Vol. 9, No. 3, December 17, 2012playbyplayonline.net/files/PbP121712web.pdf · 2 Play By Play...

DECEMBER 17, 2012 Play By Play 1

Vol. 9, No. 3, December 17, 2012Vol. 9, No. 3, December 17, 2012

2 Play By Play DECEMBER 17, 2012

Dave Sarmadi was homesick!I f you’ve followed these pages in recent times, you know that auto-

mobile executive Dave Sarmadi has been in Northern Virginia for the past 18 months, working with an exclusive Leesburg dealership of fine cars. His advertisement has remained an anchor in this spot, encourag-ing his Southwest Virginia customers to come see him. “Come see me in Leesburg,” he often said. “I’ll make it worth the drive.” The response was good, he reports. Month in and month out, he was working with many loyal friends who took him up on his offer. Only thing was… Northern Virginia wasn’t home. Dave had established a sterling reputation in Southwest Virginia with 30 years of automobile experience, through Berglund Automo-tive, Dave Sarmadi Mitsubishi and Dave Sarmadi Imports. There are thousands of cars on our roads in South-west Virginia right now that Dave person-

ally handled. He missed us. So Dave and his family have returned to their roots. His youngest son, Omid, has enrolled in Roanoke College. (Older sons Paykon and Kayvon have embarked on professional ca-reers in the fields of architecture and financial planning, re-spectively.) Dave heard his friends and family calling. Dave’s back in the Roanoke Valley, analyzing the market and weighing his career options. In the meantime, Dave wants you to know that if you have an automotive need — whether it be domestic or import, he can get it for you, just like he’s always done. Yes, it’s good to be home. Call Dave at (540) 293-4620, welcome him back, and see what he can do for you!

Dave Sarmadi(540) 293-4620

….putting fine people and fine cars together for more than 30 years

Pictured with"Survivor's"Ethan Zohnin 2008


Jamelle Hagins

Brian Hoffman photos

Sponsored by:

PLAYMAKERSpotlightThe Salem senior basketball star formally signed with

Wake Forest in November, surrounded by her family, coach and school administrators. Taylor has been of the most highly recruited girl basketball players in the Roanoke Valley in the

past several years. Taylor, who has started for the Spar-tans since her freshman year, led Salem to back-to-back Group AA state tourna-ment final four appearances the past two seasons — and entered the

Tay Taylor

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Articles Volleyball’s Tamalyn Tanis, 2012 Sportsperson of the Year ...... 10

Irregular Heartbeat Doesn’t Slow Averett’s Paul Porter .............. 12

Guns and Hoses Celebrates a Decade of ‘Charitable’ Hockey .....14

Liberty’s Nick Sigmon is in the Middle of Everything ....................15

Hollins Basketball is on the Upswing .................................................16 Jerry English, a Legend of the Games ..............................................18

Extras Playmaker Spotlight .......................3

Ask A Ref ...........................................6

Snapshots of the Season ...............9

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PlaybookOpinions Todd Marcum ......................................... 4

Mike Stevens .......................................... 5

Christian Moody ................................... 6

Gene Marrano ....................................... 7

Mike Ashley .......................................... 19

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Surrounded by her family and school personnel, Tay Taylor formally signs with Wake Forest in November

2012-13 season with some eye-popping career stats. Through her junior

season she had 1,093 points, 332 as-sists, 212 steals and 309 rebounds. The Spartans have just eight players on their current varsity

roster so Taylor will get little rest this year. She’s started out strongly again,

leading Salem to four wins out of the chute. The Salem victories were by an average of 13 points. Even with defenses keying on her, Taylor has scored in double figures in

each of Salem’s wins.

The University of Delaware senior, who

helped lead William Flem-ing to a 2007 state hoops title, continues to make a name for himself. ESPN named the 6-9 center its college rebounder of the month for November. He recently snared 23 boards against Lafayette, the most by a Division I men’s player in three years. Hagins has improved his numbers each year with the Blue Hens and is currently averaging a double-double

(12 points, 12 rebounds). He also con-sistently rates among the na-tion’s leaders in blocked shots. Hagins hopes to be an NBA draft choice in 2013.

Jamelle Hagins grabbed 23 rebounds in a single game

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Page 15Page 15

Photo courtesy of delawareonline


‘Best seats in the house’ have local tie

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 2012. 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 January 14 issue is December 31.

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 Mike Stevens Bill Turner

Cover photograph by Bill Turner

TODDS AND ENDSby ToddMarcum

Now with color

on every page. Call

John Montgomery

at 761-6751 to

place your ad.

THE NEW ENGLAND PATRI- ots and Frank Chervan, Inc. are both are on top of their

game. So when the three-time Super Bowl champions renovated the Putnam Club luxury suites in Gillette Stadium outside Boston, they called the Roanoke furniture maker’s number. Frank Chervan is a seating manufacturer that rose from the

remains of Hooker Furniture’s withdrawal from domestic man-ufacturing. Frank Chervan took over Hooker’s factory in Roanoke in 2006 and employed many of the former workers at the plant. Today, all the company’s op-erations are based in Roanoke. While Hooker took much of its furniture production abroad, Chervan decided that it could be done better by making its prod-uct in Virginia. It turns out American qual-ity is alive and well and living off Greenbrier Avenue in South-east Roanoke, near the Vinton line. The company’s reputation for craftsmanship and durabil-ity has made it a leading supplier of frames for many industries. When the Patriots found them-

selves in a tight-deadline situa-tion, Chervan’s can-do attitude paid off. “The biggest challenge was lead time,” says Greg Terrill, president of the company that was founded by his grandfather in 1932. “We had to design and sample a solu-tion, then produce and install the project in a very tight time win-dow.” Called the Lap of Luxury, the east and west Putnam Clubs at Gillette Stadium are each larger than a football field, with cathe-dral ceilings three stories high and floor-to-ceiling glass walls providing end zone to end zone views. Pro teams and corpora-tions are constantly using the Putman venue for events, some-times several events in a single day. The space needs to be con-stantly reconfigured. While the designer wanted a classic look, the chairs needed to be stackable, which is a difficult engineering feat for a high-end wooden arm-chair. “Our engineering team took the original design from an Ital-ian producer and made several redesigns to make it a rugged stackable chair,” says Terrill. In the middle of the project, an-other wrinkle — and opportunity — arose. The management at Gil-lette Stadium decided to renovate the players’ dining room. As you might imagine, when 325-pound defensive tackle Vince Wilfork sits down to a pregame feast, he had best be supported by some-thing more than a folding chair. In fact, the Patriots asked Cher-van to design a “super duty” chair and particularly large and stable dining tables. “Within three weeks, we shipped 100 custom-embroidered player-sized chairs along with the

large din-ning tables. A n t h o n y G a r d n e r at Twist & Turns was absolutely critical to our abil-ity to pull this off,” says Terrill.

“Anthony’s team made us criti-cal metal parts in 48 hours, at times.” Terrill has nothing but praise for his production team that pulled off the manufacturing equivalent of a successful game-winning two-minute drill. In the end, the team designed, pro-duced, delivered and installed more than 15 tractor-trailer loads of custom chairs and tables. The company had two teams in Fox-borough, Mass., for two installs lasting about six days each. The jury is still out on whether Tom Brady will take his team to another Super Bowl. Still it’s kind of cool knowing that our neigh-bors set the table for him. While Terrill is too busy to en-joy a lot of football games, he’s a fan of his own home team — the people who pulled together this feat. “I am too impatient to sit through a game, so I never have been much of a sports fan of any type,” says Terrill. “However this made me an instant Patriots fan.”

* * * I also want to congratulate for-mer William Byrd football player Trip Ison, whose Kent State Gold-en Flashes rose to No. 17 before falling in the MAC conference ti-tle game to Northern Illinois. Trip participated on kickoff teams and served as the backup long snap-per during his senior year. He even got his picture on SportsIl-lustrated.com giving his coach Darrell Hazell a Gatorade bath as Kent State clinched the Cen-tral Division in November. Hazell has since been tapped as the next head coach for Purdue. Kent State will take on Arkan-sas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 6.

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The east and west Putnam Clubs are each larger than the field

Building high-end stackable chairs was a challenge


Zac Foutz deals with a difficult handOPEN MIKEby MikeStevens

IMAGINE ONE OF yOUR CHIL-dren is so sick the blood vessels in his eyes are bursting because

of violent, uncontrollable vomit-ing. Then imagine there’s not a thing you can do about it. Imagine this same child — just days removed from his 16th birthday and only hours after a dominating performance on the football field — is now bedridden in a dark hospital room being prepped for his first spinal tap. Unfortunately, these unimaginable circumstances for most parents have been all too real for Ben and Andrea Foutz the past two months. “I never understood why my parents were so concerned about me when I had some surgeries growing up, but now that I’m a parent and Andrea and I have gone through this with our own son, I know exact-ly what kind of anxiety and helplessness they experienced,” says Ben Foutz. Their son, Zac, is a sophomore at Cave Spring High School who pos-sesses incredible physical tools and unlimited athletic potential. Al-ready 6-foot, 3-inches tall and 205 pounds as a 10th-grader, Zac and his parents figured any headlines he might make this school year would be on the sports page related to playing football and basketball for the Knights. Instead, he now has the distinction of being the youngest person in the United States to be diagnosed with fungal meningitis. “The fungus attacks everybody differently and in Zac’s case the fun-gus went to the optic nerve behind his eyes,” says Ben. The fungus was introduced into Zac’s body on Sept. 18 when he re-ceived a steroid injection from Roanoke-based Insight Imaging to treat

some inflammation in his lower back. The family was later advised that the shot came from the tainted batch of serum supplied to the clinic by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. “Even though we knew for many weeks that he had that shot, we nev-er thought we would be sitting with him in a dark hospital room for days going through the agony and pain that he was going through,” Ben says. In fact on the same day Zac turned 16, the family got word that his first fungal culture had actually come back negative, meaning there

was no sign of the meningitis in his body. Suddenly, there was even more reason to celebrate the birthday in a week that would get even better just three days later. Zac comes from a very ath-letic family. Both his mom and dad were outstanding athletes at Cave Spring; his paternal grand-father, Lowell Foutz, was a State Golden Gloves Boxing Champ in 1956; and his maternal grandfa-ther, Berkley Lucas, was a high school all-American football player at William Byrd back in the early 1960s. So, it wasn’t a big surprise when Zac intercepted three passes and returned one for a touchdown against Chris-

See STEVENS, Page 8

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Zac Foutz, a sophomore, already stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 205


Where have all the flowers gone?

