ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702280014
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
SALEM'S three senior starters - Andy Beach, Eric Grinnell and Kwam Lewis - need a Spartans victory Friday in the Region III semifinals to earn a trip to the Group AA high school basketball tournament.
Considering the way their careers started with failure at the middle-school level, the three are going out with a bang.
Grinnell, the Spartans' 6-foot-3, 225-pound center, was cut from the Andrew Lewis Middle School team in both his seventh- and eighth-grade years.
Lewis, Salem's 6-2 power forward, started out as a lazy player with an attitude. He's also a diabetic. Now he's shaken his penchant not to work, has improved his character so that he received the Mr. Basketball award at an off-season camp, and says being a diabetic hasn't hampered his career.
Finally, there is shooting forward Andy Beach, son of Salem play-by-play announcer Curtis Beach. Andy decided not to play basketball as a seventh-grader because he didn't want to play the fifth and sixth periods, which are used to train young middle-school players. Now he's back, shooting 3-point shots and slashing his way to the basket.
This trio has scored more than 800 points among them this season and proved that it's not how you start, it's how you finish. With coach Charlie Morgan, a disciplinarian, there was nowhere to go but up for these three.
Grinnell didn't give up on his career despite being cut in middle school. ``I just really wanted to play basketball. I always liked it. So I played rec ball and said, to myself, `Why not come out again?'
``I'd get discouraged, but my dad [Doug Grinnell] said if I quit, he didn't want to hear me talking about basketball again. I loved it. I worked hard in the summer and then went to camp [before his freshman year] when the team went to Patrick Henry.''
As a junior, Grinnell weighed 200 pounds. ``I'd call during the off-season,'' said Morgan. ``His mother [Phyllis Grinnell] would tell me she's had him doing workouts and staying away from the table a little bit.''
An injured right ankle suffered before the season made it difficult for Grinnell to stay in shape. He ballooned to 245 before dropping back to 225. Still, he's got an effective jump shot and added a short hook shot to his repertoire in the Blue Ridge District tournament.
``I don't think it [the weight] was that high,'' said Grinnell. ``Still, I was kind of scared about [getting on] a scale.''
Grinnell's physique makes him look as if he belongs on the Mules, the football team's offensive line, rather than running up and down a court in shorts and a tank top.
``I played football through my ninth-grade year, but I wasn't having any fun with it. A couple of my friends have asked me to come out again, but I liked basketball so much that I wanted to concentrate on it.''
Lewis wasn't cut as a seventh-grader because he didn't try out for basketball.
``I was lazy,'' Lewis said. ``I wanted to play rec ball. I wasn't into basketball at that time. My friends talked me into coming out in my eighth-grade year.
``I was a bad little kid. Every time I went to camp, my younger brother [Manuel] and I were like pests. But we started maturing.''
Lewis was surprised two years ago when he got the Mr. Basketball award at a Salem summer camp. ``He told me straight up that he was lazy and wanted to play rec ball,'' said Morgan. ``When he came out [in eighth grade] we were always on him about developing a good attitude.''
Over one stretch late this season, Lewis averaged 18 points a game and basically carried the offensive load for the Spartans. Another senior, Marshall
Wooldridge, came off the bench to provide some outside scoring while Grinnell and Beach picked up their games.
It is Beach who has a devilish spirit. As a freshman, he was promoted to the varsity when Salem needed guards.
``Andy is the loosey-goosey type,'' Morgan acknowledged. ``He never misses a time to try and get one on me.''
Late in the season, when Salem was struggling with a .500 record and was close to falling out of the Blue Ridge District race, Beach got his coach.
``I always take the team out to eat [before games],'' said Morgan. ``So I told them if they won the rest of their district games, they could choose the place.''
Usually, the team chows down at one of the buffets where it's cheaper to eat and each player can get as much as he wants
``Andy reminded me [after the Northside game] what I said and asked when we were going to the Outback [Steakhouse],'' said Morgan. ``... I figured even though I might go broke, it's no big deal since they did what I told them to do. Just when you think he's [Beach] not listening, you find out he's listening.''
``I thought that was the best place to go for a big, old steak,'' said Beach of his choice.
Beach might not have been around to suggest another restaurant had he not decided to play again after withdrawing from middle-school basketball as a seventh-grader. Rules required all seventh-graders to play the fifth and sixth periods rather than the first four, which counted.
``I thought it was a waste of time,'' said Beach. ``To put in all that work and just play two quarters. I thought it was best for me if I just played rec ball. So I went for tryouts and never came back.''
Morgan is glad that Beach came back as an eighth-grader. ``He's worked hard in the off-season to make himself what he is now. He's a nice, slashing player and he's added that to his [shooting] game,'' said Morgan. ``He has proven himself on defense. We always ask him to guard the other team's best player.''
Beach, though, doesn't get everything. Morgan had promised he would get an earring or a tattoo if Salem won the rest of its regular-season games.
``Andy and the team started shouting from the back of the bus coming back from Northside about an earring or a tattoo,'' said Morgan. ``They missed what I said because we lost to Cave Spring and messed that up. The main thing is you have to find something to motivate kids.''
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA/Staff. Seniors (from left) Andy Beach, Ericby CNBGrinnell and Kwan Lewis are three reasons Salem High School is
playing in the Region III semifinals. color.