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Watching Phil Pollack throw a Frisbee disc into the air – then follow its flight to catch it inches before it lands – is like watching a major league pitcher paint the plate with a curveball.

If the weather’s decent, it’s not unusual to find 71-year-old Pollack tossing a bagful of discs on a soccer field at Huguenot Park, a short distance from the Chesterfield home he shares with Jeannie, his wife of 29 years.

In April, Pollack was inducted into the Virginia Frisbee Hall of Fame as a member of its second class of inductees. Pollack is one of just five inductees this year, and the only one from the Richmond area.

Each inductee received a special disc with the 2018 members’ names on it and the chance to give an acceptance speech at this year’s state tournament.

“Your name was selected for induction on 100 percent of the ballots cast,” Eric Olsen, a member of the hall of fame’s board of directors, wrote Pollack in his induction letter.

A retired computer programmer and analyst who also taught math as an assistant instructor at John Tyler Community College for 12 years, Pollack first tossed a Frisbee in the summer of 1965 following his graduation from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond.

Prior to heading to Cornell University that fall, Pollack served as a counselor at Camp White Mountain in West Virginia. Ed Lee, another counselor, was tossing a Frisbee one day as Pollack walked by.

His response: “If you’re going to Cornell, you better learn how to play Frisbee.”

“And so I started playing,” said Pollack, who’s been at it ever since. “Ed Lee, wherever you are, thank you.”

Pollack honed his disc skills at Cornell, where he earned an undergraduate degree in math in 1969. That fall, Pollack went on to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he got a masters degree in computer science, and continued to toss a Frisbee at the main quadrangle on the Wisconsin campus.

“It’s a hill, and I threw uphill for two years and that’s good for your game,” he said.

During his 53-year Frisbee career, Pollack has won MTA – Maximum Time Aloft – state titles in North Carolina and Maryland in 1985, and in Virginia in 1986.

In MTA competitions, players are timed as they toss the disc as far as they can, then run and catch it before it hits the ground.

Pollack held the world record – 12.69 seconds – in the 35 and over masters division in the MTA category for 15 months in the 1980s. He’s one of only two people who have competed in every Virginia state tournament, which started in 1977.

He also competes in disc golf, where competitors aim for targets on an 18-hole course, and has competed in Ultimate Frisbee, which is played similarly to soccer. But, he says, MTA competitions are his favorite, with success depending on one’s ability to judge the wind and the flight of the disc and knowing where to run to make the catch just before the disc hits the ground.

Frisbee is a game for all shapes and sizes, says Pollack, who’s 5 feet 7 inches tall and 143 pounds.

Also, there’s “something magical” about throwing a plastic disc, Pollack says. “Everybody’s played catch when they’re growing up and you’re throwing a projectile,” he said. “A Frisbee’s flying.”

A journalist, Cooksey currently works as a freelance editor and writer for several Richmond-area publications, including the Observer. Cooksey has been tapped to host the World Flying Disc Federation’s world championships in Richmond next year.

“I started playing with Jack when he was 12,” Pollack says of the 52-year-old Cooksey, also a former state champion.

“Frisbee is really a lifelong activity,” Cooksey said in an email. “Phil is an example of what I hope to be, a guy who is still throwing Frisbee in his 70s.

“I was really lucky meeting Phil and having him as something of a mentor in the sport. [Phil] taught me more than the sport, he also gave me some lessons in character and principle along the way.

If the three years as a student at Thomas Jefferson High School weren’t enough for Russell Flammia, then surely the 34 years as a teacher at the Richmond school would have given him his fill of the place.

Since 2001, a year after his retirement from teaching (“I took a year off, and then I failed at retirement,” Flammia said with a laugh), he has been the most faithful of school volunteers. He shows up to tutor students but also raises money for the nonprofit Tee Jay Vikings Fund and helps to organize class reunions.

“Here’s the joke: It took him 37 years to get out of TJ,” said a friend and classmate, Sidney Padow, “and then he went back, anyway.”

“He’s Mr. TJ. I think he’s the only reason it’s still open today,” said Padow, who operates Padow’s Hams and Deli and has known Flammia since they played football at Albert Hill Junior High School.