Ask A Ref

Q.

A. The answers to the first and second questions are yes, the ball can be passed behind the baseline after a made basket and a defender cannot violate the invisible plane of the baseline from floor to ceiling. Therefore, of Question 3: If A1 passes the ball to A2 while both are behind the baseline for a throw-in after the made basket, B2 cannot play the ball on that pass or until A2 has released it. If he swats the ball, it is a techni-cal.

I USED TO HAVE A CHEAP LIT-tle plaque above my desk with a quote that was attributed to

Ben Franklin. It said: “There are two things everyone thinks they can do better than anyone else: poke the fire and edit a newspa-per.” I can think of a couple things to add to that list. The first is drive. (But like poking the fire, driving isn’t a career.) The other entry I’ll add to the list is coach a Division I football team. Proceed with caution because this might be a column that no one agrees with, based on a straw poll of vocal fans and people who seem willing to share their opinions on coaches. Just to be clear, I am talking about Hokie fans and their propensity to think that something is going to be better if a couple of assistant coach-es are replaced. My first point is the simplest: If Frank Beamer wants to make a change, then he should. If he doesn’t, he shouldn’t. My life is not likely to be affected either way. But this much I know. Beamer knows a lot more about the program than you or I do. Plus, as an alumnus of Virginia Tech, I want the Hokies to win the na-tional championship. I really, really want that. But you know who wants it more? Frank Beamer. That’s his life, his career. I’m a guy who goes to games and invests about 40 hours and a few hundred bucks a year in the program. To think that Beamer would make any decision that was counter to the goal of winning is ludicrous. I’ve heard the grumblings for years and never really understood why people wanted to make such a target of Bryan Stinespring. Now Mike

O’Cain is in the crosshairs. I think it’s message board hysteria. Maybe it’s a result of new media, where anyone can post a rumor or an opinion, disguise it as fact, attach a dubious source, and suddenly it has a credibility all its own. Shooting pool with friends the weekend of the conference champion-ship games, I was present as two Tech fans had the following conversa-tion. I swear I’m not making this up. Fan 1: “I know there’s going to be some changes on the staff. Stiney’s gone. O’Cain’s gone. Got a good source.” Fan 2: “I heard that, too. Not sure who told me.” Fan 1: “I got it from someone close. Real close.”

Hmmm. Someone close enough that they’re entrusted with this information, but not loyal enough to keep it in house. Then I learn the source. It seems my bud knows a guy who works with one of Beamer’s sisters, and she told him. So if I’m to believe this, there was a conversation at some point where Beam-er’s sister must have asked, “So Frank, whatcha gonna do about Stiney and O’Cain?” At which point Beamer, not notic-ing how odd it is that his sister is ask-ing about personnel decisions, pipes up with his plans to make changes. That in-formation is then shared with a random co-worker who now has the scoop of the

year and tells other fans, so we can all be aware. I know a couple of the coaches well enough to speak when we see each other, and I asked one about a current player and the recruiting process, since I knew he was involved. He had great things to say about the player and his family. So imagine my surprise when I’m talking about recruiting during the season and I’m told that, in fact, my friend didn’t have anything to do with the recruit, that’s just hearsay. Now there’s a conundrum. Whom to believe? On the one hand, I have the guy who is actually part of the staff, while on the other I have an IT guy from western Pennsylvania who reads Internet message boards and speaks with authority. However, maybe the fans are right. At the Virginia game I sat near a grandmotherly woman who had it all figured out. Seems Stinespring is skipping the fundamentals. Tech quarterback Logan Thomas was struggling throwing the ball and a pass skipped short of his receiver. This matron of the gridiron screamed “C’mon Beamer, tell Stinespring to teach Logan he has to keep the ball up!” Oh, it all comes clear. Apparently no offensive coaches had taught Thomas that the ball could not skip on the ground before reaching the receiver. They were slack in their duties and, without that guidance, Thomas must have no idea. The defensive coaches are not immune. When Florida State scored just before halftime, a fan near me was incredulous that the defense “let that happen.” He had the solution. He told everyone that defensive co-ordinator Bud Foster needed to “talk to them. He has to tell them they can’t be doing that.” Seriously? That’s the answer? Talk to them? Well now, if coaching is that simple, I think good things must be ahead. I’m willing to bet that this is a guy who goes to message boards and spouts off his opinions. I think the biggest beef I have with all the dissatisfaction is the lack of perspective. One of my best friends actually believes the Hokies would be better off with an entirely new coaching staff because Beamer and

FROM MY VANTAGE POINTChristian Moody

See MOODY, Page 7

Fans have second-guessed Beamer since at least 2008

Is it true that after a made basket, a player can take the ball on the baseline and pass to another player, also behind the baseline, who can then pass it in, so long as it’s done inside 5 seconds? Also, is it true that if a defender reach-es over the baseline and swats the ball in the hands of a player throwing it in, it’s a technical foul? What happens if, after a made basket, A1 goes behind the base-line with the ball and the following occurs: B2 is guarding A2, but A2 crosses the baseline to receive a pass from A1, which therefore is not the throw-in, and while there B2, not realizing A2 is beyond the baseline and the ball is not yet live, swats the ball?

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. This month we ask a basketball question (three, actually) to veteran hoops arbiter Reggie Poff.


50 in a 55 (year) zone — not speeding

Co. “can’t get us over the hump and win the national championship.” The underlying belief here is that this hump is a fairly minor obstacle that is being conquered by lesser coaches all the time. As if national championships are not that difficult — failing to win one demonstrates an obvious lack of ability. If that were true, the Division I-A schools that would need to make a change in their coaching staffs include, well, everyone not named Ala-bama. I don’t need to cite the credentials of this staff (ahem, four ACC cham-pionships) because the cynics then say “should have been more bowl wins; yammer, yammer, yammer.” The thing is, I remember when go-ing to the Independence Bowl was a big darn deal and made everyone happy. And I also see other teams that have no conference champion-ships, no BCS bowl wins, no traditions, and I know they would gladly switch places with those who have gotten complacent in their sense of entitlement. I’m just sorry it’s the fans of my team that got that way.

MoodyFrom Page 6

“CONGR AT U L AT IONS,” said the sales clerk at Fleet Feet Sports when I

purchased my cherished prize: a $2 bumper sticker that pro-claimed “50 miles.” This was two days after finish-ing something I never thought I would do: run a 50-mile ultra-marathon. But I did the Nashville Ultra Marathon, even if I had to run-walk, run-walk the last half after my leg started barking. If you read my Play by Play column last year, you might recall my journey from losing 50 pounds to a resumed interest in running. I had just completed a 25K (15.6 miles) trail race at Carvins Cove, part of the Mountain Junkies series. More than two dozen people commented on that story; some congratulated me and a few even said they were in-spired. Among those I heard from was Roanoke Mayor David Bowers (“Good for you,” his handwritten note stated) and Roanoke College men’s bas-ketball coach Page Moir. The point of the story was that just about any-one could change eating habits a bit (more protein, less carbs) and then hit the road, trails or greenways. Since then I ran my first road marathon, in Richmond last November, before tackling perhaps the Mother of All Road Marathons — our own Blue Ridge Marathon in April. I’d like to say I enjoyed it, but as opposed to the very flat and friendly Richmond race, the three-peak Blue Ridge Marathon was a BEAR. In fact I felt the physical im-pact of that race for months. My 5K and 10K times in the road and trail races I ran weekly afterwards were slower than they were in 2011; my quads and hammies had been thrown for a loop. Still, after competing in my first trail marathon two months later, Conquer the Cove, a thought crept into my head: could I tackle an ultra-mara-thon, 40-50 miles long? I thought I’d give it a shot. My first attempt in September was the 50-mile Iron Mountain Ultra in Damascus — a trail race that included 9,000 feet of elevation gain. The result? Crash and burn. After 32 miles I

missed a time cut-off point and was yanked from the race. It didn’t mat-ter much; my legs hurt so badly that I walked with a Frankenstein-like gait the last three miles uphill (and I do mean uphill) until they called time. (Side note: for a spell I kept up with Kelly Bruno, who starred on CBS’ “Survivor” in 2010 and has a prosthetic leg like the one a South African sprinter employed in the recent Olympics. The last time I saw Bruno I was sprawled on the ground after a fall at the Iron Mountain, trying to work out a charley horse.) Temporarily defeated in my 50-miler quest, I looked for a friendlier venue, not a trail race featuring long uphill marches. I found the Nov. 3 Nashville Ultra Marathon, which begins near Opryland, makes its way past the Tennessee Titans football stadium to downtown Nashville and then back. The Nashville area has an extensive greenway system in place. I hope Roanoke will soon get there. Runners were permitted to start at 5 a.m. if they were afraid the 12-

