DATE: Friday, September 19, 1997            TAG: 9709190874

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   42 lines

P. ANNE'S RAFAL DOUBLES HIS COACHING PLEASURE

Two practices, two starting lineups, two gameplans and two teams.

One sport and one coach.

The sport is volleyball and Princess Anne's Jerry Rafal is the coach of the boys and the girls. On game day, that means one team is ushered off the floor as the other comes on before Rafal has a chance to change his wad of gum.

``I don't have time to reflect on what we did wrong in the last game,'' he says.

Until this fall, Rafal coached boys volleyball in the fall and girls soccer in the spring. When the girls volleyball position became available, Rafal asked to switch.

``I've always liked coaching girls having four daughters of my own,'' he says.

Then he figured the teams travel on the same bus and practice in the same gym. Why not do both?

``I love kids and I love coaching,'' says Rafal, who arrives at school shortly after 6 a.m., to teach special education.

The girls practice at 2:30 and the boys at 4:30. He's no super strategist - Rafal bought a book to learn the sport - and mostly he repeats the same brand of encouragements to both groups.

``C'mon gentlemen, let's get focused,'' he says before Thursday's match against First Colonial.

``C'mon ladies, let's focus on what we have to do,'' he says before Thursday's match against First Colonial.

He's the same guy all the way around, eh?

``He has to yell at the guys because they goof off more,'' says setter Sasha Miller.

Blocker Barry Jenkins says the girls get an earful, too. ``Sometimes they're talking to the guys on the other team before the game . . . .'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

L. TODD SPENCER

Jerry Rafal enjoys pulling double duty at Princess Anne High School,

coaching the girls and boys volleyball teams.

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