You could say he loves the place and just can’t stay away, though the allure is not just the school’s impressive art deco architecture.

“It means a lot,” Flammia said of the building, “but the students mean more.

“I do it because I like to see students achieve. This is a measure of their success. There’s a great deal of satisfaction when you accomplish something. I think it is for my students, too.

“To see the look on their faces when they’ve passed a test is pretty good. It’s very good, as a matter of fact.”

Flammia, 72, has devoted more than five decades of his life to the school — and you could say his devotion to TJ extends well beyond campus: His wife, Jackie, graduated from TJ a year after her husband.

Flammia didn’t come from a family that had experienced the benefits of education. His parents had 12 years of education. Total.

His mother completed the seventh grade, and his father — a second-generation Italian immigrant who worked as a caretaker for a West End estate — finished the fifth grade.

Flammia’s goal when he arrived at TJ was to finish high school, get a job, and go to work.

His aspirations were about to change — though he didn’t realize it at the time — when Charlie Cooper walked in the door of Flammia’s Spanish classroom in February 1960.

Cooper, the football coach and also the track coach, had noticed eye-catching running times Flammia had posted in his physical education class.

“It was a life-changing thing,” recalled Flammia, a sprinter. “I went out for track, and I had some success. I met people I would not have met otherwise who were very much upward-bound, and I got on the bandwagon.”

His participation with the track team led Flammia to the Key Club, where he encountered another role model: Russell Norment, the club’s sponsor.

“Mr. Norment taught me a lot about service and leadership,” Flammia said. “I’m indebted to (Cooper and Norment). They deserve a lot of credit. They inspired a lot of people.”

After he graduated from TJ in 1962, Flammia attended the now-defunct Frederick College near Portsmouth. Four years later, he returned to work at TJ, where he taught U.S. history, government and economics for 34 years.

He also coached a variety of sports, including the boys soccer team, which won three district titles, a regional championship and a state championship.

In the classroom, he enjoyed going from being a new teacher surrounded by teachers he recalled from his student days to the veteran teacher watching his students succeed in the wider world.

“That’s really satisfying for any teacher — to see students you taught grow up and become productive citizens,” he said.

That’s a feeling that has continued for Flammia through his volunteering at the school, where he helps students primarily with preparation for Standards of Learning tests. Beginning in October, he comes to school every day, pretty much all day, and works with whomever needs the help.

“When we’re together at a VCU basketball game or on the street, his old students come up to him and hug him and kiss him and praise him,” Padow said. “It’s just really unbelievable.”

“He’s amazing,” said Albert Negrin, a 1976 graduate of the school. Negrin knows Flammia from their work together for the Tee Jay Vikings Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that Negrin and Flammia helped to start.

During the past four years, the Vikings Fund — through donations from businesses, the community and TJ alumni — has raised more than $175,000 that has been used to renovate the school’s locker room; build a fitness center; purchase a new marquee and a baseball scoreboard; install whiteboards in classrooms; restore the Julian Binford mural in the library; and award scholarships.

The Vikings Fund also has partnered with neighborhood churches on an after-school meals program for students participating in extracurricular activities.

“Part of my motivation in helping alumni plan their reunions was to foster a continuing interest and support of our students,” said Flammia, who invites returning classes as part of their reunions to tour the school, eat lunch and enjoy a listen to the Tee Jay Cadet Corps Alumni Band.

“He cares about the students’ well-being, and he still cares about the school he graduated from so long ago,” Negrin said. “That’s it: He cares about the school.”

Few people have put in more miles walking the halls of Thomas Jefferson High School than Flammia.

Ask him to name his favorite place in the school, and “library” is first on the list. That’s usually where you can find him during the school day.

On a recent afternoon in Flammia’s working corner of the library, four students were seated in front of computers, researching one aspect of history or another. On bended knee so he could be at eye level with the computer screen, Flammia was chatting with one student about the Industrial Revolution.

Even after all of these years in the classroom, Flammia never quite knows what will reach a student. He was trying to help one youngster understand the significance and the human toll of the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.

He found a list of American casualties online, and thousands of names came on the computer screen — page after page after page.

“As soon as I showed him that, you could see a light bulb go on in his head,” Flammia said. “It got through.

“You never know what’s going to click, but when you see it click, it’s great. It’s great.”

