just in time for team practices to start at the area high schools. “The tour is geared to-ward giving kids their

first competitive golf,” Joyce says. “Most have worked with in-structors or gone through other camps at clubs, but this is a way to compete. Each tournament is a straight one-day competition.” He says the goal is to groom the juniors for the competition of scholastic and collegiate golf.

The success rate has been nota-ble. Since it started in 2000, Joyce says more than 30 junior tour participants have gone on to play golf for NCAA Division I universi-ties, most on scholarship. “The goal is to groom the play-ers for competition,” he says. Last fall Salem won the Group AA state championship with players who are all members of the Roanoke Valley Junior Golf Association. “That group of Salem players all played this tour for seven or eight years,” Joyce says. The top local high school golf-ers are almost without exception veterans of the RVJGA Tour. Play-

ers come from all the courses in the valley, Blacksburg, courses at Smith Mountain Lake and even a few players from the Martinsville area, Joyce says. The recently concluded spring tour had 121 different partici-pants at the various tour stops, so clearly the message is out that

the tours are both fun and a great place to prepare for competition. To keep competitive balance, the tours are split into age ranges of only two years. On the day of each tournament, extra tee mark-ers are added to each hole, signifi-cantly changing the distances so the younger players don’t have to play from the same tees as adults. Where the oldest boys play the entire course, set up to approxi-mately 3,400 yards for nine holes, the lengths are dialed back so an 11-12 year old would only have to play 2,700 yards. The course would be set at about 1,800 yards for children ages 7-8. Girls have their own tees as

well, also set for shorter distances. Both boys and girls age 13 and older play 18 holes. The younger age groups play nine. With one notable ex-ception, the USGA Rules of Golf apply. That ex-ception is that there is a maximum number of strokes a player can take on each hole, double the

See GOLF, Page 17

Roanoke Valley Junior Golf helps youngsters with both form and etiquette

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RVJGA Summer TourMay 25 .... Hidden Valley CC (1 p.m. tee time)June 1 ...... Hunting Hills CC (1 p.m. tee time)June 15 .... Westlake Golf & CC (1 p.m. tee time)June 22 ... Waterfront CC (1 p.m. tee time)June 29 ... Blue Hills Golf Club (1 p.m. tee time)July 6 ....... Roanoke CC (1 p.m. tee time)July 20 ..... Ashley Plantation (2 p.m. tee time)July 28 ..... Blacksburg CC — Tour Champion- .................. ship (1 p.m. tee time)

GET IN THE GAMES!

Register Now to compete inVirginia’s Olympics!

www.CommonwealthGames.org


GolfFrom Page 16

BethelFrom Page 13

RaceFrom Page 18

par of the hole. The RVJGA is open to anyone — membership at a golf club is not required. The membership costs $60 per golfer. Tournaments cost $16-21 each. Like most junior tournaments, the players are not allowed to use caddies or golf carts, although players 8 and under can get a little help carrying the bag. Dress codes at each club are followed, as well. Sign-ups for the summer tour are online now at www.rvjga.com. Each tournament has a sep-arate entry deadline three days before the event. If an event is canceled before the entry dead-line, a full refund is given, but once tee-times are set, players are expected to compete. Also this summer, the RVJGA will be offering a new program called Valley Varsity Training, intended to prepare middle and high school golfers for competi-tion on their schools’ golf teams.

Players will meet at their home course once a week for a half-hour of instruction from a PGA Professional, followed by practice time on the driving range or put-ting green. Players will then be paired up for friendly nine-hole matches. Later in the summer, the clubs will assemble teams the same way high school teams are assembled, players ranked one through six, for matches against other clubs. So far, Hunting Hills, Ashley Plantation, Blacksburg CC, Hid-den Valley CC and Hanging Rock have committed to putting teams in the Valley Varsity Training pro-gram. Joyce was a formidable player as a junior himself and the cham-pion of the 14-15-year-old age group in the first Scott Robertson Memorial Tournament back in 1984. He has not forgotten the les-sons he learned from the game. Now he works to make every ju-nior player better and give them all the opportunities he can to enjoy golf.

