Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
So has Steve Ragsdale.
Which is an interesting circumstance for two of the state's winningest high school football coaches. Especially a week before the season opener.
By no means is the word ``hysteria'' used lightly in this space, but when a voice mail system is rendered virtually inoperative by callers complaining of inadequate press coverage of last week's Touchdown Classic exhibition at Pulaski County High, indications are folks over Giles way are getting a little riled up.
Let's just say the popular imagination was captured by the Spartans' 28-0 two-quarter strangling of Cave Spring and the even more intoxicating 14-8 skewering of the mighty Cougars.
``It's hell when your fans think you won the state championship and the first game ain't even been played yet,'' somebody said Tuesday as Giles strapped it on for a late afternoon practice.
In Pulaski, folks tend to stay fairly calm in the face of adversity. At least they do at this time of year. But this Giles deal is the sort of thing that tends to make some of them a little nervous.
So they come to Hicks. They might be roundabout in their language, but most of them want to know the same thing. It goes more or less like this:
"Uh, coach, how come we're losing to a Group A team?''
And Hicks would say nice things about Giles and pretty much leave it at that.
Never mind that Pulaski County spent not one second of practice time preparing for the Giles single-wing offense. Or that the Cougars allowed time to expire with them on the Giles 1 at the end of the first quarter.
The Giles people don't give a hoot about the technicalities, nor should they. It's a dream as old as conflict - everybody wants to put it on the big boys.
For two quarters, Giles did.
But it was just a scrimmage.
Pulaski County entertains Anacostia and Giles plays host to Blacksburg tonight. Should something interesting happen during those games, the ones that actually count in the standings, then you can start to get whipped up.
HE'S BACK: Bryan Pruett of Narrows High showed what he was made of in the weight room this summer.
There, when he should have been bulking up for basketball, he kept hopping up to look out the window at football practice.
``It was driving me crazy,'' he said. ``I couldn't stand it.''
Pruett may be a Division I prospect in basketball, as he and a lot of other folks have only recently discovered. But the kind of stuff he's made of still has a lot of football in it somewhere. When August rolls around, all he knows is that it's time to lace up his size-13 shoes, put on a hard hat, and go hit somebody.
Only problem was, you don't just lightly decide you're going out for football, especially after missing the first week and a half of practice. Even if you are the former star quarterback.
Pruett was on his way back from shooting hoops at Radford University last week when he decided to stop by the high school to see if any of the football coaches were around. Much to Pruett's surprise, the guy he found was head coach Don Lowe.
``I couldn't ask him about coming back,'' Pruett said. ``So then I left and went over to Coach [Dave] Mabry's house to ask him to talk to Coach Lowe for me.''
We may assume that the coaches were right tickled about these developments, even if they aren't saying so in so many words.
``There was a precedent for letting him come out late,'' Lowe said. ``We'd already let another kid do it.''
What's Lowe going to do anyway when he's dealing with the best quarterback Narrows has had since Pruett's uncle Mike Burton was at the helm 14 years ago? Tell him he can't play because he was late for practice?
``We deal with each case individually,'' Lowe said. ``Some players have better reasons for being late than others do.''
Muted though it may have been, there was then rejoicing in Narrows. Even the Green Wave basketball coach, of all people, was fired up.
``I'm glad Bryan's out there,'' Todd Lusk said. ``That's where he should be.''
RANDOM INFORMATION: Pulaski County place kicker Shayne Graham went to Bill Renner's kicking camp at Lehigh University this summer and was chosen camp most valuable player out of 90 kickers who came from places ranging from Massachusetts to Arizona. Graham had a 59-yard field goal - 59! - booted a ball 9 yards deep in the end zone on a kickoff, and had the camp's best hang time on his kicks. ... Refurbished gyms at Narrows and Giles are looking absolutely splendid. Narrows is done while work continued on the Giles facility earlier this week. Both joints got new paint, bleachers and hardwood floors. The bleachers are particularly spiffy in Narrows gold and green and Giles light blue and red. ... Also newly renovated is Radford football coach Norman Lineburg's elderly but beloved circa 1960s Ford Falcon. The white chariot got new paint and suspension work.
Christiansburg was another football team that seized some attention for itself at the Touchdown Classic. The Blue Demons roughed up AAA William Fleming prompting one coach who saw it to say, ``Christiansburg threw Fleming around like rag dolls.''
by CNB