hour cut-off that accompanied the conventional starting time of 7 might curtail their finish. I opted for the early start in the dark. How’d I do? Let’s just say I could have started at 7 (barely). I finished in just under 12 hours at 11:56. About 12 miles in, after a “blis-tering” pace that had me think-ing I might finish in 10 hours, 30 minutes or less, I developed soreness in my right knee and then the leg in general. So it was run-walk for much of the race. I also cracked a rib and sprained

my wrist when I fell, tripping over a raised sidewalk section downtown. But I did complete it, perking up near the finish line after hearing the cheers and cowbells. Papa John’s Pizza and Gato-

rade never tasted so good. I finished 41st out of 48 runners and didn’t even get a finisher’s medal. (All the runners got glass mugs.) What I did get was the satisfaction of knowing I could do it. That was a “bucket list” goal — and at this point, I have no desire to repeat it. Running and racing all year (I’m idle now until early January’s Fro-zen Toe trail race) has enabled me to understand how professional ath-letes can wear down after a long season, how the aches and pains and soreness catch up with you. I started going to a chiropractor for the first time ever; Dr. Daryl Rich, who works with many weekend warriors, has helped keep me going. Still, my right heel is chronically sore, my legs get tired and once in a while my back objects. I’ve cut down on the number of miles I run every week and use my kinder, gentler treadmill more. In his best-sell-ing book “Born to Run,” long-distance runner Christopher McDougall asked his doctor, how do I prevent the pain? “Stop running,” the doctor answered. I’m not ready for that. Neither are Barry Thornton, Mike Pedigo, Frank Finch or Marion Childress, some of the other runners over 50 I see out there almost every weekend. Putting that decal on the back bumper of my car felt really good. It was well worth all the other aggravation.

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Gene’s racing mementoes include a mug, a decal and substantial weight loss

MY EXPERIENCEby Gene Marrano


StevensFrom Page 5

tiansburg on Oct. 26. “I really think that was the first game all season where he was re-ally 100 percent healthy with his back and hamstrings,” says Ben. The Knights won the game 37-24 and immediately afterwards Ben and Andrea took Zac and five of his buddies to a cabin in Wythe County to celebrate the win and his milestone birthday. Unfor-tunately, they never made it through the weekend. The Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention had established the incubation period for the fungus at seven to 42 days after an injection. Zac started getting sick on day 39. “He was in so much pain at the onset that he felt like his whole head was going to explode,” says Ben. After spending that Sunday at LewisGale Medical Center, Zac was transferred to Carilion the next day on Oct. 29, and for the next 16 days he was literally in the dark at Roanoke Memorial wear-ing either a sleeping mask or sun-glasses. “There was so much pressure in his eyes from the sickness that he burst the capillaries in them,” says Ben. “It was a week before the nurses knew what he looked like because he had his eyes and face covered to keep the light out.”

Still in the dark The unpredictability of this strain of fungal meningitis has also kept patients and doctors in the dark when it comes to finding a definitive cure. “I don’t think anyone is clini-cally cured yet,” Ben says. “That’s why we have to look at this long term and how this meningitis and the medications are going to affect a 16-year-old. Good, bad or indifferent, we don’t know and the doctors don’t know if the ef-

fects on Zachary will be the same as they are on a 78-year-old.” Zac currently has to take 1,100 milligrams of anti-fungal medi-cation each day along with a high-powered neurological med-ication. Both of these can have certain undesirable side effects. In addition, Zac has blood tests done each week and the excru-ciating spinal taps will continue at least for the next six months.

Already he’s undergone six of these proce-dures. “Andrea and I sat in his room many nights and just wanted him to get some relief and rest because when he was awake, he was hurting,” Ben says. “We’ve done a lot of soul-searching and hard pray-

ing and, honestly, it’s a roller-coaster ride from day to day.” One of the toughest things for Zac has been dealing with the re-ality that the team sports he loves so much just aren’t a possibility right now. “Sports aren’t the most impor-tant things in life, but for Zac and kids like Zac who are students and athletes, their life is about go-ing to school, spending time with their teammates and then com-ing home with their families, and basically most of that has been taken away right now,” says Ben, who was Cave Spring head varsity football coach from 1999-2004. Ironically, it was an honest ef-fort to keep him active in orga-nized school athletics that inex-plicably turned their lives upside down. After Zac finished his junior varsity year of basketball and his freshman year at Cave Spring, he began to have some stiffness in his back. That pain got progres-sively worse and eventually an MRI exam confirmed that he had a disc problem. When Zac didn’t respond to physical therapy, his doctor decided to “calm down” the issue with a steroids shot in

June. He slowed down in workouts and activity level after school let out in June and then eased into the start of the varsity football season later during the summer. By the season opener, he was set to start on defense and punt for the Knights without any prob-lems. But after the first three weeks of the season he started to once again experience some dis-comfort in his back and returned to his doctor. Zac had experienced a major growth spurt from June to Sep-tember, but everyone was re-lieved that these tests showed no neurological problems related to his back and that the inflamma-tion could likely be treated and resolved with a second steroid shot. “We talked about sitting him down for a whole year, but we were all very optimistic because he was feeling better and the doc-tors saw no signs of any nerve damage,” Ben says. “We were simply trying to help him.”

What now? During his time at Roanoke Memorial, Zac dropped about 15 pounds, but that’s only a guess because he hated weighing-in and didn’t even want to look at the scales to see his athletic “badge of honor” melting away. “That first week he couldn’t eat anything and was violently sick,” says Ben. “It was to the point that they seriously thought they might have to insert a feeding tube.” Since leaving the hospital and returning home Nov. 12, his ap-petite has slowly returned and his weight is nearly back to 200 pounds. Zac also returned to school on a very limited basis the week after Thanksgiving, although he’s a long way from spending an entire day in the classroom. His homebound instruction will continue for months and there’s no way to know when he will be cleared to return to his first love — athletics. For now, he dresses out with his varsity basketball team-mates and watches practice from the sideline. To look at him, you would think he could score 20 points a game

and finish off a fast break with a thunderous dunk, and because of his competitive nature and de-sire to play he would dive in the stands for a loose ball today, if his doctors would just let him. But for now, he’s benched until fur-ther notice through no fault of his own. “He’s certainly a talent and I feel like he has the potential to do it at a very high level one day, but, honestly, I only have to walk out my backdoor and into Kend-all Bayne’s backyard to realize all of this could be a lot worse,” Ben says. Kendall and her family live right behind the Foutz family in the Cotton Hill section of Roa-noke County. Her courageous and often public battle with a rare form of cancer for nearly two years has been well documented. The two Cave Spring students were in the hospital at the same time last month and visited each other in their respective rooms. Ironically, Kendall desperately needs white blood cells while Zac has too many of them. The two have come to share a range of emotions in recent weeks af-ter being dealt hands that no one their age should ever have to play. They’ve also found a common bond when it comes to jump-starting their appetites that have been curbed by disease and med-ication. “Both Kendall and Zachary love my mom’s homemade banana pudding,” says Ben. “We were try-ing everything to get them to eat and nothing has tasted better to them than her pudding.” Ben and Andrea were forced to put their professional lives in medical sales and professional counseling on hold for nearly a month. They’re slowly getting back to work and things also are returning to normal at home for the entire family, including Zac’s sister, Alex. “We certainly feel like we’ve been through the ringer,” says Ben. “I know the Lord has a plan and that all of this is happening for a reason. We just have to have faith that it will eventually work out.” Faith and Alice Foutz’ banana pudding.

Ben Foutz was Cave Spring head football coach 1999-2004

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Snapshots of the season

Hidden Valley Volleyball: Ever So Close!The Titans (above, after winning the regional title) nearly brought home the Group AA state championship trophy Nov. 17. Hidden Valley finished as runners-up for the second time, losing to Loudoun County 3-2 at the Siegel Center in Rich-mond. The Titans, who held a 2-1 lead and were ahead 16-10 in game 4, were riding a 12-match winning streak and had not lost in five weeks. Hidden Valley finished 29-5, another banner season under coach Carla Poff.

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Dave Ross Biddy Bowl Raises FundsProceeds from the third annual youth football championships held Nov. 11 raised $1,300 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Ross (second from right, front) poses with the ceremonial check along with K.C. Bratton and Anne Fox.

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‘Sweet Pea’ Visits Roanoke Valley Sports Club1984 Olympic boxing champion Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whitaker (above) addressed the club at the Salem Civic Center Nov. 19. Whitaker, who hails from Norfolk, used speed and a defensive boxing style to win several world titles as a pro. Below, Whitaker clowns with local youth boxers Monté Tyrone Dunnaville and Danté Trayvon Dunnaville, twins who attended the dinner. The Sports Club’s next meeting will feature former Virginia Tech star and NFL football player Pierson Prioleau on Jan. 21.

7Bill Turner

Lee Johnson ResignsThe William Fleming head football coach (above) has decided three years is enough. After posting winning records at Glenvar and North Cross (including a 2008 state title with the Raiders), Johnson moved to Flem-ing in 2010 when the new stadium opened. He went just 2-28 with the Colonels. Johnson will remain a physi-cal education teacher in Roanoke.