LacrosseFrom Page 14

more than 1,600 feet higher than Denver, the mile-high city. “Not many schools can com-pare to that altitude. Because of oxygen retention, it’s much harder to run at that eleva-tion. If you’re me-diocre there, you’ll run great at lower elevations. I’m look-ing forward to the change and meet-ing new people.” Bethel has re-ceived a full schol-arship to Northern Arizona based on both athletics and academics at Hidden Val-ley, where she currently carries a 4.125 GPA. Bethel has always set high goals. “My goal is to make the Olym-pic trials,” she says. “A lot of former Olympic runners have

trained in Flagstaff, so along with a great education, I can’t lose. I’ll have seven years to train between now and the 2020 trials.” King downplays his role in de-veloping Bethel.

“Anybody can coach talent,” King says. “Caro-lyn has made me and the Hidden Valley program look great. She’s one of the most talented runners we’ve had along with An-nie LeHardy and Haley Cutright. It’s been a real pleasure to coach her. “Carolyn will make a statement at the college level. Unlike many, she

has a lot left in the tank. Northern Arizona will be a great place for her. “I think Carolyn is so tal-ented, she can continue to run faster and make a serious run in the Olympic trials. I predict we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.”

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Dishaw says his dad focused “on a lot of the little things” when it came to teaching him the game. Joey Dishaw points out that the local high school game is more competitive than ever: “Kids are getting better and better each year.” Smith is a steadying influence on the Maroons; the former Patrick Henry football player was recruit-ed in part because he was “a big, strong kid,” at 6’2”, 200 lbs. “Quick, good speed for a big guy, more of a defensive midfield player,” says Bill Pilat, “He’s a good leader.” Smith likes being on a Ma-roons team with other local players. As a freshman he was the only Roanoker on the squad. “It’s pretty cool to see the spread of the game [locally].” He played with or against Pilat and Dishaw while growing up, as well as val-ley high school players now on other ODAC squads. He also likes

being a co-captain: “[It’s] a really awesome experience, a good way to learn leadership…especially through some of the success we’ve had recently.” Roanoke College recruits stu-dent-athletes from all over the country, but Pilat hopes the suc-cess of this local trio might at-tract more homegrown talent. The major campus capital build-ing program announced recently by school president Mike Maxey that includes a new fitness center, indoor track, locker rooms and coaches’ offices certainly won’t hurt the recruiting process. Two more players from Sa-lem (Chad Fisher and Connor Sampson) are slated to arrive next season. “We try to keep an eye on Roanoke Valley lacrosse — and we try to recruit some of the best [local players],” says Pi-lat. “We’re always looking for the top guys around. It’s a lot easier than driving to Baltimore and New York.”

Hackenburg says there is a common misperception that the BRLC is only supported by landowners, “What we get a lot from people is — ‘I’d like to sup-port the land trust but I don’t own any land.’ There is kind of a perception that you have to own land to help with land conserva-tion, and that’s just not true. We are a non-profit, so we are sup-ported by donors throughout our region and in our commu-nities that value land conserva-tion. And there are a number of reasons that everyone should support land conservation. Roa-noke is known and loved for its natural beauty — its mountains, especially Mill Mountain, its riv-ers, its access to recreational op-portunities. Those are all things that make Roanoke a great place to live, to move to, and to visit. And we work every day to protect those landscapes, those views, those natural resources so that everyone can see and appreciate

them. “Even if you don’t know it, you benefit from having land conser-vation in the region. And I think that’s a great reason to support us.” It seems obvious that our chil-dren’s children’s children will not have access to all of the natu-ral wonders that we enjoy today. Inevitably the passage of time will diminish the current condi-tions in favor of the needs of an increasing and expanding popu-lation. Awareness of this global concern and involvement in the outcome will mediate the results proportionately. Consider participating in the Race for Open Space at Green Hill Park. Enjoy the run/walk with friends and family. Experience the beauty and enjoyment of the park and this exciting event. Plus, there’s the Homestead Creamery ice cream! What could be better? Find more information contact the Blue Ridge Land Conservan-cy at (540) 985-0000 or www.blue-ridgelandconservancy.org.


