SACCO: Wins, losses off the field

Celebrating wins, losses and state championships is so overdone it’s not even funny.

Look, the Buffalo Gap girls basketball team won a state title. Good on them.

Hey, Nelson County boys did the same. Again, good on them.

Waynesboro’s baseball team, against all odds, made it back to Pulaski for the Group AA Final Four. Nice job.

Waynesboro’s girls basketball team makes it to the championship game. Rock on, I say.

But, when it comes to high school sports, the real stories take place off the court, away from the diamond and usually arm’s length from the soccer pitch.

That was the case on May 26 when the Riverheads girls soccer team finally got over the Bull Run hump in Region B play with a 2-1 win over Clarke County. A lot of good things happened on the pitch that day — namely Kristin Moody’s headache-inducing header into the net for the lead. A great thing happened as soon as the referee blew the double whistle signaling the end of the match.

That’s when Moody and Kristin Shomo, after a quick celebration with their teammates, swung open the gate that separates the fans from the field, ran up the dusty hill and swallowed up Marsha Dattilio with hugs and tears.

A week earlier Marsha’s husband, Mike, died. Mike Dattilio, an assistant coach under Holmes Tehrani, was one of the major reasons why the Gladitaors have been a consistent force on the Shenanodah District.

It’s true, Dattilio wasn’t there in body to watch that historic win, but the yellow Christopher Newport hat his wife clutched while Shomo and Moody hugged her for a few minutes told a different story.

He was there in spirit. The smiles on Marsha and the girls’ faces were all the evidence one needed to believe that.

The Gladiators’ season ended a week later with a loss to Goochland. Shomo and Moody walked up to Marsha Dattilio after the loss and apologized.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” she told the girls.

Know something? She was right.

Best Interview

Anything involving former Waynesboro baseball coach Jim Critzer. Ask a dumb question and he’d tell you how dumb it was. Write something bad about his boys and you bet your cell phone would ring late at night.

When the Little Giants beat Turner Ashby in Bridgewater the game ended too late for the print edition, the next day he called and was mad as could be.

“Jim,” he told me, “I just want to see those guys get the recognition they deserve.”

As a columnist, I wanted to see an often-malinged coach such as Critzer to get the same.

When he retired, I told him he was a sports writer’s dream. I wasn’t kidding, he was.

Most telling off the field moment

After losing to Strasburg in the Group A volleyball semifinals, Wilson Memorial volleyball coach Kim Claytor sat in the media room awaiting questions as her team’s run came to an end. I asked her how hard it would be to lose the seven seniors she’s coached since they were freshman.

“Do you want me to cry?” she asked.

I never gave an answer as she broke down and tears streamed down her face.

Road trip I won’t forget

After spending 12 hours covering the state semifinal basketball, I stopped at a Wendy’s drive-thru on Broad Street in Richmond to pick up a burger to eat at the hotel. It was late and the guy working the window must have been lonely because I spent at least 10 minutes chatting with him about high school basketball.

“Guess what, Mr. Reporter,” he said. “I think all three of your teams are gonna’ bring home gold.”

He was almost right as Buffalo Gap girls and Nelson County boys won state titles.

I wish I could have seen

I’m with Robert Sisk on this one. I would have given anything to watch Shanda Brown sink that trey against undefeated Turner Ashby in the Region III semifinals at Lord Botetourt.

I wish I had been a fly on the wall

During Terry Waters’ conversation with Fort Defiance Principal Larry Landes. That’s the only way anybody is ever going to know why the much-loved coach was let go. Why, why, why can’t those kids that loved him get an answer as to why he’s not their coach anymore? Wake up, administrators and give these kids some credit, will ya?

Story for 2009

What is Wilson Memorial going to do when they jump up to Group AA and join the Southern Valley District? I know a lot of people are going to say they won’t be able to compete in football and basketball. Sure, basketball might be a tough one, but when it comes to football, I don’t think it’s going to be as cut and dry as people expect. I think the Green Hornets are going to raise a few eyebrows.

Best quote I got

“People who don’t play football don’t understand,” Stuarts Draft football coach Rod Bowers said after his team fell to Northside in the Region III playoffs. Bowers had just told his underclassmen to hug all the seniors and thank them. Yes, there were plenty of tears.

“They really have no clue the emotions involved in the game. You realize how painful it is to go through all you do as a player. And you leave a brother behind as you graduate.

“If you don’t become a coach, it’s over and all you have are memories.”

You know, kind of like that’s all we’ll have from 2008.