ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 1996 TAG: 9612100032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on December 10, 1996.
Clarification
An illustration in Sunday's sports section indicated that the last
state football champion from the Roanoke Valley before Salem's Group AA
Division 4 title was by Patrick Henry in 1973. The chart referred to
Virginia High School League state champions. However, Roanoke Catholic
(1994) and North Cross(1993) won Virginia Independent School Division I
state football titles.
A Virginia High School League football championship trophy stands only 18 inches.
In Salem, it's always been much larger than that.
At midfield Saturday in the mudhole that was Victory Stadium, coach Willis White gripped the gold-plated hardware in a right hand that had held hope so often before.
"It's really just a hunk of metal,'' White said of the VHSL Division 4 state championship trophy. "It's what we did to get it that's really important.''
What may be even more important is that the Spartans got it, period. The burg is so consumed by football, the bird on its city seal should be clawing a pigskin rather than an olive branch.
With a 20-12 victory over Sherando, the Spartans did what Salem teams - more talented ones - couldn't do in 1986 and '91 and achieved what the city hasn't had since 1964, when Andrew Lewis High School won its only state title.
"When you play Salem, you play the whole town,'' White explained. "This is for more than the team and the school, this belongs to the town, too.''
The signature of wide receiver John Hancock was prominent on the victory, thanks to two touchdown receptions, but White wasn't all that surprised by the triumph. He was relieved.
"I'm thrilled for the kids,'' White said. "There's a lot of pressure on them, and I'm glad they've gotten it done, because people have wanted us to do this for so long and we haven't, and they wanted it so badly.
"We're a bunch of old ditch-diggers. This is your typical Salem team. We're too small. We're too slow. We don't have people running 4.3s or 4.4s. We just have a lot of heart, and we play hard.''
White was correct in saying the Spartans made it more difficult than necessary. They kept the ball for more than 27 of the 48 minutes, but while they weren't dominating, they were consistent.
Then, when you're lugging around the hopes of an entire city, it can be like running in a quagmire.
"The field was terrible,'' Hancock said. "We were used to it. We won the week before in Tazewell [over Grundy in an overtime semifinal], and that was worse. We didn't care if it rained.''
The showers quit, and the sun broke through. Then came another storm, this one from the Salem side of the stands. The Spartans brought the biggest crowd of the season to the creaking stadium.
It took the Salem fans only 14 seconds to bend one goalpost to the ground. The other eventually fell, too.
Salem will receive a bill from Roanoke - a small price for a state title.
The last time a state championship game was played at Roanoke's stadium, Andrew Lewis lost to Alexandria's T.C. Williams in 1971. White hadn't been thirsting for a title as long as Salem, however.
He was an assistant coach on Merrill Gainer's 1973 Patrick Henry title club, the last Roanoke Valley team to win a state football championship.
"It really doesn't seem that long ago,'' White said. "Time flies by when you're turning over groups like you do. Shoot, there are guys I coached at PH, and now I'm teaching their kids.''
After coming so close so often in a win-filled history, White thought he saw a championship in this team, partially because of what he didn't see in other Group AA clubs in Salem's divisional classification.
"The night we lost our opener, to Brookville (20-0), after I talked with the boys, I thought this was possible,'' White said. "I didn't see a dominant team in the state in our group. I told them if they went to work, which they did, that we could play a 14th game.
"We challenged them. As they say, good things come to those who wait.''
The scheme was somewhat sophisticated on Hancock's two scores, as Sherando's safety was overplaying the tight end, but the Spartans' strategy really is ``x'' plus ``y.''
"You coach football the same way you teach algebra,'' said White, a math teacher. "You work hard on the fundamentals and you keep working on them, and you never let up.''
While Salem (12-2) provided White with the only missing ingredient on his resume, the veteran coach didn't need a championship to validate his career. He enjoyed the experience, however. How many times can a guy with a mustache play bridesmaid?
"I've never pretended to be a great coach,'' he said. "That's for others to judge.''
They did that not long after Saturday's game. Several Spartans hoisted White, trophy in hand, above the midfield millers who were giddy and muddy.
It isn't the first time he's been head and shoulders above the crowd.
"Maybe I'm getting old,'' said White, 55. "What I hope to do to celebrate is have a hot cup of coffee, get out of these muddy clothes and kick back and watch the Florida-Alabama game.''
That was one of the quieter celebrations Saturday night in Salem, where this morning a 32-year hangover is over.
Someone finally brought home the bacon for a breakfast of champions.
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: State football champions from theby CNBRoanoke Valley. KEYWORDS: MGR