by Bo Lucas

See RACE, Page 17

THERE’S AN EVOCATIVE 5K/3K race on the horizon that runners should put on

their calendars. Runners of vir-tually any skill level can enjoy the competition of the 5K classic race, and casual runners along with other outdoors-loving men, women and children can appreci-ate the 3K run/walk event. It’s the fifth annual Race for Open Space, organized by the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy (BRLC). This affair happens at Green Hill Park in Salem on June 1. This location is an ideal example of the environment that the BRLC works hard to preserve. There is a mile of undeveloped riverfront land along the Roanoke River. This section of the river is an ex-ceptional fishing stream stocked with various species of trout. The Roanoke River Greenway runs through the park and provides convenient access to the river and the park’s other key features. Besides the woodlands and open fields of the nature preserve at Green Hill Park, there are acres of grassy fields prepped for the numerous athletic tournaments and special events that are host-ed there. There is also a top-notch equestrian center in the park. Pic-nic shelters, grills, playgrounds, water fountains and restrooms complement this set-up to make it a convenient site for family rec-reation. It can be described as a perfect blend of preserved nature and modern family recreation fa-cilities. The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy, formerly known as the Western Virginia Land Trust, was or-ganized in 1996. This non-profit organization’s mission statement is “Promoting the con-servation of western Virginia’s natural resources — farms, for-ests, waterways and rural land-scapes.” As indicated on its Web site, “the Blue Ridge Land Conser-vancy is dedicated to saving the farms, forests, waterways and ru-ral landscapes that make western

Virginia a great place to live and visit.” BRLC does this by negotiat-ing conservation easements with willing landowners. BRLC project manager and ecologist Diana Hackenburg says, “We work with people for conservation easements. Those are agreements where we talk with them about how they want to see the land used, how they want it to be protected in the future. We create a conservation easement which is an agreement to give up some of the development rights to get some tax benefits. Then the property is conserved. Not all easements have public access. That’s not a requirement of giv-ing an easement, but we do hold some land or have some ease-ments on public access land. “Our biggest [easement] is at Carvins Cove. We have about 12,000 acres there. Our next big-gest or best known is the ease-ment we have on Mill Mountain in Roanoke City.” The BRLC’s

extensive involve-ment is explained on its Web site: “BRLC protects more than 16,000 acres of land and 34 miles of streams in 43 con-

servation easements held by the land trust.” The conservancy provides its services to the seven counties that surround Roanoke. “We do have an easement on a small property near Montvale Elementary School which is in Bedford County,” Hackenburg continues. “Behind the elemen-tary school they have some base-ball fields, but they also have a

wetland area with a trail…that is open to the public. “A lot of our ease-ments are near the Ap-p a l a c h i a n Trai l. We have one in Roanoke C o u n t y that’s vis-ible from the Blue Ridge

Parkway.” Although the BLRC has respon-sibility for numerous lands that are used for public recreation, the conservancy does not man-age these properties or the activi-ties that take place on them. “We don’t limit those (public uses) at all through the easement. They are up to the individual property owners; like the City of Roanoke for Carvins Cove and the Town of Montvale for the school prop-erty. We actually like when they encourage hik-ing, biking and fishing because they’re conserv-ing the lands so that people can enjoy them. So that the peo-ple can see the beautiful views from the Parkway; they can fish the nice clean rivers, they can hike in a forest that’s not all cut up by development.” The BRLC responsibilities are linked to the terms of the ease-ment. Hackenburg elaborates, “As the easement holders, once a year we visit each of the proper-ties that we have conserved to make sure that they are main-taining the property like they say they are in the easement. We make sure that they are not build-ing a house or anything they are not supposed to do.” This organization is funded mostly by contributions, corpo-

