Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 13, 1993 TAG: 9302130243
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
COMBINED TOURNAMENTS SET FOR AVID WRESTLING FANS
If everything goes right, a week from tonight Larry Hall will feel as if the world's greatest weight has been lifted from his shoulders.Hall's task is to serve as director of the first combined Group A and Group AA state wrestling tournaments at the Salem Civic Center. This will be double duty for Hall, who for the past six years has directed the Group A tournament each winter.
Other states have combined their wrestling tournaments at one site and run them simultaneously, but this is a first for Virginia.
The two state meets will be held on eight mats spread over the floor of the civic center. From the start at 11 a.m. on Friday to the finish at approximately 10 p.m. Saturday, there will be more than 700 wrestling matches.
There also will be fans. Especially for Saturday's finals when the two tournaments might attract 4,000 spectators, according to Hall.
Part of this will be because of Grundy's influence in the Group AA meet. Grundy is nationally-ranked by USA Today among America's top teams and usually carries a big crowd to tournaments.
Northside figures to be among the top teams in Group AA and the Vikings will have some followers.
In Group A, no Timesland team can be picked as a challenger for the team title. However, Glenvar's Brandon Semones might be after his 69th consecutive victory and third state tournament title in a row if he's in the 189-pound final. It would be a dream end to his wrestling career if he achieves those marks.
A lot of people view this as a shot in the arm for wrestling in Timesland.
"Just get a chair that swivels real quick," suggests James River coach Otis Timberlake.
"If you don't get your fill [of wrestling] in one day, then you're a fanatic. Wrestling isn't like basketball. That's been around forever. People have to be educated to what interscholastic wrestling is. People need to be exposed to it."
Virginia High School League Programs Supervisor Larry Johnson, who will be Hall's backup, calls this an interesting experiment.
"One of my original thoughts was to get all three [including the Group AAA] together," he said. "But there was no place where we could get 12 mats down. Some of the AAA coaches have said, `Why don't we combine the AAA and AA one year?'
"It would have to be where we could seat 7,000-8,000 people. It would be a great atmosphere, a full house, for the wrestlers."
As for next weekend's activity, the semifinals for both tournaments will start at the same time as will the consolations, finals and other rounds. If one tournament is delayed, both will be delayed.
"In the past," said Hall, "we've had a lot of dead spots in the Group A tournament. With both tournaments going on, there should be excitement all the time."
Admission is $4 per round. There are four rounds, but an advance ticket for all sessions is $12.
Former Northside coach Ken Shelton will present the awards. His Vikings wrestlers won the first Group AA-A state championship back in the 1960s when those two divisions held a combined tournament with one bracket instead of two.
While all this is going on, Franklin County and William Fleming will head a Roanoke Valley District contingent in the Group AAA Northwestern Region tournament at Heritage High in Lynchburg. Franklin County, regarded as Timesland's best team, will be out to win its second consecutive regional crown.
\ RECOVERING: Group AA girls' basketball coach of the year Richard Thrasher is recovering from surgery this past week for colon cancer.
Thrasher, expected to go home this weekend, reported that the surgery was successful.
Thrasher suffered from Hodgkin's disease, another form of cancer, a few years ago. The Byrd coach said he's planning to be back at his duties with Byrd, which finished as the Group AA runner-up this past year.
\ LAST VICTORY: When Fieldale-Collinsville beat Martinsville 75-73 in a Piedmont District basketball game Tuesday night, followers of both teams were shocked.
Jerry Slaughter, the assistant principal and a former coach for Fieldale-Collinsville, dug around and discovered that the last time the Cavaliers beat Martinsville was in 1977.
\ DRAWING POWER: Moving basketball games to the Salem Civic Center doesn't assure teams of luring a large crowd.
In the past two weeks, the top crowd came out for Fleming's game against 12th-ranked (nationally) Rice and third-rated Oak Hill against GW-Danville. The double-header attracted 1,575 paid, but that was slightly over the figure needed to assure the attraction of breaking even.
One night earlier, only 436 paid to see Fleming play Patrick Henry in a battle of Roanoke schools.
This past Tuesday, the Salem-William Byrd game attracted 957 paid on a Tuesday night. In all, there were 1,300 on hand for that game, but the crowd could have been fitted in comfortably at Salem.
\ FIELD INSPECTION: Lost in the commotion over Salem's protest of Richlands wearing illegal cleats in the Group AA Division 4 state championship semifinal game was the proposal by Johnson to have possible football playoff sites inspected or changed if they didn't meet certain standards.
Johnson was hoping state semifinal and championship games would be moved to neutral sites such as Liberty University or Virginia Tech.
That didn't fly. The VHSL Executive Committee set up a three-person committee to inspect playoff sites. Two of the committee members will be from out of the region and one will be from within the region.
Johnson said things such as how worn a field is or how much grass it has would be considered. If a field is deemed not suitable, the host school will be asked to find another site that meets VHSL standards.