Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993 TAG: 9311060134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: STATE METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Northside game will be Salem's final Blue Ridge District football game of the year. Rockbridge County's fate as a playoff team rests on the Vikings upsetting Salem. If that happens, the Wildcats will be sole Blue Ridge District champs and go to the Group AA Division 4 playoffs.
If Salem wins, the teams will tie for the Blue Ridge District title. The Spartans will go to the playoffs because they will have the higher Virginia High School League point standing.
Rockbridge won't have enough points to qualify as a wild-card team because there are four strong Division 4 teams in the Seminole District, which will furnish the other three Region III teams.
No matter what happens, this has been a tremendous year for Rockbridge County. It started with a big upset of Northside and a close loss to Salem, which looms larger now.
"They've really surprised me," coach Jamie Talbott of his Wildcats. "We lost 22 seniors from last year's squad, but we've had a lot of young players step forward and play above expectations."
Talbott is a coach who has a reputation for turning underdog teams into giant-killers. Before Rockbridge County, he built Natural Bridge - one of the state's smallest football-playing schools in terms of enrollment - into a respectable Pioneer District team that challenged the likes of perennial power Parry McCluer.
When Talbott was named the Rockbridge County coach, no one thought that school, which was made up of students from Natural Bridge, Lexington and Rockbridge high schools, would challenge the upper echelon of the Blue Ridge District.
Yet after two years, the Wildcats are well-respected and regarded as an up-and-coming program.
Talbott says sophomores Travis Tomlin (defensive tackle), Matt Kave (defensive end), Chad Brown (defensive back) and Jason Hartless (offensive tackle) have come through in a big way.
"Last year I left most of my sophomores on the junior varsity, but this year I decided to bring up these sophomores," Talbott said.
For that reason, this year's team has been led by juniors such as offensive tackle Chris Crawford, fullback-linebacker David Long, nose guard Robert Lipscomb and return specialist Gary Tyree.
Rockbridge County still has 15 seniors and Talbott says he'll lose half of his starters. "We've got kids who played as juniors last year, but have taken a big step in one year for making big contributions," he said.
Among those are running back-defensive back-return man Kenny Lewis, running back Woody Newman, quarterback Scotty Rogers and defensive end-tight end Scotty Hatcher.
"Scotty [Rogers] didn't play but one game last year," Talbott said. "But he's stepped in and been a leader for us."
Now the Wildcats can only watch.
"This is probably the toughest part of the season," Talbott said. "But it's welcome, because we want a week off to be healthy and prepare for the playoffs."
That's Talbott, optimistic about everything, which is one of the reasons his teams are so successful.
\ DOUBLE TROUBLE: Not everyone was happy when the Roanoke Valley District came up with a proposal to double the number of athletic directors on the executive board that may be used to run the Virginia High School League, if the proposal passes a second reading in the spring.
The proposal would weaken the power of the superintendents and state legislators on the board because their numbers would remain the same as they were before the proposed committee was expanded from 27 to 48 members.
Staunton River principal Bob Ashwell, who has never been known to mince words, had this to say:
"I believe the basic reason the Virginia High School League is in the state it's in right now is because the same group of people who want to make a 48-member committee [the ones who voted for the RVD proposal] are the people who antagonized the superintendent's association, the state legislature and a large number of parents three years ago when they refused to accept suggestions or direction from anyone."
Ashwell's comments go back to the independent-team proposal to permit students to play for VHSL teams and outside teams at the same time under certain conditions. The proposal ultimately passed.
"It is apparent to anybody who is willing to look at the makeup of the two suggested committees that those folks who favor the 48-member committee are trying to dilute the authority of the superintendents and state legislators," Ashwell said.
As a consequence, Ashwell notes, it won't be surprising if the legislature and superintendents agree to place the VHSL under the control of the state department of education and eliminates the Virginia High School League as the organization that runs high school sports.
\ VHSL CHANGES: Northwood principal Craig Barbrow, chairman of the VHSL's executive committee, says he hopes the committee studying reclassification and balancing of the regions will have a report ready by October 1994 to give VHSL schools a year to study any proposed changes.
Barbrow says that besides looking at the number of schools in each classification, one proposal is to look at having five classifications instead of the present three.
As far as selecting a replacement for retiring executive director Earl Gillespie, "We'll have a screening committee that gets five or six names, and then the executive committee will pick a successor," Barbrow said. "We have a number of people qualified in-state and people on the staff who will be seriously considered."
Barbrow feels that some former principals, working in central administration, or even a superintendent, might apply for the job. Someone from outside Virginia also might be chosen as a finalist.
\ TV CHANGE: In showing high school football games in their entirety on a delayed basis each Friday night, WJPR/WFXR (Channels 21/27) plans a schedule before the season and sticks to it.
The exception was when the Roanoke-based station scheduled wild-card games to be selected the week of the game. That was not done this year.
This week's tape-delayed contest was to have been Salem at Cave Spring, a fierce rivalry that before the season looked like a good matchup.
With Cave Spring going winless and the PH-Pulaski County game to be played the same night, WJPR/WFXR has switched off a scheduled game in mid-season for the first time.
"It was hard to turn down the PH-Pulaski County game with all its interest," said Dave Ross, who puts the program together and is the announcer for the series. "It's not a regular thing, but you want to do the best you can."
That meant PH will be televised two weeks in a row, with the Patriots' game against Fleming scheduled for Nov. 12. Ross says that won't change, and PH will become the first team to be shown in back-to-back regular-season games.
by CNB