ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995               TAG: 9512060029
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER 


SPARTANS TOUGHER THAN BOOT CAMP, TACKLER SAYS

Alex Webb, the Giles High lineman, spent his summer vacation in a place where upon his arrival he was presented with a form letter to his parents saying that he was alive and well then handed a pen and ordered to sign.

They didn't allow him to call home for weeks.

They awoke him at 4:30 a.m. every day.

They lined him and other members of his group up and screamed at them, getting so close on occasion that the browbeaten wished simultaneously they were wearing raingear and that the hollerer had been issued breath mints.

They made him eat all his meals in 7 minutes flat and ensured that this was accomplished by snatching up the plates at the appointed time and marching the diners away from the table.

Webb and his cohorts were denied candy. They were denied cookies. They were denied sweets of any kind, including soft drinks. They were allowed to swig a potion call ``Victory Punch'' that was essentially unidentifiable aside from its liberal dose of brine.

They were made to run 3 to 5 miles ever day. That was before they were required to do a challenging little exercise that went by the acronym ``MF'' for "muscle failure." The essentials included doing pushups and situps until your muscles turned to mush and didn't work any more.

Usually, temperature and humidity approached measurements in the triple figures.

After eight weeks of United States Army basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., one might assume that Spartans preseason football practice, which Webb began Aug. 12, two days after basic training ended, was mild by comparison.

"Not exactly," Webb said. ``You don't hit anybody in the Army.''

You never stop hitting when you're a Spartan, conditioning that may partially explain why Giles is still playing when most every other team in the state has packed it in for the winter. The Spartans engage host Powell Valley at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in a state Group A Division 2 semifinal game that matches state champions of the previous two years.

Webb, a lean 6-foot-3, 215-pounder who plays on both the offensive and defensive line, was a starter when Giles won the state in 1993 and has played in three Region C title games, two of them won by the Spartans.

This season, Giles is known as much as anything else for its line play. Webb is the leading blocker of a unit that has cleared the way for backs who accumulated 3,730 yards and scored 391 points. Included in his job description is every block required of a single-wing lineman - drive, pass, trap, pull, double team.

"And he does them all well," Giles coach Steve Ragsdale said.

Webb would like to be involved in similar activities at the collegiate level a year hence. But in case a scholarship offer to play football is not forthcoming (not surprisingly, VMI is at the top of his wish list of places to play), the Army will help out with his education. Webb is in a six-year program in the reserves that requires him to serve one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer for the first four years. The last two years, he just needs to be available should his services be required. A war would be the most likely reason.

Out of the deal, he'll get college money. There have been other benefits as well.

"I kept a lot of the habits they taught me," he said. "For example, I still eat fast. It's helped me in football, too.

"More than anything else, it's made me mentally tough."


LENGTH: Medium:   68 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  GENE DALTON/Staff. Giles High's Alex Webb (right) goes 

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