ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602260087
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HIGH SCHOOLS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
On Feb. 16, Art Lawrence was set to tell his Glenvar boys' basketball team this would be his last year of coaching.
Lawrence had every intention of following Patrick Henry's Woody Deans and William Fleming's Burrall Paye into retirement. It would be one more basketball coaching job open in the Roanoke area that would help set off a game of musical chairs.
On Feb. 15, Lawrence helped this writer make an early deadline for a Saturday story by discussing the details of why he was giving up coaching after 22 years at one level or another in the Roanoke County school system.
Lawrence's reasons for retiring echoed what Deans cited when he made his decision, and what Paye said had influenced his decision to quit at the end of the school year had he not bolted in mid-season when faced with disciplinary action over an incident during practice.
``I thought about it last year,'' said Lawrence, who remained in coaching because of Glenvar's second-place finish in the 1995 Group A tournament.
``I've had moments when I'm on a long bus trip that I wonder why I'm still doing this,'' he said. ``There comes a feeling it's time to close that chapter in your life and go on with something else. It takes a lot of time and energy to extend your work day every day.''
Lawrence said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Debbie, and visit his two adult children who live outside the Roanoke area.
Like Deans and Paye, Lawrence has had an outstanding coaching career, topped by the past four Group A boys' tennis championships.
When school was canceled because of snow the day Lawrence was to tell his basketball team he was quitting, I half expected a call to hold the story because he couldn't get his squad together to deliver the news.
Sure enough, Lawrence called that morning. But not to delay the announcement.
``I've had a change of heart,'' said Lawrence, apologetic because he must have figured I had drawn blood from my fingers pounding the computer keyboard to write a prize-winning piece about his retirement.
As a full-blown member of the Procrastinator of Sportswriters club, I hadn't even thought about writing it once the snow started falling. I figured on a delay.
Personally, it was good to have Lawrence change his mind. As coaches go, he is one of the most cooperative, always getting his weekly statistics in on time and making sure his games are called in to the newspaper when we don't send a reporter to cover the Highlanders.
As a writer, I recognized this still was a good story. Why the sudden change of heart when Lawrence was set to spend the next few years on a golf course after wrapping up his teaching assignments each day?
After all, John Shotwell (James River), Husky Hall (Martinsville) and Don Meredith (Lord Botetourt) have hit the links the past few years after retiring. Deans will spend more than his share of time chasing a little white ball over hill and dale. Paye will bang on a home computer and research stocks in the library while making trips to Knoxville, Tenn., to watch his Tennessee Volunteers play football.
``We didn't have practice Thursday,'' said Lawrence, who gave his troops time off because Glenvar went more than a week without a game. ``I went back to my office, which was close to the weight room. There were three or four players in there, talking basketball and lifting weights. That's what made me want to stay in coaching. The kids had a day off. They could have gone home, instead they went in and lifted weights.
``Seeing that, I knew that's what I'd miss about coaching. The kids were doing a little extra for the team.''
Lawrence's next stop was the office of Glenvar principal Al McClearn, who figured he'd be conducting a search for a new coach. Lawrence wanted to discuss staying.
McClearn was a coach himself before going into administration, so he knew what Lawrence was going through.
``When Art told me he wanted to retire, I think I used the expression that coaching is a young man's game,'' he said. ``I told Art I didn't consider him to be old, but I understood there are other things in life.
``I was very happy he changed his mind. The kids play hard for Art, and he does a good job.''
Before making the final decision, Lawrence talked with his wife:
``I called her at work. She said, `You make the decision. I'll support you either way.' She had questioned me when I decided to get out by saying, `I hope you're doing the right thing. I know you love coaching. I know it's time-consuming, but don't worry about the hours.'''
When he changed his mind, Debbie Lawrence told her husband she felt he was doing the right thing because she wasn't convinced his first impulse was right.
``I feel good that I can do what I have to do for next year, like schedule camps, get on with the planning, order equipment and work with the young kids to get them involved in the program,'' Art Lawrence said.
But first, the Highlanders have a Region C home game Tuesday against Lebanon as they try to make their way back to the Group A tournament.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT: What are the odds on this happening anywhere in high school basketball within the next year.
In their first meeting this season, Cave Spring junior Alex Phillips and William Fleming senior Sterling Tate committed their fifth personals when they were whistled for a double foul against each other.
In the teams' second and final meeting of the season this past week, the two got tangled when they fell to the floor and were involved in a scuffle. Both were ejected, meaning Phillips and Tate had been disqualified from a game on the same play in their only two meetings.
Two more coincidences: Both wear No.54 and both play the post position.
COACHING BUDDIES: Call them the ``Three Amigos'' of coaching in Seminole District boys' basketball. They are Liberty's Mark Hanks and rivals Mike Cartolaro of Altavista and Pat Paye of William Campbell.
Hanks and Cartolaro were roommates and teammates at Emory & Henry. Paye was Cartolaro's assistant at Virginia High School in Bristol. All three had teams in the upper division of the Seminole District this winter.
Unfortunately, not all three will be in the Region III tournament this week. Hanks and Cartolaro, who played at Parry McCluer before spending a year at Roanoke College and transferring to Emory & Henry, were in the Seminole District title game and made it to Region III.
Paye, the only first-year head coach among the three and the son of Burrall Paye, will have to wait until next year, when he should again have some top athletes.
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Lawrence.by CNB