THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9601300126
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
WITH ALL THE running around required to juggle a week of exams and a couple of college visits, Norfolk Academy junior Biren Roy didn't have much time for, well, running last week. And Bulldogs coach Ken Lampert knew that. Still he wasn't surprised when he drove past the school track last week and saw Roy taking a few laps.
``I don't have to worry about him. I knew he'd get his workout in,'' Lampert said. In his 19 years of coaching, Lampert considers Roy his biggest talent. ``This boy has the tools to be really great.''
Sitting in the school library fidgeting with an orange, Roy shrugs off such praise. ``There's a lot more things I could do to be a really good runner,'' he says. ``I need to work on my tactical abilities,'' - strategy, he says, accounts for two recent losses. ``I got behind a lot of people, and by the time I got through, it was too late.''
A two-time TCIS cross country champion, Roy also took this year's title in the Virginia Prep League and tied with Great Bridge's Erik Adams as the top distance runner in The Virginian-Pilot's final rankings. Outdoors last season, he won every TCIS track distance event and the 800 and 1,600 in the Prep League. Indoors, he was first in the 1,000 in the Prep League.
For Roy, the race began in the winter of his seventh-grade year with winter track. He tried soccer and Little League baseball, but he admits, ``I wasn't very good at all. At all,'' he stresses.
Not so with running. ``Every year I've gotten progressively a little better,'' he says. ``I really just had a high starting point.''
Roy runs 30 to 40 miles per week and spends several afternoons in the gym lifting. Lampert says Roy knows track more than anyone he's worked with and is able to contribute to his own coaching and the coaching of the team.
``He handles setbacks well,'' Lampert said. ``As a ninth-grader he ran a string of incredibly stupid races, and he's going to win a lot of those on natural ability alone. . . . Then he won something like 12 in a row with no mistakes. That's pretty good for a ninth-grader.''
Roy will tell you running defines who he is, but it is not his sole focus. In school, he excels at math and science and is president of his class. He's also an avid chess player, having finished second last year at the South Hampton Roads Invitational at Bayside High School. His family owns several local shops, including a photo studio, where he works on the weekends.
And the college process before him already has him considering options. Last weekend Roy visited The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, but he really hasn't made up his mind.
``It all depends on how I do this year,'' Roy responds when asked about running in college. ``If I do good enough, I might be able to run for a bigger school like Arkansas. We'll see.''
Adds Lampert: ``He could be one of the next great American milers or another good runner. The worst case scenario is him being a good runner on a solid college team.''
But Roy will assure you he's got lots of work to do before either happens. He'd like to get his mile time below 4 minutes, 20 seconds and his 800 time below 1:55.
``Now that I can race at a certain level,'' he says, ``I want to compete with the best people in high school.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Biren Roy, a junior at Norfolk Academy who runs 30 to 40 miles per
week, is a two-time Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools
cross country champion.
by CNB