ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
DAMON WILLIAMS takes a job at Western Carolina, where he will coach against his brother, Ramon.
This time, Damon Williams said yes to Phil Hopkins.
Williams, a former VMI basketball great, accepted an offer Friday to become an assistant men's basketball coach on Hopkins' staff at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.
Williams, 28, resigned last week after three years as the head boys' basketball coach at Rockbridge County High School. Before moving to Rockbridge County, he was an assistant to Charlie Morgan at Salem High School.
Williams will be coaching at the collegiate level for the first time. He also will be coaching against his twin brother, Ramon, at least once each season. Ramon is an assistant at Southern Conference rival VMI.
``It will be different,'' Damon Williams said. ``We're not competing as players, we're competing as minds.''
Beginning with the 1997-98 season, Western Carolina will move into the same division as the Keydets, the Southern Conference North.
The Williams twins have been in Hopkins' mind since their days at William Fleming High School, when he was an assistant to Joe Davis at Radford University.
Hopkins and fellow assistant Steve Robinson (also a Fleming graduate) tried to get the twins to sign with the Highlanders. They opted for VMI, instead, and went on to combine for more than half of the Keydets' scoring for three seasons, each earning first team all-conference honors.
Ten years later, Hopkins and Damon Williams will be together. It should be a long relationship, too; Hopkins is in the first year of a five-year contract.
``It's kind of ironic that things connect like that,'' Williams said.
Hopkins and Williams sat down June 13 at the Texas Tavern in Roanoke (a favorite eatery of Hopkins' daughter, Somer) and spoke again the next day in Lexington. Hopkins said Williams' fiancee, Floyd County native Florence Vaughn, seemed a bit skittish about the Texas Tavern fare, but Williams said all was well this past Monday and Tuesday when he and Vaughn visited the Western Carolina campus in Cullowhee.
Williams said one of the first things Hopkins asked him was whether he could scout his good old school, VMI, objectively. Williams said he'd love to do it.
Thus, Williams replaces Thad Matta, who one month ago took an assistant's position at Miami (Ohio). Williams starts his new job July 1 and will have the same recruiting and scouting responsibilities as Western Carolina's other assistants.
``Here we all recruit, all scout, all coach and all chase the guys down about going to class,'' Hopkins said. ``I don't think I could have hired anybody better.''
Bart Bellairs, VMI's head basketball coach, first informed Williams of the opening on his friend's staff. On Friday, Bellairs joked that Hopkins would do anything for a scouting report on the Keydets, from hiring Williams to letting Hopkins' son, Phillip, enroll at VMI in the fall.
``That's going to be interesting for the rats there,'' Williams said. Phillip Hopkins has ``asked me a lot of questions. I'm telling him it's a system for everyone.''
After this crossing of paths and family lines, Hopkins' system includes Williams.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) D. Williamsby CNB