Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: A quiet little powerhouse Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:35:41 EST Message-ID: \SE D;SPORTS \HD A quiet little powerhouse \SH At Emory, football is fun, team is unbeaten \BY John Hawkins \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT EMORY, Va. EMORY, Va. - Lou Holtz came calling on Lou Wacker in the late '60s, looking for the kind of assistant football coaches who diagram plays with the X's and O's in their morning cereal. Holtz was starting a program at William and Mary, hitchhiking on the road to the big time, waiting for his break into the world of power and fame and $10,000 speaking engagements. Wacker was 10 years into a career at obscure Hampden-Sydney College, happier than a gardenia in sunshine. "He was pretty persuasive - you know how Lou can be," Wacker recalls. And it was pretty hard to turn down Williamsburg, as nice as that place is. But it's funny. When I tell people I've got to drive eight miles around here before I hit a stoplight, when I can look off the practice field and see the light on my front porch, when my wife can start cooking dinner according to when the hollering at practice stops, they understand a little bit about what I'm saying." Scrape all the crud, crime and commercialism off college football and you get Emory & Henry, which plunges into the Division III playoffs this afternoon against Thomas More at 10-0 and ranked seventh nationally. It is the school's first undefeated regular season in 43 years, no small feat at a place where most opponents, even the Division III variety, have enrollments five times the size. Wacker came here in 1982 and built a little powerhouse without making a sound - a non-irony on the southwest lip of Virginia, where trees fall in the forest and nobody hears. He didn't need Holtz and Holtz obviously didn't need him. Wacker's daddy told him, "Find a job that you'll like on Mondays as much as you like it on Saturdays." Funny thing is, Saturdays aren't bad around here, either. "You play here because you love the sport - there's no other reason and there can't be," says wide receiver Todd Woodall. "Playing here is like playing in your backyard, except here, when you score the winning touchdown, everybody comes up to you after the game." To those who would think this place is a thousand miles from civilization, consider this school of 800 and its surroundings to be the very best example of the liberal arts college. The Blue Ridge Mountains and vacant spaces hypnotize visitors into thinking there are still large stretches of pure and unaffected America. So what if the mail doesn't get delivered when the pony isn't feeling well? "You need a litle bit of adjusting to the environment," says linebacker Mike Stansbury, a Chattanooga native. "What you find are good people who know each other and come up to you the minute they recognize you." Recreationally, this is college sport stripped down to its bare and beautiful basics, as simple as the land it's played on. Emory & Henry can't cheat much because it doesn't give scholarships, which are nice if they're not serving as the root of all NCAA evil. The athletic budget might pay for Holtz's necktie collection. Players aren't ordered to go to class, but they might have to answer to the old man who's doling out $12,000 each autumn for the education. "I don't know too many fathers who are paying $12,000 for their sons to play football," Wacker says. There is a smidgeon of controversy at Emory & Henry. The school nickname is Wasps, not WASPS, although "we do get a few calls about that now and then," says sports information director Nathan Graybeal. And there's a domestic dispute within the football program. "We still play the good old John Philip Sousa marches on the loudspeaker," Wacker says. "The players want us to throw in some rap." Loudoun County's Woodall wanted to play college football, and it wasn't so important where if the place allowed him to learn something along the way. Offers from Richmond and William and Mary had fallen through. Wacker had recruited Northern Virginia in the past and found a half-dozen or so untouched gems. Woodall, who became a three-year starter, is one of the pearls. "Division III football is surprising to people who haven't seen it," Wacker says. "We've had a lot of players who definitely could have played at the next level [Division II or I-AA]. You'd be surprised what falls through the cracks. . . . We get a lot of good football players who don't fit the mold." Don't think of them as mutts but as cocker spaniels who got passed up for the doggies in the window. Wacker's offensive line averages 260 pounds, although the obvious speed/size athlete - the 6-foot-3, 240-pounder who runs the 40 in 4.5 - doesn't exist. Most of these kids had some kind of shortcoming that prevented them from receiving Division I attention. Wacker's job is to find the best "flawed jocks" in Virginia and, to a certain extent, Tennessee. There are guys like senior tailback Billy Allen, who came to Emory & Henry weighing 165 but is now a very sturdy, 200-pound team captain. Guys like Steve Bowman, who couldn't block a bus aisle as a 6-6, 300-pound high school senior, then suddenly developed a competitive mean streak that made him an All-America by the time he left here. "You come here and there are guys who won a state championship or rushed for 1,000 yards in high school," says safety Scott Cox. "It's not like nobody here can play. The difference is, you come here, you play football, you get your degree and you go on with your life." Graduation isn't much of an issue at E&H. Wacker has had about 200 kids stick with his program since '82 - all but one has completed the curriculum of his choice, which includes pre-med and pre-law. Cox says he's seen years when half the team was missing on Tuesdays, skipping practice for science labs. "Hey, I've heard about players from the big schools getting tests before they take them," Woodall says. "I think all of us have heard about how it is at the big schools, but I don't think I'd trade what I've got here for a chance there. I don't think those guys appreicate the game as much as we do." Stansbury is tired. He woke up at 4 a.m. to study for an 8 a.m. test in Management Information Systems. The day before, he missed practice because he's in the choir. He wants to know, "How many guys at Miami are doing that?" How many? "This is the end of the dream for them" Wacker says. "Our players do not play under any illusions." ****BOX DIVISION III PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND Today NORTH Mt. Union (10-0) at Dayton (10-0) Aurora, Ill. (9-0) at Ill. Wesleyan (9-0) SOUTH Thomas More, Ky. (9-1) at Emory & Henry, Va. (10-0) Washington & Jefferson, Pa. (8-1) at Lycoming, Pa. (8-0-1) EAST Worcester Polytechnic, Mass. (9-1) at Rowan, N.J. (10-0) Buffalo State, N.Y. (7-2) at Ithaca, N.Y. (9-1) WEST Carleton, Minn. (9-1) at Central, Iowa (9-0) Redlands, Calif. at Wisconsin-La Crosse (8-0-1) QUARTERFINALS Nov. 28 NORTH Mount Union-Dayton winner vs. Aurora-Ill. Wesleyan winner SOUTH Thomas More-Emory & Henry winner vs. Washington & Jefferson-Lycoming winner. EAST Worcester Polytechnic-Rowan winner vs. Buffalo State-Ithaca winner WEST Carleton-Central winner vs. Redlands-Wis.-La Crosse winner SEMIFINALS Dec. 5 North winner vs. West winner South winner vs. East winner AMOS ALONZO STAGG BOWL (Bradenton, Fla.) Dec. 12 Semifinal winners This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM