Friday, August 28, 2009
Rivals reunited -- and it feels so good
Ray Cox covers recreational, high school and college sports in the New River Valley. If you have information you’d like featured,
e-mail ray.cox@roanoke.com or call 381-1672
Ray Cox
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Matthew Saunders can hardly buy a gallon of milk before it starts again.
"I really can't go anywhere without somebody asking me about the game," the Radford High School football coach said.
The game to which he refers is the much-anticipated renewal of the rivalry with guest Pulaski County when the season kicks off 7:30 tonight.
Actually, there is no Pulaski County-Radford rivalry in football. Old Dublin High and Radford and Pulaski and Radford used to tear into each other with great vigor back in the old days of the New River District, though.
Saunders generally fields the same questions every time somebody buttonholes him about the upcoming spectacle.
"Are tickets sold out? How many people are going to come? Do y'all stand a chance? A lot of people talking."
Saunders' answers, in order, are: 1) Tickets are left. 2) A nice crowd is expected, but you can get in anyway provided you can cover the box office price of $5 cash. 3) We scheduled the game, so we're going to show up and try our best.
This ought to be good.
"They generally have the same types of players we do," Pulaski County coach Jack Turner said. "They're going to be tough."
Turner hasn't had much time to monitor community sentiment from his end.
"I'm sure the community is excited," Turner said. "But we're so young and inexperienced, we're just trying to get our kids lined up and understanding what we want to get done.
"I really haven't had much time to think about the ramifications of the game."
There will be ramifications. There always are.
The sentiments in the old Dublin-Radford rivalry eventually got to be so intense that one of the Dublin coaches grew to dislike black and gold to the extent that he didn't even want to cross into the Radford city limits if alternate routes were available. That wasn't just in season, it was said. He carried the grudge for decades, all the way to heaven's gate.
Historians of the old New River District days at Dublin and Pulaski such as Dan Callahan can tell stories that would make strong men grow pale about some of the gridiron dust-ups in which those schools were involved.
It is hoped that more gentle sensibilities will be included in the start of the Pulaski County-Radford rivalry. Certainly it was in the grand tradition of high diplomacy that the series came to be.
Saunders succeeded Norman Lineburg three years ago and when he arrived, he and then Principal Mark Lineburg talked about seeing what they could get going with the Cougars.
"When I got the job, that was one of the games I wanted to get on the schedule," Saunders said.
Not long after that, Pulaski County's slate for the 2009 season blew up when a contracted opponent opted out. A game with Radford started looking pretty good at that stage.
Pulaski County Principal Rod Reedy and then athletic director Mike Goff were on board. Next up was a meeting involving the two principals, the two coaches, Goff and his counterpart, Greg Wade.
Details were ironed out, and the game was on.
Lineburg was on the phone to the press so soon after that with the happy announcement that it sounded as if he'd jumped over his desk to get to a phone.
Radford, the smaller school, figures to be the underdog here. Don't ask Turner to support that thesis, though. With three out of 22 starters back this season, he doesn't want to hear it.
The important point for the area as a whole isn't how the game is going to be played, but that there is a game at all. The coolest local sporting trend of the past decade or so is the renewal of old ties that had frayed when the old New River broke up.
Radford is playing George Wythe again. Blacksburg and Pulaski County are once more in the same district. Giles never stopped tangling with Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
Also at Giles, one of the best ideas to come along in a while was hatched and nurtured and now is the new New River District track meet. All the old pals, back together again.
The same should be done in other sports. A preseason or Christmas basketball tournament would be a nice draw. Nobody seems to want to play baseball over spring break anymore, so who's up for the old district to get together for a nice tournament then, softball, too? Carroll County, Galax, Fort Chiswell and Narrows, come on down.
Did we mention the potential in volleyball, wrestling and cross country?
May football show us the way.
One last point about what a one-time-only deal this Bobcats-Cougars battle of the mean felines is going to be. In all of Jack Turner's days as a player, then a coach, at Pulaski County, he's never competed against Radford.
Saunders played against the neighboring school exactly once, in a junior varsity scrimmage.
That's just wrong.
Play ball, boys.
