By Patrick Hite
(I totally agree with his sentiments)
Dennis Dull stepped down as Robert E. Lee's girls basketball coach in April 2015 mainly because of health issues. But when I talked to him at the time, he gave me a surprising secondary reason for his decision. He said Lee High just couldn't compete with many of the other schools in the Valley District and the school's inability to move to the Shenandoah District was partly responsible for his decision to retire.
"It's not fair to the kids," he said.
That statement, coming from an old-school coach like Dull, shocked me. And I wondered, WWPHT?
(If you're wondering, that's shorthand for "What would Paul Hatcher think?" and it's a good motto to live by.)
So I asked the former Lee High boys coach, winner of 897 games and four state championships before he retired in 2011.
"I think everybody is so hung up over enrollment," Hatcher said last week. "Enrollment to me never was a factor. I was just worried about the five I had on the floor."
Enrollment is an issue for many, including the Virginia High School League, which a few years ago moved to a six-classification system in an attempt to make the classes more equitable when it came to school size. It's also why Lee High's administration has been pushing to move into the Shenandoah District, joining other schools in the 2A classification instead of the bigger schools in the Valley District.
By noon this coming Thursday, Aug. 4, that push will finally be rewarded. The Shenandoah District, after years of denying Lee, approved the move earlier this year. Now the VHSL will vote on it at 11:50 a.m. Thursday and, from all indications, the governing body will approve the move. If the move is given the green light, the change will take place with the start of the 2017-18 school year.
"I hate to see it happen," Hatcher said.
Me too.
With the exception of a few years in the early 1970s when Lee High played in Group AAA, the school has been associated with the Valley District since 1960. A few years back the Valley did split in two and Lee played in what was technically called the Southern Valley, but Hatcher said he still always called it the Valley District.
Now that long association appears to be finished. And with it rivalries with many schools. I'm sure Lee will try to continue non-district series with some Valley District schools, but with a nine-member Shenandoah District it won't be possible in all sports. Waynesboro athletic director Derek McDaniel told The News Leader's Ken Bosserman recently that his school probably won't play Lee in football in 2017. McDaniel told me some matchups between Waynesboro and Lee in spring sports, including tennis and soccer, may also be in danger.
"With time comes change, something that is hard for the old folks like myself," said McDaniel. "The move is best for Lee High as a school and I'm sure we will continue to try to play them in as many athletic events as possible."
I grew up watching classic Lee basketball games against Harrisonburg, Spotswood, Turner Ashby and Waynesboro. It's hard to imagine those twice-a-year battles disappearing. And if the Valley District reinstates its postseason basketball tournament, staging it without Lee High just seems wrong.
"You hate to lose that," Hatcher said of the rivalries. "We've had some great games."
Hatcher is right that it's not about enrollment, but the program. Size doesn't, or at least shouldn't, matter in this case. Build a quality program and you can play with anyone.
"It never entered our mind," Hatcher said of the opponent's enrollment. "Whoever was on the schedule was our next game. You prepare for them and you go play."
In Hatcher's final season, 2010-11, his Leemen finished the regular season undefeated even though Lee was the smallest school in the Valley District.
"According to all these people we shouldn't have won a game," he said.
Forty years before, when Lee was moved to Group AAA for the 1970-71 season, former Leemen star Mark Newlen said very few people thought his team had a chance against the much bigger Roanoke-area schools that were in Lee's district. Lee proved the naysayers wrong, reaching the Group AAA state championship game where it lost to Maggie Walker.
The players on that Group AAA state finalist team will tell you how special the memory of that season is to this day. Part of the reason is the quality of competition Lee played night in and night out, more often than not coming out on top.
Now, that apparently doesn't matter. Teaching kids to overcome obstacles takes a back seat to winning games and making sure everything is fair.
Hatcher's philosophy was always to play up in competition level, not down, an apparent foreign concept to some of today's coaches and athletic directors.