RVSGT 2012 ChampionCharles Vassar (above) of Trout-ville was the overall points cham-pion in the 2012 Roanoke Valley Senior Golf Tour. Playing in the Senior Golf Tour’s 10th year, Vassar finished in first place out of a field of 130 players by accumulating 844 total points and a 25th place average finish for the season’s nine tournaments.

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Local Wrestler WinsVMI freshman Armando Herrera-Dos Reis (left), a 2012 Roanoke Catholic graduate, posted his first collegiate wrestling win Nov. 11 at 125 pounds, defeating West Virginia’s Mike Bolash 8-0 at the Wolfpack Open at N.C. State. Look for a story detailing the successful Roanoke Catholic wrestling pro-gram in the next Play by Play.

7

College SigningsTwo Hidden Valley High School seniors (right) announced their college plans Nov. 14 in the school library. Volleyball player Caroline Boone (seated on the left in the picture, surrounded by sister Cath-erine and parents Norvin and Cheryl) will take her game to Francis Marion Uni-versity in South Carolina, while baseball pitcher Ryan Lauria (joined by parents Chris and Lisa) will play for Louisville.

7

Bill Turner

Photo courtesy of Jason Hannah

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by Bill Turner

Using talents to the best of her abilitySPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR

F EW PEOPLE IN HIGH school sports circles would argue that winning a state

championship in any coach’s re-spective sport embodies the pin-nacle of success. The goal of virtually every coach and team, yet something achieved by only a fortunate few, earning a state title requires in-tense preparation, hard work and good players, not to mention a little luck along the way. After his football team’s 26-18 loss to Heritage on Dec. 1 in a Group AA Division 4 state semi-final, I asked Salem High School head coach Steve Magenbauer, the winner of state titles in 2004 and 2005, how hard it is to win a state championship. “Man, it’s hard, very hard!” Ma-genbauer responded. “And once

you’ve been there the first time, it gets even harder.” Cave Spring High School head volleyball coach Tamalyn Tanis has clearly figured out the winning combina-tion. Her Knight teams have won five state titles, beginning with her first season as head coach, the 2002-2003 Group AA win-ter championship. When the Virginia High School League moved volleyball to a fall sport in 2003, Tanis followed with champi-onships in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2011. Her teams also made the finals in 2004, and semifinals in 2009 and 2010. Five seniors graduated from the 2011 championship team, with Morgan Shannon (David-

son) and Shannon Craighead (Stetson) continuing to play at the college level. A third, libero Lau-ren Sledd, had the potential for a volleyball career beyond high school, before deciding to play tennis thanks to a scholarship of-fer from Catawba College. In a rebuilding season this past fall, with a team that included several freshmen and sopho-mores thrust into key roles, Cave Spring still managed to reach the state quarterfinal round before falling to E.C. Glass. The exceptional achievements of winning five championships in 11 seasons, helping to bring volleyball excellence to the Roa-noke Valley and being a teacher and ambassador of the game statewide, all contributed to the decision to name Tanis as Play by Play’s ninth annual Sportsperson of the year. Tanis follows previous winners Dan Wooldridge (2004), Charlie Hammersley (2005), Pete Lamp-man (2006), Dave Ross (2007), Chip Sullivan (2008), Doug Doughty (2009), Billy Hicks (2010) and Brian Hoffman (2011). Tanis is 269-39 in career match-es (a winning percentage of .873) and 126-14 (.900) in River Ridge District matches, with 11 of those 14 losses coming at the hands of Southwest Roanoke County ri-

val Hidden Valley (including four times this past season). Under Tanis’ direction, Cave Spring is a combined 99-3 against the other four district teams. “Tamalyn has been very suc-cessful as a coach and loves vol-leyball,” says Hidden Valley head coach Carla Poff, who has fared better in head-to-head matches with Tanis than any other area coach. “She has definitely been a big contributor to volleyball all over the area.” Tanis played at Cave Spring for three years, under the direc-tion of coaches Joyce Palmer and current Northside softball coach Lynn Richmond, before graduat-ing in 1989. Tanis then took her skills as an outside hitter to Mary Washing-ton College in Fredericksburg, where she helped the Eagles reach the NCAA women’s volley-ball tournament her sophomore year, and go 35-3 in her junior year. She graduated from Mary Washington in 1993 with a degree in economics. It wasn’t long before the junior varsity volleyball coaching posi-tion at her alma mater became available. “I was a real estate appraiser, and then Cave Spring athletic di-rector Otis Dowdy gave me the opportunity to coach,” she says. Tanis coached the JV team and served as a varsity assistant to Knights head coach Penny Wil-liams for several seasons. Then, a twist of fate gave Tanis the chance to become head coach at Cave Spring. But she almost went a different direction, as Wil-liams recalls. “I had been the head coach at Patrick Henry from 1986-1994, and Cave Spring from 1995-2001,” says Williams, now a guidance counselor at Cave Spring. “I was leaving coaching for family rea-sons related to having a child. “Tamalyn was my obvious suc-cessor. I was successful as a coach at Cave Spring because of her JV success. She was a motivator, a

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CS coach Tamalyn Tanis has won five state volleyball titles in the last 11 years


Using talents to the best of her abilityspark plug and one that continu-ally developed talented players that moved into the varsity pro-gram. “It was at the same time that Hidden Valley was being spun off from Cave Spring,” Williams says. “The (Cave Spring) admin-istration was slow in announcing their decision of my replacement, and I became aware that Hidden Valley had Tamalyn on their ra-dar. I passed that along, and she was immediately named Cave Spring’s new head coach.” Tanis had 14 players on her last JV team. When the school split occurred later that year, seven of those players moved to Hidden Valley and seven stayed in the Cave Spring jurisdiction. “When I took over in 2002, we had a tight-knit group that I had already coached in JV,” Tanis says. “[That first season] we had seven seniors and five juniors and we went 29-0. “Winning two state champion-ships in nine months [after the change of seasons] set the tone for Cave Spring volleyball. The kids worked hard and everyone realized you need every piece to fall into place. It was a snowball effect.” Those early successes helped change the landscape in area vol-leyball. “Players began to be more se-rious about playing on travel squads and volleyball quickly be-

came more than a three-month sport,” Tanis says. “It involves a lot of practice, a natural desire to play, with very hard work that is physically demanding.” In the ensuing years, particu-larly after Poff took the helm at Hidden Valley, the Titans have achieved excellence as well. To-

day, both Southwest Roanoke County high schools can boast of outstanding programs. Not surprisingly, Tanis refuses to single out her favorite or most talented team. “All were so spe-cial,” she says with a huge smile. One look at the plaques lining the walls of Cave Spring High School and you’ll see an impres-sive list of volleyball players, many of whom have gone on to play

in college. They include Court-ney Fitzpatrick, Emily Harvey, Claire Kerr, Lauren Clary, Sta-cey Craighead, Jennifer Harvey, Lauren Bosche, Jocelyn Kel-linger, Shannon Craighead and Morgan Shannon. These players ended their careers with honors ranging from all-regional to all-

state first team to VHSL player of the year. Tanis has long been a big promoter of vol-leyball. She founded the annual Shamrock Festival tournament, which this past March attracted 228 teams and more than 2,300 players who participated in matches held in 14 different locations around the Roanoke Valley.

In October, the first Tourna-ment of Champions volleyball tournament was held at the Spec-trum Sports Academy, bringing in 12 teams with a combined 24 state titles from a two-state area. Tanis serves as director of vol-leyball at Spectrum, where she works to develop players from an early age to attain the proper skills needed to succeed in the sport. “It’s key to offer interested kids the base to work with,” Tanis says. “From athletic kids to newcom-ers, we teach fitness, skill devel-opment and work on building re-lationships with teammates.” Tanis says today’s high school volleyball has become a sophis-ticated sport in a short period of time. “The average fan doesn’t grasp what’s going on,” she notes. “It

has become a sport that players get close to being perfection-ists. Things move fast. We work for hours on little things. Perfect the fundamentals, then adjust to your [team] size.” For Tanis, volley-ball is a family affair.

Her husband, Mark, serves as an assistant coach for Cave Spring. Mark charts statistics during matches while she walks the side

TAMALYN TANIS

Congratulations Coach Tanis onYOUR well-deserved honor!

You can find Coach Tanis and other accomplished coaches at Spectrum Sports Academy including: Billy Hicks (Play by

Play's 2010 Sportsperson of the Year); Langston Ware; Jamie Price and Jon Copper

— Creating Champions for Life —(540) 561-0921 • 3710 Tom Andrews Road, Roanoke • spectrumsportsacademy.com

Check out Volleyball, Basketball, Football, Baseball, Softball, Tennis Academies, Speed and Agility Programs, Camps,

Clinics, Tournaments and Events!

