Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 10, 1993 TAG: 9312100063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Football fever is nothing new to Pulaski County, but it may hit a record pitch Saturday.
That's when the Pulaski County High School Cougars go for their second state championship in a row. And the players will have plenty of company.
"In the last 20 years, this is the highest enthusiasm," said Kenneth Dobson, a retired Pulaski County superintendent for whom the school's stadium is named. "You know, everybody likes a winner."
Nowadays, Dobson volunteers as a kicker coach for the Cougars, but plays it down if you ask him about it. "I work an hour and a half a day. Those fellows work for hours and hours."
Some 4,000 to 6,000 county residents will be making the four-hour-plus trip to Fairfax in cars and at least two chartered buses to root for the Cougars in their 2 p.m. Group AAA playoff against the Annandale Atoms at the Woodson High School stadium.
Superintendent Bill Asbury said there were several other fields available with better playing accommodations, "but they couldn't handle our size crowd. . . . I think people realize that this is a team that comes along maybe once in a lifetime."
For a home game, it is not uncommon for the Cougars to attract more than 10,000 people in a county with a population of about 34,000.
The Washington Post's Larry Rocca, who saw Pulaski's game with Gar-Field, called it "one of the most exciting events I've covered."
"The people were just going crazy," he said. "It was unbelievable how loud the crowd was. . . . The town was really into it. The band music, the train whistles. . . . It was amazing."
Rocca admitted being a little surprised at seeing reporters and photographers openly rooting for their home team.
Sportswriter Dan Callahan of the Pulaski-based Southwest Times also is president of the Cougars' booster club. "I'm able to separate the two. Whether or not it's pleasurable, you have a job to do," he said.
But, yes, he pulls for the Cougars. "And if I'm not the most middle-of-the-road, the most neutral sportswriter in the world, I don't care," he said. "There's a time for that and there's a time to support your community."
Community support is what Cougar football has been about for years, but particularly since the arrival of head coach Joel Hicks in 1979.
"I remember [before Hicks became coach] when we used to go out there and there'd be 200, 300 people in the stands," said Bob Hudson, a car dealer who played football at the old Pulaski High School. "Joel is probably the best high school football coach I've ever been around. He knows how to take a group of kids and mold a program around them."
There was scarcely a gathering in Pulaski County this week where the Cougars were not mentioned.
Joe Sheffey, a member of the county Board of Supervisors, recalled that he had missed only one Cougar home game in 15 years.
Roger Dean, treasurer of the Pulaski County Hokie Club, was getting a group together for the trip. He said he missed only one game last year during a "monsoon."
Hudson's car dealership helps sponsor the annual Cougar Touchdown Classic, in which eight teams engage in a preseason competition. He also sponsors an award for the outstanding player of each game.
Charter Federal Savings Bank in Pulaski this year began a recognition of the outstanding play of each game, as decided by Hicks.
"Being in a rural area like we are, so much centers around our school system and what we do in our athletic program," Callahan said. "You mention Pulaski County in Fairfax, the first thing that comes across their mind is, `Hey, they got a great football team.' . . . It's something that the people care a great deal about. All of us do."
There are more than 70 yellow Cougar "tracks" painted on Alexander Road and the appropriately named Cougar Trail Road leading to the stadium parking lot. They have been there for 13 years or more and, while technically frowned upon by state highway officials, have been left alone.
"I may have had something to do with that, at the beginning," Dobson, the former superintendent, confessed.
"We're a little bit special or we're a little bit crazy," Callahan said. "I suspect it's a little bit of both."
by CNB