Vol. 3, No. 15, October 1, 2007 - Play by Play

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12 PLAY BY PLAY OCTOBER 1, 2007 Earning her stripes by Mike Ashley Alexi Staton stands tall at VMI GENERALLY SPEAKING, ALEXI Staton had never really thought about a military career. Too bad, because it turns out she excels on defense, although privately she still has a hankering for offense. That combination of skills is helping the versatile sophomore from Roanoke earn her stripes at VMI while the Keydets move up the ranks in women’s soccer. “Alexi’s ball-handling ability and her offensive strength were very attractive when we recruited her,” says third-year Keydets coach Bryan Williams, who had the team off to the fastest start in its five-year history at 3-4-1. “Alexi is playing an outside back for us this year and the back line has really come together.” The Keydet kickers have never won more than seven games in a season, but they already had three Alexi Staton wins by mid-September this year, including two shutouts. Staton, returning to some old habits despite playing defense, scored the gamewinner in a 1-0 win over The Citadel, VMI’s archrival. “I had just come into the game in the first half and I really hadn’t even touched the ball,” says Staton. “I was in the right place at the right time.” Staton made that synchronistic trait a staple of her game at Northside High School, where she graduated in 2006 as the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer with 46 goals and 28 assists under coach Shawn Duff. A twoyear captain, Staton helped lead Northside to the Blue Ridge District title as a senior. She also starred for the Roanoke Star and Valley AFC soccer clubs, and that’s where she developed her true love for the sport and began to realize how that passion could have an impact on her future. Photos courtesy of VMI Sports Information Alexi Staton (4) is one of less than 100 female students enrolled at VMI “Mike Thorrel was one of my coaches and he made me want to play college soccer,” she says. “During the summertime he gave me extra lessons and really helped me with a lot of the little things, helping improve my skills.” That’s important because Staton says one of her biggest influences, her mom, Tamela Morgan, never knew a lot about the game until Staton started playing and turned her mother into the classic “soccer mom.” “My mom grew up in the Lexington/Fairfield area and she didn’t even know there was soccer until she got to college,” Staton laughs. “She only played basketball, but she’s really into sports. Now she watches me and gives me good advice. She pushed me and my brothers and sisters to play.” Good thing, too, because by her senior season at Northside, Staton was fielding offers from several Division II programs and contemplating a career in medicine where soccer would help her get her foot in the door with some scholarship aid. And that’s about when a letter from Williams and VMI arrived at her home. See STATON, Page 17 October 27, 2007 8:30am Piedmont Greenway/ Wasena Park Greenway Memory Miler 10 Mile Run 4 Mile Run 1 Mile Run Age Group Entry Fees All proceeds benefit the Alzheimer’s Association and Virginia Amateur Sports 711-C 5th St., NE, Roanoke, VA 24016 • 540-343-0987
OCTOBER 1, 2007 PLAY BY PLAY 13 by Bob Teitlebaum The Key to success PHIL KEY IS A MAN OF ideas. Because he doesn’t mind sharing them, the Roanoke Valley Sports Club is a thriving organization. While club membership is somewhat less than the 300-plus it once enjoyed, the club has grown financially. Its bank account, which it draws upon to compensate guest speakers, has increased a few thousand dollars due to Key’s vigorous participation on the club’s executive board. He joined the club when Dick Williams became the president in 2000; soon thereafter, he became a board member who has developed a reputation for promotional ideas. A Roanoke native, Key’s employment with IBM took him away from the valley for 22 years and when he returned, he was ready to be proactive. “We don’t promote the club enough,” says Key, who stepped into the role of changing that. Current club president John Montgomery has benefited from Key’s promotions. “He’s been a tremendous help to the club in two areas,” says Montgomery, who is also the publisher of Play by Play. “He’s helped with programs — doing the legwork to bring in former NFL stars Carroll Dale and Alex Hawkins, among others — and by helping us generate additional funds to pay for such programs.” The club, which was founded in 1993 by Dan Wooldridge, Charlie Moir, Joe Thomas, Sr. and others, holds approximately 10 meetings a year. That’s nearly 150 meetings since it began, most of which have been held in the Community Room at the Salem Civic Center. Average attendance is approximately 100. The attendance has a dramatic spike if people from Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia or VMI come to speak. The best attended meetings take place late in the summer when Tech football coach Frank Beamer and his counterpart at Virginia, Al Groh, give interested fans previews of