Posted on: 6:49 pm, June 19, 2013, by Nick Dutton and Sandra Jones, updated on: 06:07am, June 20, 2013

Sat Mar 9, 2013.

Win all in family for the Harmons Paul Woody pwoody@timesdispatch.com Richmond Times-Dispatch

Ron Harmon called it the “wheelbarrow.”

He would hold his son, Vance, by the ankles, and Vance would walk around the house and up and down steps on his hands.

The idea was to strengthen Vance’s wrists, arms and shoulders.

“I think it worked,” Ron Harmon said.

Vance, 42, didn’t play Friday night in Henrico’s 72-48 victory over John Marshall in the Group AAA championship game.

Instead he coached the Warriors to their first state championship in boys basketball.

And all the conditioning, coaching and the film study done at the Harmon house when Vance was in middle and high school played a significant part in Friday night’s victory.

The Warriors’ triumph was a family affair.

First was the immediate Warriors family: the players, coaches, faculty and administrators.

Next was the extended Warriors family: the alumni and former coaches, especially Guy Davis, who was the boys basketball coach at Henrico for 26 years.

That was 26 years of success highlighted by Davis’ quiet demeanor, humility and first-class treatment of everyone around him, win or lose.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the victory belonged to the Harmon family: Vance and his wife, Christy, of course, along with daughters Virginia Anne, 8, and Margaret, 3.

But this also was a victory shared by Vance’s parents, Ron and Anne.

They never have sat idly on the sidelines. They have been involved in Vance’s development as a basketball player from the first time their son bounced a ball on the floor.

“We tried to find something he enjoyed,” Ron said. “We never sat him down and said you’re going to be a basketball player.

“But when he made up his mind that was what he wanted to do, we put everything into helping him be the best basketball player he could be.”

Vance graduated from Douglas Freeman High School as the all-time leading scorer in Henrico County high-school history.

“One thousand seven hundred seventy points,” Ron said.

Ron and Anne saw practically every one of those points. And they have all of their son’s games on videotape, from middle school through high school.

“I loved it,” Anne said in a moment of reflection after Friday night’s victory.

After each game, Ron and Vance critiqued the film. Ron, who was a high-school basketball coach for 20 years, including a long stint as an assistant to Davis at Henrico, did most of the critiquing.

“It wasn’t him saying, ‘Come in here. Let’s do this,’ contrary to what most people, people who didn’t know, thought,” Vance said. “I wanted to do it. I wanted to soak up his knowledge.”

“My dad was always about making me grow as a person and player and challenging me. It made me a better person.”

Friday night’s championship was decades in the making.

Vance started coming to practices and games at Henrico before he was big enough to shoot. It wasn’t long before he was on the court shooting at halftime of Henrico games, in the back gym during games and on the main court again after games.

“I loved it,” Vance said. “And I loved watching the big guys play.”

His team played Friday night, controlling the game from the start, never letting up nor showing any signs of nerves in a game this big.

Friday night, the younger Harmon proved he’s one of the best coaches in the state.

And his mother and father, so much a part of Vance’s life, were there to see it. Vance wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Words don’t do justice for the influence they’ve had in everything,” Vance said. “It would way be shortcutting it to say their influence was just in basketball. They always preached that everything you do off the floor carries over on the floor.

“They instilled the idea in me that everything you do, do right, do what you’re supposed to do. Hopefully, that has enabled me to be a good husband, father, teacher and coach.”

And, his parents will add, a good son.

Charlie Cooper, who died June 11 at 92, was athletic director at Thomas Jefferson from 1962 until he retired in 1985.

Once a week, Charlie Cooper would visit the Virginia Home to talk and read to Stan Navas.

Navas had played football for Cooper at Thomas Jefferson High School. While he was home from a break at VMI, Navas' house caught on fire. He went in to help his family and suffered injuries that left him blind and unable to speak.

Cooper never forgot Navas.

"That was typical Charlie," said Jim Holdren, former track athlete for Cooper and coach under Cooper at TJ. "Charlie didn't care how fast you ran or how far you could throw a football.

"He cared about you as a person. He started my coaching career. If it hadn't been for him, I would have worked in a chemistry lab somewhere. I'd be retired now."

