Even if you dont like Basketball, this is a good story.
Article published Jan 29, 2006
WINSTON-SALEM -- Seth Greenberg cursed and screamed and fidgeted and squirmed on the sideline Saturday.
Afterward, he wept.
Greenberg preached and coached and chewed out his players and the referees alike, stomping his shoes on the basketball court and shaking his fists at the heavens.
Afterward, he sat slumped in a chair, his chin trembling and his eyes wet. He was spent.
The fact is, the Virginia Tech coach has been through a lot this season. The truth is, it's been too much for him. But the bottom line is, he'll tell you, he's been through nothing.
Saturday's 76-70 victory over Wake Forest was about Greenberg's players. The trials and tribulations of Virginia Tech this year have, too.
The beleaguered Hokies played without their best player. Coleman Collins was in Atlanta with his dying father. They played without senior Shawn Harris, who was at his grandfather's funeral.
Virginia Tech played without senior Allen Calloway, who has been diagnosed with alveolar soft part sarcoma, a cancer that forces him to take treatment three days a week but has rarely kept him from sitting on the bench. Calloway has even played in two games, although he couldn't be with his team Saturday.
They played on without him, carrying his and their own burdens.
They played on without Deron Washington, suspended for one game after an incident last week in the Duke game. Washington's mother is usually in the crowd. She has nowhere else to go. Katrina wiped out everything she has. She moved to Blacksburg just to watch her son play basketball.
Virginia Tech defeated Wake Forest with six scholarship players and a walk-on, defeated Wake with two others out for the season with injuries, defeated the Deacs with their coach wearing tape around his wrist to remind him of things most precious to him.
Basketball isn't one of them.
"My wife, my children's initials and my parents' initials," Greenberg said.
Tech has been through the worst of it the past three weeks, Coleman seeing his dying father for the first time, exchange student A.D. Vassallo losing his "host mother," sophomore Wynton Witherspoon dealing with the burden of his mother fighting breast cancer.
"They haven't had a whole lot to smile about," Greenberg said. "To give them a chance to feel good about themselves and put behind them everything that has gone on in their teammates' and their friends' lives, I'm just happy for them."
It's all too much for him, really. No coach is trained for such grief management.
The six-game ACC losing streak coming in seemed insignificant. Greenberg, who was 40 years old when he lost his father to cancer, knows what his players are going through, and he knows he really can't help them.
So he's trying to be the only thing he knows how to be: a basketball coach and a father and a friend.
"I asked them before the game to dedicate their effort," he said. "We've lost so many parents and people who have influences on their lives. 'Forget about winning and losing, just dedicate your effort and how hard you play for the rest of the season to someone who has had an influence on your life and how you carry yourself.' "
He held up his wrist.
"This was my way of letting them know I was doing the same, I was with them and we're all in this together," he said. "When you've lost six in a row and you're having grandparents die and guardians die and parents fighting for their lives, I thought they needed something to grasp onto."
They grasped onto basketball, at least for a day. They grasped onto Wake Forest and didn't let go. They walked into their locker room, and a cell phone rang.
It was Collins calling from a Hospice Center near Atlanta.
"He called the second we walked into the locker room," Greenberg said, struggling to talk. "That was pretty cool. He was happy. Real emotional. He was happy. He was happy for his teammates."
Greenberg couldn't say anything else. He stood up and walked away, into a hallway where his team was gathering, the remnants of a young team that has been through too much and looks to its coach as a rock of ages.
He composed himself, cleared his throat and walked to the team bus, his shoulders sagging just slightly.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ehardin@news-record.com
WINSTON-SALEM -- Seth Greenberg cursed and screamed and fidgeted and squirmed on the sideline Saturday.
Afterward, he wept.
Greenberg preached and coached and chewed out his players and the referees alike, stomping his shoes on the basketball court and shaking his fists at the heavens.
Afterward, he sat slumped in a chair, his chin trembling and his eyes wet. He was spent.
The fact is, the Virginia Tech coach has been through a lot this season. The truth is, it's been too much for him. But the bottom line is, he'll tell you, he's been through nothing.
Saturday's 76-70 victory over Wake Forest was about Greenberg's players. The trials and tribulations of Virginia Tech this year have, too.
The beleaguered Hokies played without their best player. Coleman Collins was in Atlanta with his dying father. They played without senior Shawn Harris, who was at his grandfather's funeral.
Virginia Tech played without senior Allen Calloway, who has been diagnosed with alveolar soft part sarcoma, a cancer that forces him to take treatment three days a week but has rarely kept him from sitting on the bench. Calloway has even played in two games, although he couldn't be with his team Saturday.
They played on without him, carrying his and their own burdens.
They played on without Deron Washington, suspended for one game after an incident last week in the Duke game. Washington's mother is usually in the crowd. She has nowhere else to go. Katrina wiped out everything she has. She moved to Blacksburg just to watch her son play basketball.
Virginia Tech defeated Wake Forest with six scholarship players and a walk-on, defeated Wake with two others out for the season with injuries, defeated the Deacs with their coach wearing tape around his wrist to remind him of things most precious to him.
Basketball isn't one of them.
"My wife, my children's initials and my parents' initials," Greenberg said.
Tech has been through the worst of it the past three weeks, Coleman seeing his dying father for the first time, exchange student A.D. Vassallo losing his "host mother," sophomore Wynton Witherspoon dealing with the burden of his mother fighting breast cancer.
"They haven't had a whole lot to smile about," Greenberg said. "To give them a chance to feel good about themselves and put behind them everything that has gone on in their teammates' and their friends' lives, I'm just happy for them."
It's all too much for him, really. No coach is trained for such grief management.
The six-game ACC losing streak coming in seemed insignificant. Greenberg, who was 40 years old when he lost his father to cancer, knows what his players are going through, and he knows he really can't help them.
So he's trying to be the only thing he knows how to be: a basketball coach and a father and a friend.
"I asked them before the game to dedicate their effort," he said. "We've lost so many parents and people who have influences on their lives. 'Forget about winning and losing, just dedicate your effort and how hard you play for the rest of the season to someone who has had an influence on your life and how you carry yourself.' "
He held up his wrist.
"This was my way of letting them know I was doing the same, I was with them and we're all in this together," he said. "When you've lost six in a row and you're having grandparents die and guardians die and parents fighting for their lives, I thought they needed something to grasp onto."
They grasped onto basketball, at least for a day. They grasped onto Wake Forest and didn't let go. They walked into their locker room, and a cell phone rang.
It was Collins calling from a Hospice Center near Atlanta.
"He called the second we walked into the locker room," Greenberg said, struggling to talk. "That was pretty cool. He was happy. Real emotional. He was happy. He was happy for his teammates."
Greenberg couldn't say anything else. He stood up and walked away, into a hallway where his team was gathering, the remnants of a young team that has been through too much and looks to its coach as a rock of ages.
He composed himself, cleared his throat and walked to the team bus, his shoulders sagging just slightly.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ehardin@news-record.com