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Rams lose heartl
By SAM DAVIS
Chronicle Sports Editor
NORFOLK, Va. -- By even the most conservative
appraisal, it was CIAA football's finest hour.
Last Saturday's league championship game between
Winston-Salem State and Norfolk State was
everything it was built up to be - and more." The hitting
was intense, the drama nerve-rending and the
enthusiasm high.
The 17,000 or so fans that flocked to the game
Jefinitely got their money's worth.
When the dust had settled and post-game honors
tad been bestowed, Norfolk State had notched its
first C1AA title since 1976 while the Rams had been
iealt a 20-19 loss that ended their season and broke
heir hearts.
If football is a game of inches, the Rams lost by
"Somebody else must have wanted us to
win this game.... It was just a shame that
someone had to lose in a game like this. "
? Willard Bailey
ess than even that. Their chances for a CIAA
:rown and a possible Division II playoff bid vanished
when Tyrone Smith's seemingly perfect 37-yard
Field goal hit the left upright and bounced with a resounding
thud to Foreman Field's Astroturf surFace.
smitn s kick climaxed an emotion-charged game
that saw both teams play like champions. A postgame
celebration followed, with the Norfolk
faithful storming the field and wrecking the goal
post that had wrecked the Rams* last-ditch effort.
When it was all over, Norfolk Coach Willard
Bailey perhaps summed it up best.
4'Somebody else must have wanted us to win this
game,** Bailey said, looking upward. 4'It was just a
shame that someone had to lose in a game like this.
The score trulyreveals how close the game really
was.**
Maintaining his composure, and picking his comments
carefully, Ram Coach Bill Hayes said it was
Sports Scope
He gave the 'boys'
a fighting chance
By SAM DAVIS
Chronicle Sports Editor
NORFOLK, Va., ~ In mid-August, WinstonSalem
State quarterback Mike Winbush faced a
decision. He could either continue playing professional
baseball in the Texas Rangers' instructional
league this fall and receive a considerable increase
in his contract, or he could return to the Rams for
his final season of football elgibility.
To compound matters, the Rams had added two
talented and highly-touted young quarterbacks
(Dana Walker and Haywood Workman) to their
roster and Winbush wasn't assured of a starting
job. Yet, Winbush decided to return to the WSSU
campus anyway and finish his career with the
playCTs he had arrived with.
As he told me in August, "I wanted to be with my
boys and finish my career with them."
Last Saturday's game m Norfolk, Va., was the
Please see page B4
Sports People
WhittemA nuiw
Chronicle Sports Editor country team.
? 'Mrs. Cra1
Tiny, 15-year-old Tomika teacher, asked
Whitten is a "natural" -- the type tersted in joininj
of athlete who's so gifted you can Tomika. "I tho
almost simply point her in the try to see how I
right direction and she'll do the She did all ri|
rest. of work to bi
Though she's only been runn- needed to compl
ing cross country a little over two
years, Tomika is the top female ^^^WO^hart
runner in the state. Two weeks , .
ago, she emerged from a field of Started. / C(
120 to win the girls' state high mile without
school cross country title. once I got in
Tomika's come a long way lot easier. "
cir*/-?*? cVio firct ctarfpH vpt Korl it t*
Jill VV JIIV I II Ji JU41 kVM f jr VI IIUU IV ^
not been for the advice of a P.E. ______
teacher at what was then Kennedy
High School, she might not try course, but
have even given the sport a try. quickly to the r
"I didn't start running cross "It was hai
country until I was in the ninth- started," she s
grader," says Tomika, who's run a mile with<
now an llth-grader at West For- once I got in s
syth. "We had to run cross coun- easier."
try as a P.E. requirement and I By the end o
. beat a girl that was on the cross Tomika was a
Week
Columns, Features
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Winston-Salem State quarterback Mike Winbusl"
ship game. Winbush completed 20 of 32 passe
James Parker).
disappointing to come back so well, but still fall in
~i~r ?
ucicm.
"I thought we had the momentum going,'* said
Hayes, referring to the Rams' second-half effort.
"We showed a lot of character the way we played."
The loss was especially bitter after the Rams had
~~clawedToollrahdnhaino~get back in the game and
mounted a frantic, last-minute drive that seemed
destined to succeed. Senior quarterback Mike Winbush,
who played like a man possessed all after
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Get Back
Parkland's Kennard Martin scampers into the e
West Charlotte last Friday night. Martin and 1
knocked them out of the state 4-A playoffs. See
'aldisiance runner
female runner in the county in
ver, the P.E. 9-10 schools. Unlike the boys,
me if I was in- however, she didn't have many
; the team," says opponents,
ught I'd give it a "I came in first in the county,"
would do." says Tomika. "But there wasn't
iht. It took a lot really much competition. It was
lild the stamina only about four other girls runnlete
a cross coun- ing."
Last year, things got even
, . f. worse. In the county meet, there
when / Jirst weren't any gjrjs for jomika to
luldn t run a run against. Undaunted, she ran
Stopping. But, with the boys.
shape, it got a "I wasn't really running
against them," Tomika says
omika Whitten modestlyv ",1 ^eally "nin?
_____ against the clock. But, of the 60
boys running, 1 beat 24 of them."
Tomika adjusted This year, Tomika says she
igorous training. really got her first real challenge
rd when I first in high school meets. When she
;ays, "I couldn't moved up to the 4-A high school
Mit stopping. But, level, the competition increased
hape, it got a lot tremendously.
"This year was really
f her first season, different," she says. "I always
ilready the finest Please see page B4
$
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Section B
Thursday, November 15, 1984
jionship game
^Wl^Ww9*C JSr
J99kLli^^^1 -
BBBLt HH %
) looks for a receiver in last Saturday's champion>s
for 220 yards against Norfolk State (photo by
noon, wept openly as did several teammates after
the errant field goal attempt.
"I'd rather get beat by 40 points than lose in a
game like this," said Ram defensive end Mike Warren,
one of the team's captains. "This is really hard
?to accept." 1 ? ~
Winbush agreed. \ ^
"i mougni u was gooa, winousn said ot
Smith's kick. "This really hurts."
Please see page B2
j
;>?,
y?* /
nd zone on one of his two touchdowns against
:he Mustangs suffered a bitter 16-14 loss that
i story on page B5 (photo by James Parser).?
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m
TomiKa Whitten of West Forsyth stretches prior
to a practice session. Whitten won the state high
school cross country a few weeks ago (photo by
James Parker).