See TANIS, Page 14

Tanis with 2011 championship seniors (from left): Lauren Sledd, Kelli Long, Shannon Craighead, Morgan Shannon and Kelsey Sine. The 2012 squad was heavy on underclassmen


by Mike Ashley

COACHES ALWAyS SAy RE-bounding is about heart. No wonder then that Paul

Porter is one of the top rebound-ers in college basketball. Porter has an irregular heart-beat, one that has nearly side-lined him, first back at Patrick Henry High School in 2009, and then two years ago at his current locale at Aver-ett University. Turns out, though, that in the vernac-ular of sports, the 6-foot-4 Porter has a big heart, too. “He just has a motor that doesn’t quit,” says Cougars coach Matt Parke about the USA South Conference’s top rebounder. “And that’s just the

way he is off the court, too. He’s always doing something.” As the center for the Division III Cougars, Porter regularly goes up against taller opponents yet he’s the one coming down with the rebounds. “Paul is not really that tall but he’s tall enough,” ex-plains Parke. “He’s got long arms. He’s not the strongest guy out there but he’s stronger than most. He can’t jump higher than every-body but he can jump higher than most. Add those three factors to-gether and that’s Paul.” And adding factors together is something Porter knows about as an accounting major, another of his loves besides basketball. When he’s not pulling down re-bounds, nearly 12 per game so far this season, he’s adding numbers up. It was factors that Porter didn’t count on, however, that nearly ended his career before it re-

ally started. Prior to his senior sea-son at Pat-rick Henry High School in 2009-10, Porter was d i a g n o s e d with that i r r e g u l a r h e a r t b e a t and couldn’t get cleared to join the Patriots as the season closed in. “It put me at a standstill. I was shocked and not sure what to do,” says Porter. “I didn’t get cleared until the first day of practice. I sat out all of preseason, all the scrim-mages, all of summer, waiting to get cleared. It was pretty rough watching everyone else working and not being able to play.” It was a tough time for Patriots coach Jack Esworthy, too. Es-worthy, who had asked Porter to come out as a freshman, had seen him develop from a raw but hard-working former footballer into a key piece of the Patriots’ puzzle. After Porter was cleared to join the team, even without the pre-season work, the senior was a key cog on a team that went 21-5, and reached the Group AAA tourna-ment semifinals. And when Parke replaced Ro-anoke-product (and Northside graduate) Jimmy Allen as coach

at Averett in May of 2010, the first recruit he brought to campus was Porter, who seemed to personify all the things the new coach was looking for in building his pro-gram. “In recruiting, we don’t really care as much about basket-ball talent as we do about charac-ter,” Parke says. “When I met him and heard his story and the type of character he had, I knew he was a kid that we really wanted. And it didn’t hurt that he was a really good basket-ball player.” For Porter, who didn’t have the overwhelming basketball talent to help pay for his college, his choices were limited. He came down to Averett, Bridgewater, Ro-anoke and Division II California of Pennsylvania. Porter worked his way through high school at KMart, doing maintenance at Hidden Valley Country Club and also working at local market-

ing firm BMS Direct, to make ends meet in his single-par-ent household. At Averett, he landed a work-study position as a residence advisor, and also prepares statistics in the sports information office to help pay his tuition. “I get bored when I have too much free time,” admits Por-ter. He’s not kidding. This past summer he worked at the country club from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., ran home for a snack and then went to work at the gym 4-10. Then it was back home for a late dinner and off

Playing with heartPorter sets a high standard on and off the court

Paul Porter

An irregular heartbeat has not prevented Porter (cen-ter) from playing a major part in Averett basketball

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According to his coach, Porter (left) ‘has a motor that doesn’t quit’

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to bed. Same thing the next day. “He’s one of my most depend-able workers,” says Averett sports information director Drew Wil-son. “He’s worked here since his freshman year and has been so

reliable.” Parke loves talking about the things Porter has done off the court. It’s uncommon for an ath-lete to serve as a residence advi-sor but Porter has done such a good job he has opened the door for more athletes to have that op-portunity. Porter also works as a counselor in Averett’s freshman orientation program. “When you’re talking about Paul Porter, you’re talking about so much more than just basket-ball,” says Parke. “I guess we’re most proud of what he has done in the classroom, the way he works so hard. But really it’s what he’s done overall in the Averett community.” Porter’s heart condition — the medical one, not the meta-phor for how hard he works as an undersized player and as a hard-nosed kid putting himself through school — cropped up again his freshman year when he took his first college physical. “We thought he might not be able to play because he had an irregu-lar heartbeat,” recalls Parke. “We

had to get him tests with a cardi-ologist to certify him to play. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t go-ing to be an issue but there was a three-week period where he missed some preseason before we

finally got him cleared.” Porter’s problems have proven resistant to a direct diagnosis though he hasn’t had any physical issues as a high school or college athlete. “Honestly, (doctors) don’t know and they haven’t come to any clear diagnosis of what it is,” he says. “They’ve just told me that it’s an irregular heartbeat.” Parke found that his freshman also had irregular “want to” in terms of getting the job done on the basketball floor and beyond. Porter played in all 26 games, averaged 4.3 points per game, was third on the team with 5.2 rebounds, and quickly demon-strated that he could play college-level defense. Those latter two traits endeared him to the Cou-gar coaches immediately, as did his attitude. “I kept telling people, just give him a chance,” says Parke, who pushed for Porter to get that R.A. position. “He’s the kind of kid that when he walks out of here in four years, he’s going to make you proud.” Porter has done just that in the

close-knit 1,000-student commu-nity. Parke says he doesn’t know of him ever missing a class, and he has excelled in his upper level accounting classes, no mean feat while working as a resident advi-

sor, playing col-lege basketball and generally asserting him-self as a campus leader and role model. Porter will tell you those days when he was awaiting clearance to play at Averett were tough. He uses basketball as a refuge to get away from a dif-ficult childhood that he doesn’t talk about much. Fur-thermore, he doesn’t let it de-ter him at all. “I’m one of those people that feel like

basketball motivates me in the classroom,” Porter says. “That’s my drive. I didn’t get a consistent push from anywhere else so I used sports to help. I don’t have to worry about class. Don’t have to worry about family. Don’t have to worry about anything, just go out and play.” But basketball hasn’t been a picnic since Porter showed up to help Parke put the program back together. The Cougars won just three games in 2010, and doubled up with a 7-19 record last season. Porter led the team in rebounding (8.3) and was second in minutes played (29.8). His scoring average was up to 9.5 ppg, and he shot 50 percent from the field, starting to show some offensive potential to go with the other consistently stellar parts of his game. Porter is averaging nine points and that conference-high 11.8 re-bounds this year. Parke says his defense, particularly his ability to help teammates when they get beat, is a real key to the team’s solid 2-2 start this season. Funny, in a lot of ways, Paul Porter has become the heartbeat of this team.

Porter (right) is known for his defense, but he leads his conference in rebounds (11.8 per game) and is close to double figures in scoring


Celebrating a decade of hockey for charityby Gene Marrano

line. “I couldn’t do it without him,” says Tanis, who also re-lies on assistants Maggie Wag-ner, Caitlyn Moore and Jenna Burnop (see page 3). The Tanis daughter Avery, 6, is a fixture and popular cheerleader at most matches. According to Tanis, the big-gest challenge she faces yearly is getting everyone to buy into the team concept. “I want everyone to feel impor-tant,” she says. “Whether making a big shot or having an impor-tant function during practices, everyone plays a key role in the end. The 10th-12th players down the Cave Spring bench could eas-ily be the No. 1 player for another high school team. It’s hard to not get to play during a game, but our kids buy into it and know they’re

all important.” After the 2011 championship, Cave Spring’s cumulative total of five state titles established the VHSL record for most volleyball championships by a single school in any classification. In Novem-ber, Loudoun County tied the Knights after knocking off Hid-den Valley in a five-set final. “What makes volleyball great for me are the wonderful relation-ships with teams and players that go way beyond volleyball,” Tanis says. “My personal faith impacts my coaching. My players know my ul-timate goal as an individual and team is to use the talents God has given us to the best of our ability. If we are striving for that, some sort of victory will happen. It may not show up in the win-loss col-umn, but it shows up in the lives of everyone in the program.”

From Page 11

Tanis

THE 10th ANNUAL GUNS and Hoses benefit hockey game returns to the Roanoke

Civic Center on Friday, Jan. 4. It pits some of the Roanoke Val-ley’s Bravest — local firefighters — against the area’s Finest — law enforcement officers from vari-ous agencies. The goal? A little fun, good-na-tured rivalry and the opportunity to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Roanoke office. The MDA is the official charity of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Nationwide last year the IAFF raised more than $25 million, according to Gary Hostetter, a firefighter and para-medic with Local #3194. Hostet-ter is coordinator for the Guns and Hoses game; his day job finds him based at Roanoke County’s Station #5 in Hollins. Roanoke’s Guns and Hoses game has raised more than $81,000 for the MDA to date. Sponsorships from businesses

like Member One, WROV 96.3 FM and Audiotronics help pay for the Civic Center rental and other ex-penses, so that all of the money raised from admissions (suggest-ed donation to the 7:30 p.m. game is $5 per person) can go the MDA. Hostetter, who spends about four months planning logistics for the annual event, says if a family of four wants to donate $10 or so they can attend as well. This is no game for novice hockey players, wobbling out on to the ice for the first time: Hostetter says all of the skaters play in the Roanoke Valley Adult Hockey League or in the lower-level Roanoke No Check League. There have even been a few fights over the past nine years, in keep-

ing with the spirit of hockey. The former local professional hock-ey teams (Express and Vipers) helped out when they were in business. Matt Odette, a former Express player now coaching in the ECHL, can be seen and heard on a Web site video clip, congratulating Guns and Hoses “for 10 years of a great event. I just want to say, ‘Go Guns.’” There are similar Guns and Hoses contests across the country in a variety of sports; the local hockey teams have been in-vited to national tournaments but haven’t been able to go as of yet. The Guns have had the better of play so far, winning eight of nine games — the first five times in overtime shootouts after regula-tion play ended in a tie. Many of these guys play adult hockey to-gether when not squaring off, so there is plenty of good-natured ribbing, according to Hostetter. Once the game night is com-plete, players start counting off the days until they meet again. “The Hoses, who won in 2009, “are poised and ready to stop the Guns’ current three-game win-ning streak,” declares the game’s Web site. The Guns might have won most of the games so far but the Hoses are “the people’s champ,” says Hostetter, based on the reaction he hears from fans in the stands. “It’s very loud and the guys on ice can hear it — it pumps you up.” As for the level of play? “We’re decent at it,” notes Hostetter, “but you can tell by the third period we’re kind of worn out. It’s enter-taining, let’s say that.” There will be giveaways between periods and jersey auctions at the Jan. 4 game as well, designed to raise more money for Muscular Dys-trophy.