Instead, Holdren, who is one of the country's outstanding high school coaches, continues to coach cross country and track and field and serve as athletic director at Maggie Walker Governor's School.

Navas and Holdren are but two examples of Cooper's influence on the lives of students and athletes who came through TJ.

Cooper died June 11 at the age of 92. A memorial service was held for him Sunday.

Cooper was not just any coach or athletic director. He was an outstanding football player at Graham High School in Bluefield and at the University of Virginia.

He was elected a team captain for his junior year at Virginia, but before he could accept that honor, World War II interrupted his education.

Cooper, a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the first wave to hit the beach at Iwo Jima. There, Cooper suffered two serious bullet wounds, for which he received a Purple Heart. One of the wounds left his left hand paralyzed and ended his athletic career.

He returned to Virginia as a student and student-coach. Upon graduation, he returned to his native southwest Virginia where he coached in Chase City, Bluefield and Marion.

He came to TJ in 1952. He coached football and track and field and became athletic director in 1962. He retired in 1985.

During his time at TJ, Cooper influenced many lives, not just of students but of coaches as well.

"I still called him Mr. Cooper because I had so much respect for him," said Bobby Bayliss, who played tennis at TJ and returned there to teach and coach tennis. "He was a great big figure to me."

Bayliss had been the tennis coach at TJ for a year and a half, when the Naval Academy athletic director called and asked him to interview for a coaching job.

Bayliss was recently married and quite comfortable as an English teacher and tennis coach at TJ. Plus, he was entered in a tennis tournament the weekend of the Naval Academy interview and really wanted to play.

Bayliss, who had taken the call from Navy in Cooper's office at TJ, explained that the interview date wasn't convenient, but he would see what he could arrange.

When he hung up, "Mr. Cooper put both hands on my shoulders and said, 'Son, do you want that job?' " Bayliss said. "I said, 'I guess so.' He said, 'You're darn right you do. Call him back and tell him you'll be there Saturday.' "

Bayliss took the job at Navy, where he stayed 15 years. He moved to Boston to become a teaching pro at a country club and coach at MIT for three years. Then, he became tennis coach at Notre Dame, where he has been for 25 years.

"If Mr. Cooper hadn't been there, I'd probably still be teaching at TJ," Bayliss said. "He turned my life around at that moment without me even realizing what was happening."

As Holdren said, typical Charlie.

pwoody@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6444

-----Original Message-----
From: Haddock, Ed
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 12:36 PM
To:
Subject: FW: Re-Cap of Sunday's Service for Coach Cooper

Team mates, class mates and closest of friends Pat Rice, Bill Clarke and I (and Henry Ragle who we lost some years ago) were impacted in our lives by his example, coaching and mentoring. He just had a way you knew was right. We would have done anything he asked and were better off for it. Any discussion of values, integrity, caring and hard work could only be elevated by reflecting on Coach Cooper.

He passed away and Bill Clarke represented us at his funeral in Richmond day before yesterday. I felt like Bill's unvarnished summary revealed enough about Coach Cooper to make it worth reading for all of us. As you can see, he was also one of those brave young men like Eli Kimmerly who put it all on the line for all of us in WWII and returned against the odds. Maybe he was delivered to touch all the lives he effected through his coaching career. He was 93 when he passed away last week.

One foot note. A star team mate a couple of years ahead of us who we all knew and admired, Stan Navis (whose sister Mary Ellen Edye has met at TJ reunions), returned home from college for Christmas vacation freshman year. There was a tragic fire when everyone was asleep and after rescuing his family members in peril he was overcome with smoke, had severe brain damage and was an invalid until he died from complications 18 years later. Coach Cooper visited him almost every week for 18 years to read at his bedside whatever he wanted to hear that day.