their respective teams. Traditionally, the two coaches appear at the same meeting, bringing on a night of fellowship and friendly rivalry from members associated with each school. This past year, the coaches could not make it on the same night and there were two separate meetings at Hidden Valley Country Club because the civic center was tied up with other bookings. Longtime sports fan invigorates club Phil Key (left) procured former Baltimore Colt Alex Hawkins as a sports club speaker in 2006 Beamer, however, had to cancel because he was honoring another speaking engagement. Beamer was originally set to be in Lynchburg on April 16, the day of the mass shootings, and then that event was rescheduled for July 26, the night he had intended to be in Salem. He was replaced by defensive coordinator Bud Foster, who was equally well-received. The sports club has been popular with its base, but innovation in recruiting has not been its strength. Enter Key. He played football and basketball for old Jefferson High School and made all-Western District and Roanoke City-County before entering the Marines in 1951 and taking off for California before he could finish high school. “They were expanding the Marine Corps,” says Key, who was 17 when he left school. “They had two divisions at the time, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast.” Key entered the new West Coast division and completed his tour a year-and-a-half later. At 6’4”, 195 pounds, he was big enough to play college football and earned a scholarship to the University of Richmond. “All my buddies went to Hampden-Sydney. I didn’t have a car, so I decided to go with them to Hampden-Sydney,” Key recalls, instead of Richmond. With the Tigers, Key played four years of football and basketball while being named to Who’s Who in American Colleges. In spite of his early achievements, Key says at that age he wasn’t particularly assertive. “I developed late in life,” he adds, which helps explain how his late entry to the Roanoke Valley Sports Club has coincided with a flood of new ideas. First, he hounded The Roanoke Times to write an article on the sports club in hopes that it would be seen by people who might decide it would be a good thing to become a member. “The Danville [sports] club is always covered in their paper and I thought, ‘Why not us’” he asks. Key set up a meeting with reporter Evelio Contreras, providing him with considerable background and detail. The story appeared in Neighbors in December of 2005. Key’s efforts didn’t stop with a story in the newspaper. He came up with another idea of selling sponsor tables, appealing to club members who were willing to pay for the privilege of having dinner with guest speakers. Of course the speakers had to be significant enough to carry out this idea and it was a natural for the Beamer-Groh meetings. It has worked whenever one of Tech’s basketball coaches appears, as well as when the speaker has VMI connections. “It made sense to put members with speakers and make some money for the club,” Key explains. “My mind is always percolating John A. Montgomery photos with ideas.” This particular idea has added a few thousand dollars to the club treasury. Prominent speakers can command high dollar, but the sports club has never paid more than $2,500 for a meeting. Most programs cost $500 or less. (Charlottesville’s Howie Long, an NFL Hall of Famer and prominent broadcaster on the Fox network, has been known to receive $40,000 for a single appearance.) Key reasons that with betterknown speakers, the membership rolls might increase. “We have a lot of money; why not bring in a [well-known] speaker and maybe charge a little more for a ticket” Key asks. The club’s current dues are $30 a year. A family membership costs $40. Dinner is an additional $12. Key wasn’t finished, though. His next original thought was a special achievement award to honor sports people in the Roanoke Valley. “I thought there are a lot of people in the club with interesting backgrounds and achievements and everyone would be interested in knowing what they had done,” Key says. “I like to make people feel good and do something for them.” So far, Jim Lugar, Dave Osborne, Carlton Waskey, the late Len Mosser, Wooldridge, Moir, Don Divers, Bill Shrader, Dave Ross, this writer, Harry Bushkar, Carroll Moffit, Galen Conner, Ned Baber and Wallace Coffey are among those who have been honored. Each one received a certificate and a place on the permanent Key with former Green Bay Packer Carroll Dale (center) and sports club board member Jim Lugar plaque displayed at each club meeting. Perhaps Key’s most touching subject turned out to be the late George Preas, a great football player at Virginia Tech and for the Baltimore Colts during their best days under Johnny Unitas. Preas was honored in the fall of 2006, not long before his death. “We had [former Colts star] Alex Hawkins as the main speaker and See KEY, Page 17
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Vol. 3, No. 15, October 1, 2007 - Play by Play

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