Last year Guns and Hoses took its game to a higher level, packing 6,100 often-raucous and vocal fans into the stands, raising more than $27,000 for the MDA in a game won by the

Guns 5-1. That’s a far cry from the $6,500 netted at the first game 10 years ago. Hostetter hopes to take it up another notch once again this time around. “I think it’s the hockey, it’s the cops and the firemen and I think it’s the charity — the perfect storm kind of thing,” says Hostet-ter, a 45-year-old who plays for-ward. The rosters range in age from players in their teens to oth-ers 60-plus. All have been playing hockey for years and some have appeared in all nine games. For firefighters and law en-forcement officers that often encounter each other or work together in “bad situations,” the Guns and Hoses game is a chance to do something that is positive and much less stress-ful. “It creates friendships,” says Hostetter. Players will come from Roa-noke County, Roanoke City, Sa-lem and Vinton fire/EMS crews (Hoses); the Guns hail from Roa-noke City Police, the D.E.A., the A.T.F., the Roanoke City Sheriff’s office, Catawba Hospital Police, the local FBI office and Virginia State Police. Channel 7 meteorologist Leo Hirsbrunner, a former hockey player himself, will coach the Hoses; retired police officer Tom Gallagher is behind the bench for the Guns. Hostetter says the games are “very competitive.” The series started out with a rule against any checking, but “that lasted about 30 seconds.” The ribbing and friendly “trash talking” starts months before the actual game, according to Hostet-ter. “Family-friendly entertain-ment for the night,” he promises. (See more at cwimedia.com/gunsandhoses or the Guns and Hoses Facebook page.)

The Jan. 4 Guns and Hoses hockey game will feature policemen (right) and firemen

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by Mike Ashley

THERE’S A MENTALITy THAT goes with being a linebacker and Nick Sigmon has it.

“I try to be as physical as I can out there,” says the former North-side standout, channeling his in-ner-Dick Butkus. “you do it early in the game and it comes easier later. Once you put that into your opponent then it makes it easier as the game goes.” Those are tough words from the soft-spoken sophomore at Liberty University, where they generally talk more about turn-ing the other cheek. Sigmon turns upright opposing football players into ground-bound foes. In bibli-cal terms, he smites them and his play has helped begat a confer-ence championship for his team. By all accounts, Sigmon is a fine, upstanding, young man off the field and even a leader on it,

but between the lines he also specializes in enough mayhem to land him on an Allstate insur-ance commercial. To that point, Sigmon was smack-dab in the middle of a Liberty University defense that led the Big South Conference in rushing defense, and was second in the categories of fewest total yards and points allowed. The 6-1, 240-pound middle lineback-er led the hard-hitting unit with

Stuck in the middle…and that’s the way Nick Sigmon likes it at Liberty

11 tackles for loss, and he might have led the team in tackles had he not been knocked out of the season opener at Wake Forest with a concussion and forced to sit out the next game, too. As it is, Sigmon earned All-Big South Conference first-team hon-ors, and his best performance may have come in the Flames’ signature win, a 28-14 upset of 6th-ranked Stony Brook last month that earned Liberty (6-5 overall, 5-1 BSC) a share of the conference title. Sigmon had nine tackles, eight solo, in that game, forced a fum-ble, had two tackles for loss, and hauled a key interception back 21 yards for a touchdown early in the third quarter that put LU up 21-7. The Flames saw Coastal Carolina get the Big South’s Foot-ball Championship Series playoff

bid through tiebreakers but the LU future is bright next year. Sig-mon is one of eight all-conference Flames who will return for coach Turner Gill, who will be heading into his second season on top in the Hill City. Gill has the previous coaching regime, especially head coach Danny Rocco, now at Richmond, to thank for landing his defen-sive ringleader out of Roanoke. Sigmon’s stock was going up

at Northside as he helped coach Burt Torrence’s Viking reclamation project, taking the team to the state title in 2009, during Sigmon’s se-nior season. Sigmon was on the University of Virgin-ia’s radar but when then-coach Al Groh was fired in Char-lottesville, he was a linebacker lost in the shuffle. En-ter Rocco and an appealing sales pitch. “Early on in recruiting, Coach Rocco just made a strong connection with me and that’s what sold me on (Liberty),” re-calls Sigmon. Sigmon speaks highly of all his coaches, starting with Torrence and continuing with Rocco’s de-fensive staff and now Gill’s. Cur-rent Liberty linebackers coach Carl Torbush, the former head coach at the University of North Carolina, has also taken a shine to the one-man Roanoke Wreck-ing Crew. “Nick Sigmon is a prototype Mike (middle) linebacker, very aggressive, very physical,” says the veteran coach. “He’s a guy that maybe you see him in street clothes you’re not very impressed. But you put him in pads and he still runs the same speed. He has a chance to be a heck of a football player before he leaves here.” Crusty old coaches often use understatement to underscore their top players’ talents. There’s little doubt that Sigmon is already a heck of a player, and that’s after just one year in defensive coordi-nator Robert Wimberly’s 4-3 de-fense. Sigmon was second-team all-conference in 2011, thrown into the fray as a redshirt fresh-man in the team’s old 3-4 align-ment. He started all 11 games and was third on the team with 60 tackles and second with 7.5 tack-les for loss. He loved the change to the 4-3 this year, where he became a true

middle linebacker and quickly saw ad-vantages. “Last year with three linemen, you’re taking on a guard or tackle every play,” he explains. “With the 4-3, it real-ly helps the lineback-ers. you really know where your gaps are and it allows you to play fast.” Nobody talks

about Sigmon’s speed — and ad-mittedly there’s probably a rea-son for that — although if you measure his read and reaction time through contact with an un-lucky ballcarrier, he’s probably as fast as any defender in the FCS. Listen to him break down busting ballcarriers: “That’s one of the biggest things — your mind. A middle lineback-er has to have great instincts to know where the ball is going, how you need to get there while tak-ing on a block and also being able to read a ballcarrier at the same time.” Sigmon has those requisite skills though nobody is buying that his down-time addiction to video games is really helping his read-and-react instincts, like he claims. Though who would dispute a hard-hitting middle linebacker in anything he says? Sigmon has been playing line-backer since pee wee football and he has honed his skills over the long haul. Still, it wasn’t un-til later in his high school career at Northside, where he was all-district three times, Blue Ridge District Player of the year, Region 3 Co-Defensive Player of the year, Timesland Defensive Player of the year and first team all-state, that Sigmon started thinking col-lege football was his ticket. He had always excelled in baseball, too, but found football was his true calling. Again, Tor-

Sigmon: ‘I try to be as physical as I can out there. Once you put that into your opponent then it makes it easier as the game goes’

Nick Sigmon

See SIGMON, Page 17

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Hollins basketball is upward bound

by Bo Lucas

THE PROSPERITy OF THE Hollins University basketball team is on the rise. Under the

leadership of third-year coach Jim Phillips, the team has made significant improvements during his tenure. Last season Hollins posted 10 wins, including eight in ODAC competition. At Hollins, student-athletes are students first and then athletes. It’s an approach embraced by stu-dents, professors, administrators and coaches. Hollins is known for excellent academic opportuni-ties for women, as evidenced by noteworthy accomplishments of many alumnae. Incremental improvements by the basketball team have at-tracted attention around campus. Hollins Athletic Director David Zinn says, “It is rewarding to see the continued growth and im-provement of the team. The pro-gram has made great strides over the past few seasons and I am ex-cited about the potential for our continuing to be competitive in a very tough conference.” Hollins’ upset of Randolph-Macon in the final game of 2011-12 left them in a three-way tie for the final spot in the confer-ence tournament. However, the ODAC tiebreaker procedure did not work in Hollins’ favor and they did not make the tourna-ment field. There were positives to focus on, however. They had defeated one of the power teams in the ODAC when that was the only way they could have advanced. They had put their minds to the task at hand and delivered on their part of equation. But they also learned a valuable lesson from this fickle incongruity — every game is im-

portant. They need to bring that same level of intensity to each game. “We’ve got to take care of busi-ness,” Phillips says. “That’s the thing about our conference — we’re so strong. The first game is just as important as the last. And that was a good lesson for our kids. Never take any games off.” This Hollins crew is working on a good strategy to take their game to the next level, even though this year’s team started slowly at 1-5. “Preseason and out-of-season we have a volunteer practice,” Phillips says, “and our captains lead that. They do a great job. We probably had 98 percent partici-pation. “We want to get better ev-ery day. That’s our first out-look. We don’t rate our suc-cess on wins or losses. We rate our suc-cess on what we produce on the floor, and how we play. If we do the right things basket-ball-wise then going off the court we are successful. “Our goal is to always be the hardest-working team in the ODAC. If you put in the work you’re go-ing to be suc-cessful. you can’t be the same player today that you were yesterday. you have to be better each day — as a person, as a teammate and as a player. Our saying is, ‘Play how you practice.’ If you get in the face of your team-

mate at practice you’re making them better everyday. We want our practices to be harder than any competition we’re going to have in a game.” Phillips’ longtime assistant coach, Wes Blessard, has worked with him through high school and AAU basketball. They share a similar coaching philosophy: you can’t shortcut the road to im-provement. Everything has to be kept in the proper perspective. “I preach to all of my recruits family comes first; education comes second; then your basket-ball,” Phillips says. Blessard concurs. “Coaching at Hollins is very rewarding be-

cause the athletes that play here are also academic,” he says. “This year’s team is very talented, and overcoming some early illness

and injury has helped us build the depth needed to win in the ODAC tournament.” First-year assistant coach Nicci Moats brings a strong pedigree to the program. While playing for Lord Botetourt High School, she helped lead the Cavaliers to con-secutive Group AA state semifi-nals and to a runner-up finish in the state tournament her senior season. Moats was a University of Ten-nessee recruit and joined a Pat Summitt team that ultimately won the 2007 NCAA title. After a medical leave limited her fresh-man season at UT, Moats opted to play basketball where the pres-sure wasn’t so intense. She trans-ferred to JMU and then moved to Roanoke College. Moats estab-lished a couple of single-season records while playing for the Ma-roons. Moats also coached basketball for a season at Roanoke Catholic. “We have a group of hardwork-ing ladies that, thus far, have made my first year as assistant coach exciting, challenging, and most of all fun for me,” Moats says. “I look for our ladies to chal-lenge teams in the ODAC this year. We have been the underdogs in the past and I think that we have the potential to do something great. The variety and diversity of our girls creates challenges for other teams with match-ups so I am excited to see how our season goes and how the girls respond to the challenges.” Who are the key players for the upcoming season? “Actually I have to mention all of them,” Phillips offers without hesitation. “I think that they’re all going to contribute. “My two guards are pretty good — Jasmine (Greene) and Laci (Forrest). Chanci (Wright) as a junior in the post is a real work-horse. Lauren Hays, another girl

See HOLLINS, Page 17

Coach Jim Phillips strategizes with the Hollins team during a timeout. Assistant coaches Wes Blessard (in the black jacket) and Nicci Moats (in the gray sweater) offer support as they listen intently

Jasmine Greene was ODAC Rookie of the Year in 2010, her freshman year

Jasmine Greene was ODAC Rookie of the Year in 2010, her freshman year

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HollinsFrom Page 16

EnglishFrom Page 18

lish’s life’s calling. Jason Perdue was one of those young people back in 1972. “He was fresh out of Ap State and I played on his basketball team at Northside Middle,” Per-due says. “He came along at a time when I needed a male role model that wasn’t a family mem-ber. That’s [how] I would credit Jerry; he understands the need for young people to be able to forge a relationship with an adult who was not a family member.” Perdue and English remain close friends. “He was in my wedding,” Per-due says. When English was told he would be this year’s Hall of Fame inductee, he asked Perdue to in-troduce him. “I’ve had some honors in my life, but I think being asked to in-troduce Jerry English at the Hall

of Fame ranks up there as one of the tops,” Perdue says. “The great thing is his commit-ment to helping kids make it to adulthood with something. He’s very positive. One of those people that people want to know. When Jerry says something you know he means it. He’s genuine and au-thentic.” Perdue says English is always positive with kids, even as a bas-ketball coach where emotions can get high. English was Northside’s head basketball coach in the early ’80s. He also coached Hollins College for five years. Leading a team, English says, is great, but success still depends on the team itself. That’s the ap-proach he’s had all his life. “Once you’re a coach you’re always a coach,” English says. “I would not be in this position if it wasn’t for these teams.” The teams he refers to were men-

tioned in his induction speech. The first is the Hall of Fame com-mittee, board of directors, golf pros and the people who make it all possible. The second team is the schools, mainly his longtime employer, the county school di-vision. English then cited the media for its help and support. English has close friends in the media and was even a media member himself for nearly 20 years as the color analyst for Jim Carroll on high school basket-ball broadcasts. The Don Holli-day group was his fourth team, and the fifth team, though by no means the last, is his family. “I don’t do this alone,” English says. Golf even opened doors for English after retiring by giving him a boost in a second career. Once driving back from The Greenbrier with the late Al Pol-lard, the conversation turned to a side project English had start-

ed as a DJ. Pollard asked him to come to his restaurant, 419 West, and play tunes. Now English is an in-demand DJ who has played over 60 weddings, works high school cheerleading competi-tions and has a regular Tuesday night gig playing beach music at Billy’s Barn where it’s one old coach working with another. It’s a good time for English, even though he says he’s stepped back to let others take the lead in much of the golf work he had go-ing. The Hall of Fame recognition is very humbling, he says. As for the fact he’s a contribu-tor to the game more than a play-er, that distinction only adds to the honor, English says. “I would rather get this honor knowing that I had a small part in helping raise close to a million dollars for hundreds of high school and col-lege students than be known for my golfing prowess any day. I’m sure others would, too.”

rence was his inspiration, con-vincing him he had the right stuff as he talked a whole team into that state championship run with subtle tweaks like setting the team banquet date after the title game even before Northside started winning. “I give Coach Torrence that credit, he made me believe,” says Sigmon. A kinesiology major with a mi-nor in education, Sigmon says he enjoys walking the Liberty

campus in his football gear be-cause so many students want to stop and talk about the game and team. He’s thinking coach-ing football might be in his future and not just because of the free gear. First, Sigmon has a senior season to focus on before plotting post-grad plans. “We should be really good next year,” he says. “We’ve got a good group of guys.” And despite his penchant for putting opponents into the turf, Sigmon is one of the good guys. Who’s going to argue?

SigmonFrom Page 15

Chanci Wright (No. 13) of Hollins works for inside position against Bridgewater

from Texas, is going to do great things for us. She’s just a sophomore. And Rachael (Crowder) from Parry McCluer has done a great job. “Mackenzie (Miller) from Florida is good, and Kelly Maxey from Lou-doun County is doing a real good job as back-up point guard. Auburn (Smith) from Las Vegas has the potential to be one of the best freshmen in the league. Be-tween Alexia (Smith) from Bar-boursville and Ella (Oakley) from Australia, they do a real good job. “I’m just tickled to have the op-portunity to coach this group of kids, because they all work ex-tremely hard and have bought into my system, and what I be-lieve in.” Senior guard Greene has al-ready made an impact in the ODAC. She was selected as the 2009-10 ODAC Rookie of the year. She was named second-team All-ODAC for the past two years.

Greene has established single-season school records for most points, most assists and most shots. She began this season in fifth place on the all-time scoring list (1,274 points). She likely will break Brandi Cochran’s record of 1,480 set from 2001-05. Phillips keeps an eye on his players’ academic progress. “I send grade checks with them a couple of times a semester to make sure their grades are where they need to be, because ulti-mately that’s where they’re going to make their living from. Bas-ketball is great but when it comes

down to it, they’re here for the education. “That’s why it’s so easy for me to recruit. you can’t get a better education than you get here. It’s top-notch. I’ve had two daughters that came through here. One is an alumna and the other is going to graduate this year.” Tamara Phillips, a former teammate of Moats at Botetourt, is the third-leading scorer in Hol-

lins history. She holds several Hollins basketball records, in-cluding most 3-point field goals in a season and in a career. “We’re very family-oriented and we’re going to win or lose with my Hollins girls,” Phillips says. “That’s just the way we do things. “I’m excited about being here. It’s always been my dream to coach college level.”


English has left his mark on area golfLEGENDS OF THE GAMES

by Christian Moody

Legends ofthe GamesSeventy-eighth in a Series

See ENGLISH, Page 17

MAyBE JERRy ENGLISH IS blessed. Maybe fortunate. Maybe lucky. Those who

know English can decide which of those de-scriptors fits him best; few would deny that all apply to a certain degree. English has spent his life in pursuit of a passion that com-bines work, play, sport and phi-lanthropy. He has worked with young people, through his paid career and as a volunteer; as a mentor and a coach. For most of that effort, the vehicle used to help those people was golf. For English, golf is more than a pastime. He has used golf as a way to reach out, to raise money and to help a lot of people. And he happens to love playing the game.Last month, Jerry English was inducted into the Roanoke Val-ley Golf Hall of Fame. While he is no slouch as a player, not a single scorecard went into the selec-tion. Golfers want low numbers on their cards. English wants numbers that increase; he wants to see dollars come in and schol-arship totals rise. He has worked long and hard to help kids go to college. Jerry English the golfer has had many high points. He has the en-viable total of five holes-in-one. What’s more, he has recorded them in five different decades — the first in 1977, followed by aces in 1985, 1995, 2005 and again last year when a perfect bounce and roll jarred his shot on No. 16 at Botetourt Golf and Swim Club. “I joke that I have to wait un-til at least 2020 for the next one,” English says. In 1987, English was leading the Hall of Fame tournament af-ter the first round, but he knew as well as anyone he was going to be like the Monday qualifier who leads after the first round of a ma-jor — he wouldn’t hold it. The fact he beat the great Dan Keffer in a match once says a lot about English as a player. He once

