Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990 TAG: 9007270441
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You might have misplaced your magnifying glass and missed it in the agate type of the recent Virginia CorEast State Games results, but the Wright brothers of Blacksburg put on a good family showing.
David Wright, a teacher at Pulaski County High, won the 40-and-over age group 100-meter dash, the 400 and the 800. His times were 12.4 in the 100, 59.9 in the 400, and 2:32.5 in the 800.
Brother Jim Wright, a health and fitness expert associated with Radford Community Hospital, finished third in the 35-39 age group of the 70K bike race with a time of 2:33:30.
"I bet we got more medals than most families you know," David Wright said. "Jimmy said that he went farther warming up on the bicycle than I did running all day long. That's true. It isn't fair."
\ Infielder Trent Mongero of the Pulaski Braves has the kind of nerve the scouts like. Mongero successfully proposed marriage to Sandra Jackson of Durham, N.C., at home plate before a game at Calfee Park.
Congratulations go to the happy couple, but, to play the devil's advocate, what if she had said no?
Oh well, then the Braves could have found out how Mongero deals with adversity, as the saying goes.
\ Spied in Christiansburg: Floyd golfer Susan Slaughter, sister Jennifer and their mother. Susan was behind the wheel of a brand-new, zippy-looking blue car, temporary tags still affixed.
If the car is Susan's, she deserves it with the kind of year she's having. But if the defending NCAA women's champ plans on taking it back to the University of Arizona this fall, let's hope the air-conditioning is in good order.
\ Speaking of adversity, what about the trials of the Roanoke West American Legion team, which led the standings of the Blue Ridge District almost all year before a final week collapse?
West lost three of its last four and dropped to third behind Roanoke South and Martinsville.
"We played the top three teams so it isn't like we fell apart," West coach Billy Wells said.
West split with South and lost to Danville and Martinsville.
More troubles came along in the tournament, which continues through the weekend. West has been nailed with serious player defections.
Pitcher/outfielder Chris Graham only played weekends the last part of the season because of obligations at VMI, the college he will attend in the fall. Infielder Chris Hatcher and pitcher Scott Phillips left for the 16-and-under AAU national baseball tournament Thursday as members of the Virginia Spirit. Pitcher/outfielder Mike Royal split for the beach, which bothered Wells more than the others.
"He did the same thing to us before the tournament last year," Wells said. "The last time I talked to him, he said he was leaving Friday, so maybe he can play in some of the early-round games. If he shows up, he shows up. It's not like I'm on the phone begging people to play."
\ As solid a lock as there is this summer is South going to the state Legion tournament.
South gets a bye in the first two rounds of the district tournament, which means it only must win two games to go to the state level. Only one team goes to state, and if the regular season and tournament winners are different, there is a one-game playoff.
In the unlikely event that hard-nosed left-handers Kevin Gabbert and David Hazelwood don't come up with back-to-back victories, then South is still in great shape in a playoff. Its opponent will be playing its fifth game in five days.
Who has the pitching to handle that sort of death march?
\ Here's money well spent, for those so inclined: Grayson County baseball guru Ed Goodson, a current high school coach and former major leaguer, is offering hitting lessons for $20 per hour.
Goodson will tinker with your swing, videotape it, and discuss it with you, much as a golf pro would analyze Doug Duffer's wicked slice.
Brian Schwartz of Roanoke took his son, Mark, down to Independence to the swing doctor and it helped the young man break out of a mild slump: He went 14 for his next 16.
"$20 an hour is a bargain," Brian Schwartz said. "I'd take my kid to 10 lessons from Ed before I'd spend $400 to send him to a camp."
\ The weirdest play you're ever likely to see happened at a Elizabethton Twins-Pulaski Braves game last week.
With one out in the bottom of the third, Pulaski's Johnny Walker singled and advanced to second on Anthony Graffagino's two-run single. An instant later, pitcher Sandy Diaz caught Walker leaning to third then picked him off unassisted, running him down between third and second as the shortstop looked on.
A pressbox contingent that included veteran Pulaski reporter Tom Hawley and official scorekeeper Dan Asbury, among others, agreed they'd never seen the like.
\ The start of high school football practice is just a few weeks away, which is depressing in a way.
It's a downer to at least one observer that the New River District has shrunk to such a pitiful shadow of its once-mighty position. How can you call Blacksburg, Radford, Christiansburg, and Carroll County a district?
Shoot, they could schedule all the league games in September so they won't have to shake up their fans with any late-autumn suspense.
It could be that all four teams make the playoffs, which would be a travesty. Don't look for any of them to duplicate Blacksburg's 1989 heroics and win a state crown, though. Graham could be almost as good as it was last year while winning Division 3 and Salem will be the runaway favorite in Division 4.
On the other hand, the Mountain Empire District should be a wire-to-wire brawl. Narrows will be strong, and mean and hated rival Giles will be joining the league to spice things up. The Giles-Narrows games last year, played in two stages because of a monsoon-out in the first half, was one of the hardest-hitting, rough-house affairs seen in these parts in years.
Imagine what it'll be like when that game actually means something again.
The team to beat may be Grayson County, though. Blue Devils coach Bill Strong said as much not too long ago.
"The team that beats us is going to have to be an awful good football team," he said.
by CNB