THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030679
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Princess Anne has had only one winning football season since 1981. So it came as no surprise Thursday that the Cavaliers turned to the quarterback of that 1981 team for their new coach.
Jeff Ballance, who played at Virginia Tech and has been an assistant coach for eight years at Kempsville, Tallwood and Green Run, was named to succeed Mike Benzel.
``I've always wanted to be a head football coach,'' Ballance said, ``and in the back of my mind going home to PA is the icing on the cake.''
Ballance, 32, spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator for Green Run. The Stallions led South Hampton Roads in total offense last season and were second in 1994.
Ballance also coached Green Run to the 1994 state baseball championship, but will restrict his duties to football at Princess Anne.
``Football will be 12 months for me,'' he said. ``I want to oversee everything.''
Princess Anne has finished 4-6 each of the past three seasons and tailback Mike Majette, the all-time leading rusher in South Hampton Roads with 4,500 yards, graduates this spring.
``I truly feel there is talent there,'' Ballance said. ``I'll be going into the hallways and into the community to get kids out. It's time to bring the pride back.''
Norfolk Academy soccer coach Kevin Sims has accepted a job at The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn. Sims, who has coached boys and girls soccer for the Bulldogs for the last 15 years, will make the move this summer to be closer to family. A winner of close to 500 games overall at Academy, he will coach soccer at a private school for boys grades 7 through 12.
``I've been trying to get closer to my hometown for some time,'' said Sims, who grew up in Atlanta.
Sean Wetmore will be the boys coach and Rich Peccie will be the girls coach next season. Wetmore, a former Academy graduate, has been a Sims assistant for three years, and Peccie coaches the Bulldogs' jayvee team.
Scott Williams, an assistant at Greenbrier Christian Academy, was named the head football coach at Atlantic Shores Christian School.
Williams, 32, spent one season at Greenbrier. before that he ws the head junior varsity ocach at South Granville High in Durham, N.C.
Williams is the Seahawks' third head coach in the past three years. He succeeds Adam Cheynunski, who left to join his father's staff at University Christian High in Jacksonville, Fla.
Williams, who moved to Hampton Roads to be near family, hopes to end the Seawhaks' trend of one-year coaches.
``That's something I think they took into account,'' he said.
Atlantic Shores disbanded its program for one year in 1993 and has gone 8-4 and 9-3 the past two seasons.
Joe Jones, the head football coach at Franklin last fall, has been named the head football coach and athletic director at Smithfield. Jones, who played football at Virginia Tech, replaces Miles Blount, who resigned the position and will remain as the track coach at Franklin.
Cox's Ben Green will accept an appointment to the United States Military Academy to play basketball, Falcons coach Kenny Edwards said.
The 6-6 Green played point guard, shooting guard and small forward and averaged 14.5 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks per game last winter.
He was a second-team All-Beach District pick. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
``Going home to PA is the icing on the cake,'' said Jeff Ballance, a
former Cavaliers quarterback.
by CNB