Coach Paul Hatcher poses with the 1970 seniors from his Lee High School basketball team
(Photo: The Staunton News Leader)
(I totally agree with his sentiments)
Dennis Dull stepped down as Robert E. Lee's girls basketball coach in April 2015 mainly because of health issues. But when I talked to him at the time, he gave me a surprising secondary reason for his decision. He said Lee High just couldn't compete with many of the other schools in the Valley District and the school's inability to move to the Shenandoah District was partly responsible for his decision to retire.
"It's not fair to the kids," he said.
That statement, coming from an old-school coach like Dull, shocked me. And I wondered, WWPHT?
(If you're wondering, that's shorthand for "What would Paul Hatcher think?" and it's a good motto to live by.)
So I asked the former Lee High boys coach, winner of 897 games and four state championships before he retired in 2011.
"I think everybody is so hung up over enrollment," Hatcher said last week. "Enrollment to me never was a factor. I was just worried about the five I had on the floor."
Enrollment is an issue for many, including the Virginia High School League, which a few years ago moved to a six-classification system in an attempt to make the classes more equitable when it came to school size. It's also why Lee High's administration has been pushing to move into the Shenandoah District, joining other schools in the 2A classification instead of the bigger schools in the Valley District.
By noon this coming Thursday, Aug. 4, that push will finally be rewarded. The Shenandoah District, after years of denying Lee, approved the move earlier this year. Now the VHSL will vote on it at 11:50 a.m. Thursday and, from all indications, the governing body will approve the move. If the move is given the green light, the change will take place with the start of the 2017-18 school year.
"I hate to see it happen," Hatcher said.
Me too.
With the exception of a few years in the early 1970s when Lee High played in Group AAA, the school has been associated with the Valley District since 1960. A few years back the Valley did split in two and Lee played in what was technically called the Southern Valley, but Hatcher said he still always called it the Valley District.
Now that long association appears to be finished. And with it rivalries with many schools. I'm sure Lee will try to continue non-district series with some Valley District schools, but with a nine-member Shenandoah District it won't be possible in all sports. Waynesboro athletic director Derek McDaniel told The News Leader's Ken Bosserman recently that his school probably won't play Lee in football in 2017. McDaniel told me some matchups between Waynesboro and Lee in spring sports, including tennis and soccer, may also be in danger.
"With time comes change, something that is hard for the old folks like myself," said McDaniel. "The move is best for Lee High as a school and I'm sure we will continue to try to play them in as many athletic events as possible."
I grew up watching classic Lee basketball games against Harrisonburg, Spotswood, Turner Ashby and Waynesboro. It's hard to imagine those twice-a-year battles disappearing. And if the Valley District reinstates its postseason basketball tournament, staging it without Lee High just seems wrong.
"You hate to lose that," Hatcher said of the rivalries. "We've had some great games."
Hatcher is right that it's not about enrollment, but the program. Size doesn't, or at least shouldn't, matter in this case. Build a quality program and you can play with anyone.
"It never entered our mind," Hatcher said of the opponent's enrollment. "Whoever was on the schedule was our next game. You prepare for them and you go play."
In Hatcher's final season, 2010-11, his Leemen finished the regular season undefeated even though Lee was the smallest school in the Valley District.
"According to all these people we shouldn't have won a game," he said.
Forty years before, when Lee was moved to Group AAA for the 1970-71 season, former Leemen star Mark Newlen said very few people thought his team had a chance against the much bigger Roanoke-area schools that were in Lee's district. Lee proved the naysayers wrong, reaching the Group AAA state championship game where it lost to Maggie Walker.
The players on that Group AAA state finalist team will tell you how special the memory of that season is to this day. Part of the reason is the quality of competition Lee played night in and night out, more often than not coming out on top.
Now, that apparently doesn't matter. Teaching kids to overcome obstacles takes a back seat to winning games and making sure everything is fair.
Hatcher's philosophy was always to play up in competition level, not down, an apparent foreign concept to some of today's coaches and athletic directors.
Coach Paul Hatcher poses with the 1970 seniors from his Lee High School basketball team
(Photo: The Staunton News Leader)