From: Bill Clarke
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 11:16 AM
To:
Subject: Re-Cap of Sunday's Service for Coach Cooper

Dear Classmates, Teammates, and Friends. During our high school years we were very fortunate to have leaders, teachers, and coaches like Bill Brock, Clarence Russell Norment, and Charlie Cooper. That list could go on and on. Undoubtedly, we all realize that now. Charlie Cooper died a week ago today after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's. His service was yesterday, Sunday, June 17th. Here is a brief re-cap that I sent to Ed Haddock and Pat Rice that I thought may be of interest to you. I hope that you are all well. Bill
Hi Eddie and Pat. Thought you might like to hear about today's service which was held in the Chapel at Woody Funeral Home on Parham Road. I'd say there were 50 or 60 people in attendance. The service lasted around 40 minutes with Coach Cooper's Hospice Pastor leading the service. Russell Flammia, class of '62, and our school's unofficial alumni chairman, spoke about Charlie for about 10 to 15 minutes and did an excellent job of conveying Coach Cooper's qualities of honesty, integrity that was beyond reproach, and his belief in hard work. Russell said that he was in class one day when Coach Cooper pulled him out, saying that he had seen Russell's P.E times posted and wanted to know if he would come out for the track team. Russell did and has been in coaching and teaching ever since--always at TeeJay. Russell said that Charlie was his mentor, and that they ate lunch together almost daily for something like 18 years. Another story that Russell told had to do with Charlie's devotion to our friend and classmate Mary Ellen's brother, Stan Navas. Most of us remember that a horrible fire burned the Navas' family home during Stan's Christmas break from his first year at VMI. Tragically, Stan never recovered. Coach Cooper cared deeply about Stan, his former player. He cared so deeply that he went to see Stan weekly and would read to him. He would read Sports Illustrated, magazines, whatever Stan wanted. And this went on for a long time--almost every Friday for over 15 years. Finally, Russell shared some stories about Iwo Jima that Charlie had shared with him. Here are those two stories.
1) Charlie was in a fox hole with two other marines. Trying to get his bearings, Charlie stuck his head up out of the fox hole very quickly for a look around. He did that twice. After that, the two other marines stuck up their heads for the same purpose, and were killed immediately by the same bullet. A Japanese soldier had been waiting for that third time and it was the other two, not Charlie, who put up their heads.
2) Charlie told Russell that he thought he became overconfident in his movements as the marines were advancing. Charlie was running straight ahead instead of side to side. That is when he was shot in the arm which totally twisted his arm around and left it mangled as it was when we knew him. As part of that same incident, he was also shot in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. Coach Cooper's Purple Heart was on a table in the front of the Chapel.
I was looking for people that we might all know. I didn't see anyone else from our class. I had called Howard Donald, whom I had not seen since the mid 70's, and I sat with him. Howard still lives in Richmond and looked very good--kept his weight about the same, etc. Bobby Caudle was there, as were Mark Probst and Cary Shade. I talked with them for awhile. I worked for a couple of years with Mark's Dad at Sears. Great guy. Mark looks nothing like he used to. Very thin, white hair, looked very good. Legendary Freeman coach, Bill Long, was there and sat with Paul Flemming's widow. Paul passed away a few years ago. Enjoyed talking to Buddy Cousins and Paul Menetti. Buddy runs a website called Richmond Sports Slant. I did not see Norman (NuNu) Williams, but I know that he had been very helpful and supportive over the years. He taught Charlie how to carve duck decoys, and some of Charlie's work was on display in the front of the Chapel. It was excellent. Remember Willie Crowder? He helped coach for a year. He was there. I spent some time talking with Charlie's son, Tom. When I saw him in the parking lot, I had not yet learned who he was , but I knew he was a Cooper from the way he was built, the way he walked, and what his hair did. He was a red headed 4 or 5 year old when we met him on the back field. He said that his father really wanted to continue as coach, but knew that as a widower, there would not be enough time to be teacher, coach and Dad. Tom still lives in Richmond.
I've been thinking about how fortunate we were to play for a man like Charlie Cooper. Pat, I really liked your note about his being one of your lifetime heroes. Our lives were being shaped, and we were enjoying it too much to notice. We all have our stories. I well remember the three of us running countless 220's, under Coach Cooper's supervision, in the spring of our Junior year staying in shape for our upcoming year. I remember him calling Johnny Stultz, "Stutz", wearing his red and white jacket, pounding his mangled hand into his good hand, saying "By Golly, Boy, When I was on Iwo...". What bigger thrill was there than to hear him say, "Time to saddle-up, men.", on Friday nights. His life wasn't easy. He worked in the coal mines growing up in Southwest Virginia. He left UVA to join the Marines and fight for his country. He took the beach at Iwo Jima and earned the Purple Heart. His wife died, and he was left a single Dad. Finally, he spent the last years of his life with a debilitating disease. He's in a better place now, and he damn sure paid his dues to get there.