has a handicap of 2 and carried a single digit for many years, until bad hips (later replaced) allowed Father Time to catch up. Those accomplishments with the sticks in hand are notable, but hardly Hall of Fame credentials, as English is the first to mention. Everyone is wired differently, and English is one of those special people who found their calling by being called “Coach.” A career as a teacher and a coach of basket-ball and golf in Roanoke County schools allowed English to affect thousands of young people. (As a side note, totally unrelated to golf but telling of the man, English was one of several people who wrote The Roanoke Times with a recollection of events they en-dured during the Flood of ’85. He was on the road with two Northside students teach-ing drivers ed. that morning. The story of being trapped by the water and trying to keep the girls safe is a must-read.) In his remarks at his HOF induction ceremony, English said it’s all about the stu-dents. The Hall of Fame commit-tee gives out 14 scholarships in honor of individuals, plus doz-ens more. Earlier this year 49 college-bound seniors received something from the Hall of Fame committee, up to the Don Hol-liday winner, Cody Bushman, who was awarded a scholarship of $5,000 a year for four years. A total of $63,250 was given away this year. No one is claiming English is doing that himself. He empha-sizes it takes a team to pull all the strings necessary to raise and dis-tribute that kind of money, but in addition to being the man often seen handing the Holliday award winner a tournament-esque gi-ant check, he’s one of the people who built the scholarship fund-

ing pool. English was part of the group that started the Don Holli-day tournament in 1986 to honor Holliday after he died of cancer. The tournament was such a suc-cess the next year it doubled in size and still sold out. The scholarship winners are not all golfers. Most don’t play the game competitively. They just have to have some connection to golf. The scholarships started slowly with two small grants in 1980. But over time have they grown expo-nentially. Since 1991, 506 schol-

arships have been given to kids needing money for college. English created the Hall of Fame scholarship card as a fund-raiser. All the public courses and five private course participate, giving a card holder a round for two for just the cart fee. The $250 raised by each card goes to the kids. While it might be easy to over-look, a key component is the ap-plication for the scholarships. Through a single application, a student can apply for all the scholarships at once. The committee then interviews applicants to get to know them better. English says this step is one of his favorites. “When the committee meets in May we interview about 20 kids. All have different backgrounds and stories,” English says. “Some

kids are emotional. Some are so nervous they can barely speak. Some don’t have a tie. It’s price-less. you can’t put a price on the feeling you get after working with kids.” The best part comes when it’s time to give out the money. The Holliday presentation is separate from the others. The winner’s parents are informed but are asked to keep it a secret. The win-ner comes to a presentation not knowing what the event is about. “That’s the fun part, giving kids a check,” English says. “I like tell-

ing a parent, ‘Look, we’re going to give your kid $20,000 but you can’t tell him.’” Tim Chocklett, who has been with English every step of the way and had a hand in the creation of nearly all the scholastic events, says one year there was money avail-able and only eight students applied. That’s when Eng-lish used his con-nections within the schools to let coun-selors know about the HOF awards.

Since then the number of ap-plicants has climbed, as has the number of kids getting assistance. The Metro Invitational was started in 1974 so high school golf teams from the area had a chance to compete without re-gard to school size, district or classification. It was renamed the Bob McLelland Metro to honor the late sportswriter who not only reported on sports, but coached and made the games a part of his life. When the Metro organizers dropped it for a couple of years, English and Chocklett revived it in 1994. This allowed English, who always worked as the start-er, to meet the kids and let them know about the scholarships. Helping young people is Eng-

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Jerry English (left) was introduced as a Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame inductee by his very close friend Jason Perdue


Maryland’s move ACCording to MikeI REPORTED ON FACEBOOK

that the pairings for next year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge were

out…and Maryland would play itself. Funny line? I tell you: cover sports long enough and you’ll de-velop a sense of humor. And that brings me to Big Ten expansion. First, if you haven’t noticed, there are a lot more than 10 teams and soon one of them will be Maryland, which helped found the Atlantic Coast Conference back in 1953 and has been playing Tobacco Road teams every year since, more or less. That is until the ACC raided the Not-So-Big East and took a couple of their marquee teams (Hello, Hok-ies!) and pretty much ruined the whole round-robin basketball sched-ule that had made the league must-see TV for so long for so many of us. (“Sail with the Pilot all the way, So get on board the Pilot ship today!”) Jim Thacker and Billy Packer were in my living room more often than most of my relatives. We got a couple of games on Saturday, one every now and then on a weekday night and then the tournament. And we liked it that way. The ACC Tournament was such a big deal! One of the best things about my first car — the 1976 flesh-toned Vega — was that I got to duck out of school early the opening day of the ACC Tournament so I didn’t miss even the first game. The ACC Tour-nament was that important. My commitment to seventh-period classes? Not so much. I considered football a non-revenue sport in the ACC though I was enough of an ACColyte to rejoice in Clemson’s national title in 1981. I agonized over “Black Sunday” in 1979, when top-seeded Carolina and second-seeded Duke both lost early in the NCAA Tournament, not that most of us would even concede back then that the NCAA Tournament was as big a deal as the ACC Tournament. I remember how strange it was when Georgia Tech joined in 1979, and how truly dreadful the yellow Jackets were. Anyone remember Brook Steppe? Then Bobby Cremins changed all that, not long after Jim Valvano and Mike Krzyzewski changed fortunes at a couple of other schools you may remember. Krzyzewski, of course, succeeded Dean Smith as ACC Supervisor of Officials. Ahhh, the memories, the memories. And that’s what sports from that era are — because it’s a whole dif-ferent landscape now. I had a tough time coming to grips with this but because of TV’s dominance, schools don’t have to play each other in a regional, geographic footprint, which seems to really have come at an inopportune time for Virginia Tech, which couldn’t get an invite to the local ACC party for so long. The Hokies have dominated ACC football since Virginia let them in the ACC, and thanks to stacks of TV money, football runs the show. That hasn’t been so good for basketball-based leagues like the ACC and the Artists Formerly Known as the Big East who now have conference tour-nament brackets that look like airport arrival and departure boards. Conference basketball tournaments at the BCS schools don’t mean a lot now unless you are one of the 200 or so teams “on the bubble” at the end of a crappy regular season. I say this because I can get press credentials for the ACC Tournament and I actually dread the first day of the event. And here’s a revelation for some — and the reason I often get asked my take on the Terrapins — I actually live in Northern Virginia and cover Maryland for Terrapin Times (and anybody else that will pay me). I’m on Baltimore radio as a “basketball expert” but mostly because they like to hear my southern accent. I’m like Jethro Bodine in the big city. I tell people all the time in re-

gards to the Capital Beltway, that back where I’m from in Salem, the in-ner loop is East Main Street and the outer loop is Fourth Street. But I got on the Terps beat about the time Gary Williams had a couple of Final Four teams and Ralph Friedgen came back to his alma mater and showed ’em how to win football games again. It has been a fun ride for a kid that grew up loving the ACC. And that’s why I’ve been a little surprised at my own reaction to Maryland packing its bags. I don’t seem to have a whole lot of regret. Duke and Carolina aren’t rolling in here every year for basketball, and even Virginia Tech doesn’t play Maryland regularly in football or basketball. I’ll miss my sports-media buddies at Tech and UVa, but I kind of like the idea of seeing some new teams. Apparently so do Terp fans who certainly haven’t been showing up regularly to see any ACC foes. They don’t come out in force for anyone in football and only — you guessed it — Duke and Carolina in basketball. Of course, the ACC has set the schedule to feature the Duke-Carolina games and ESPN had decided it’s the only game that matters, at least when they aren’t able to debate around the clock what kind of socks

Tim Tebow is wearing. Maryland has had so much trouble turning a buck

in athletics recently that this year the athletic de-partment axed seven varsity sports. So when the Big Ten came calling with nearly $8 million a year

more in TV revenue, yeah, the Terps were listen-ing. I’m also hearing there’s an upfront payment

that has the accountants on campus smiling but no one is talking about because Rutgers and Ne-braska didn’t get similar deals. Of course they don’t bring the potential TV audience the Washington-Baltimore market does, either. And that’s another thing. In the ACC television

package, it was often hard to watch a Maryland football game locally. They just weren’t on television. Sell that in recruiting. Of course, it was also hard at times to watch them play football re-cently, too. But you can’t compete when NBC is to Notre Dame as ESPN3 is to Maryland. Oh, and the Terrapin powers-that-be weren’t particular-ly enamored with the addition of Notre Dame — but not adding Notre Dame football to the league. yeah, there’s an academic component with the Big Ten’s consortium and blah, blah, blah. Read The Chronicle of Higher Education for cover-age on that. The more they say it’s not about the money, the more it’s about the money. I hate to sound cynical but…enough money and you can go buy some new tradition. What you can’t buy is the ACC I grew up with. Well, that and your way through traffic on the Beltway.

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SIDELINESby Mike Ashley


The only way we succeed is by achieving together.Teamwork is a great tradition in sports. Kroger’s tradition of serving our

communities shows how everyone wins when we are all on the same team.

Vol. 9, No. 3, December 17, 2012playbyplayonline.net/files/PbP121712web.pdf · 2 Play By Play...

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Transcript of Vol. 9, No. 3, December 17, 2012playbyplayonline.net/files/PbP121712web.pdf · 2 Play By Play...