rate partnerships and fundraising events. The BRLC also provides seminars, publishes a newsletter and provides various educational activities to local schools. The Race for Open Space is one of BLRC’s annual fundraisers. The 2012 version attracted about 140 participants, including 90 contes-tants in the 5K race. “Proceeds go to our work to conserve land,” Hackenburg says. “It’s a fairly small race but we’ve seen it grow every year. It should grow more this year — this is the first time we are offering free (ad-vance) registration to kids 13 and under. I think this is a great race to do it in because we have the 3K option. Both our 5K and our 3K start along the Greenway that runs along the Roanoke River. Then they go on a dirt trail (the Tulip Tree Trail) for a little bit, and they come out on the field. And Green Hill Park is kind of a gem;

it’s got some re-ally good views of the surround-ing mountains. “We are go-ing to have some kids’ activities. A lady from the local Mountain Castle Soil and Water Conser-vation District will have activi-ties teaching the kids about wa-tersheds. And then we’ll also have someone

from the Western Virginia Water Authority doing activities to keep the kids busy before and after the race.” Some people walk the 3K, a good option for families, Hack-enburg points out. “Some started pushing their kids [last year] in strollers, and when on the trail, carried their kids. There are plenty of competitive runners in the 5K, so there is something for everyone.” And after the race refreshments will be available, including ice cream from Home-stead Creamery.

Land conservation group promotes upcoming race

Elizabeth Bocock completed last year’s Race for Open Space 3K competition in slightly over 24 minutes

Friends Thomas Johnson and Cathy Driscoll compare times

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Spring-ing into football and baseballMAYBE IT’S THE CHANGE

of weather that has made me giddy and unable to

concentrate, but I couldn’t focus on just one topic this time around, so hang on…. First, let me say something about spring football. I’ve been covering the stuff for the greater part of the last 30 years so I possess some expertise. That said, I have no idea what to make of what happens in intrasquad scrimmages. Please take the Virginia Tech offensive line. Please. Did the 10 sacks they gave up in the first spring scrimmage mean it’s open season on Logan Thomas this fall or does it mean Bud Foster’s defense is gonna be a b-word rhyming with Ditch Witch? Or does it mean Bud’s defense has seen so much of that new offense in practice every day they have an edge? And take the Virginia quarterback situation. Please. Anyone. Af-ter the month or so of practices and scrimmage, nobody won that job among our contestants — David Watford, Greyson Lambert and Phil-lip Sims. Michael Rocco got some nice parting gifts: “The Building of A Program” DVD and a home version of the Mike London football game. I covered the Maryland spring game, which was inexplicably played on a Friday night, possibly to keep fans away. The ACC lame ducks look thin up front and the guy they want to quarterback, C.J. Brown, couldn’t play. He was one of three quarterbacks lost last year to season-ending knee injuries, possibly bad karma for bad uniforms. The rebuilding de-fense looked good. Or the offense looked bad. I can’t decide.

* * * I really wish I still had my “Hoakie” cup.

* * * I referenced Ditch Witch above, and I have a wonderful recollection of that fine Salem-based heavy machinery company. No, I never bought a trencher or vibratory plow or mini skid steer. I got all those product names off their Web site and truth be told I don’t even know what most of them do. I’m guessing a mini skid steer is a smaller cow you have to push. No, the fine folks there sponsored a baseball team and those little guys wore cool bright orange uniforms. In my second game as coach of the — I kid you not — North Salem Acme Cavaliers, my little guys got my first win against the orange horde. This was significant because we had been drubbed like 28-7 in the grand opening day at Oakey’s Field in front of a crowd and with lots of pregame pomp and circumstance. I was a community college guy who had coached basketball and got wrangled into baseball because they needed somebody. My baseball team played like a basketball coach was in charge on opening day. But that second game at the Beverly Heights Field, we took a precarious lead into the final inning when my best pitcher got knocked out of the game. He jumped in front of the catcher to make a tag at the plate and a Ditch Witch player, befitting his sponsor, plowed over him. With one out and the go-ahead run on second, I put in my catcher in to pitch and all his warm-up tosses either hit the ground a few feet in front of the plate or bounced off the screen at the backstop, and this was before “Hit the bull” in “Bull Durham.” I closed my eyes but it turned out the opposing batters had been watching this spectacle, too, and none of them got very comfortable in the box. My newly-minted pitcher induced two quick outs and the postgame canned soda — this was be-fore juice boxes — never tasted so good.

* * * And speaking of baseball, from the critic’s corner, I recommend the movie “42,” for those that follow along in this space. It’s chock-full of nostalgia and history and baseball and Harrison Ford, and, well, that’s usually enough.

I think that Jackie Robinson’s story is perhaps one of those too big even for the big screen. Wisely, writer/director Brian Helgeland fo-cuses on just three years, building up to the pivotal 1947 season, when Robinson, at Branch Rickey’s behest, changed everything. It’s hard for younger movie-goers to recognize the America that Rob-inson had to help move forward, and the movie effectively captures it, from the outright racism of Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman to the reticence of Dodger teammates to embrace Robinson (well acted by Chadwick Boseman) early on. I’ve read enough about this to be familiar with this story, and I partic-ularly loved the portrayals of supporting characters like pitcher Ralph Branca (Hamish Linklater), who has got to go down as one of the class-iest men in baseball history; master broadcaster Red Barber (John C. McGinley), who set a standard behind the mike that elevated the craft; Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni), the volatile manager, who was still in the game when I came of age as a fan in the ’70s; beloved Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black, the quarterback in the movie “Friday Night

Lights”) and Wendell Smith (Andre Holland), a groundbreaking African-American sportswriter in his own right. I’m old enough to remember “Colored” sec-tions at restaurants in Roanoke, and the fact my whole elementary school only had about 20 Afri-can-American students. Fortunately, one of them became one of my best friends, and coincidental-ly, could pick it at third base. We always bonded over a love of sports, and it’s that kind of experi-ence I would wish for those that don’t understand why some of us love the games so much.

“42” would be Exhibit A, in that regard. Following World War II, the integration of baseball probably did as much as any other event to put us on a path to a more just society. It’s an important film, if for no other reason. And even before the movie, on a recent trip to Brooklyn, this kind of history drew me to venture over to Flatbush and find the site of Ebbets Field, now a huge apartment complex, with only a plaque on a backdoor and “Ebbets Field” on a wall over a nondescript parking lot to denote where the famed cathedral once stood. I still got chills down my spine standing there.

* * * One year back in the ’70s, I believe, the folks that made the cups for Virginia Tech football games spelled Hokies incorrectly, hence the above reference. I think my mom threw it away somewhere along the way but we forgave her as soon as she made biscuits and gravy again. Still wish I had that cup. Wish I had Mom’s biscuits and gravy more, though.

SIDELINESby Mike Ashley

Cave Spring High School Reunion:Event for Combined ’73s & ’74s

Date: Sept. 20 & 21, 2013Who: The Cave Spring HS Classes of ‘73 & ‘74Activities: Fri. night mixer; Sat. morning golf at Bally-hack Golf Club; Sat. afternoon - Art open house at Eric Fitzpatrick Studios; Sat. night cocktail buffet at Hunting Hills Country Club with music, friends, fun.Additional Info: Facebook, Classmates.com or at www.cavespringreunion.com.Contact Us: Please let us know your contact informa-tion. Send to: [email protected]

We want to find you!! Please let us know your contact information.


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