Hope you guys are well. Bill
Bill Clarke

The drill starts with lifting the seven monster truck-sized tires on end and rolling them to the football field. Each one weighs between 100 and 125 pounds and is about 5 feet wide, give or take.

Once the tires are flat on the ground, the players crouch down as if they're at the line of scrimmage and reach their hands under the sun-beaten, grooved rubber. Then the coach, Chad Hornik, blows his whistle. As fast as they can, Thomas Jefferson football players take turns flipping over the giant tires.

For the next five minutes, they lift with their legs, drive with their backs, watch the tire fall and repeat. Hornik tells them to take all their anger — whatever frustrations they're dealt from school, their parents, and even the coach himself — and to take it out on the tire.

"They're pretty heavy," 5-foot-4 running back Michael Robinson said. "Some of them are the same size as me."

The drill is just one of the many changes brought to the T.J. football program in the past month and a half. Since being named football coach on April 4, Hornik has announced plans to rejuvenate one of the state's most downtrodden football teams.

T.J. hasn't had a winning season since 1983, when the athletic programs of Thomas Jefferson, Huguenot and George Wythe High Schools were combined. Since then, the Richmond school has developed a gradual acceptance for losing, Hornik said.

The Vikings' last win came in 2007, a 21-6 victory over J.R. Tucker. They've since dropped 41 straight games.

Player morale had dwindled, and only 19 players dressed for the final game of 2011, Hornik said. Discipline among players became an issue and the accountability of the coaching staff dropped off.

Principal Tanya Roane formed a committee of school representatives and parents to find the next football coach. Instead, Hornik found them.

"We knew we wanted Chad from the beginning," said Briana Boyer, a parent on the committee. "We needed a coach who understood where we needed to be, not where we were."

The school's facilities lag behind those in the surrounding localities. The field is overrun with weeds. The paint on the scoreboard has faded. The lockers are made of wood and aren't large enough to hold a football player's equipment. And the weight room floor is damaged, making the machines shaky and unsafe for use.

In the meantime, the team conditions outdoors, using gravity as its machine. They flip tires, do pull-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges — whatever is necessary to get into football playing shape.

But Hornik has a plan to bring the facilities up to par. He has started a campaign to raise $175,000 and provide his players a suitable locker room, weight room and uniforms.

"Chad is rebranding the entire program from top to bottom," T.J. athletic director Jay Johnson said.

Hornik started with alumni. With the help of Albert Negrin, Class of 1976, Teejayvikingsfund.org was started to manage the donations. At the first alumni meeting, 20 people showed up.

"I was overwhelmed," Hornik said. "These alumni have come forward and are ready to help."

Just one locker costs around $750. So anyone who sponsors one will get his or her name on a plaque affixed to the locker. The same goes for weight room equipment.

The Vikings will sport matte black helmets, similar to those worn by the University of Oregon, a style that isn't really seen in the Richmond area. A new logo has been designed, too — a more menacing Viking — to help phase out the old team.

In years to come, Hornik hopes to install field lights, a fieldhouse, new track and an improved field — amenities that are commonplace elsewhere, but are absent at T.J.

It's all to convince the boys at Thomas Jefferson High School that playing football is a worthwhile experience.

"He's done more in a month than we've seen done in two years, at least," Boyer said.

So far, results have been positive. At the first meeting for prospective football players, 70 students attended.

The team runs voluntary practices through the spring. Where there used to be three or four participants, there now are 14 to 20. By the fall, when baseball and soccer players become available, the Vikings should have a full roster.

Chris Calloway, a rising senior offensive lineman, says Hornik has brought a new atmosphere to the team. In the old days, players would show up when they wanted and still expected to play.

"Here, everything is earned," Calloway said.

The lineman doesn't mince words when discussing his expectations for the Vikings in 2012. He wants to reach the state playoffs.

"Why start low?" he said.

Calloway understands the improbability of going from 41 consecutive losses to the state tournament. But as a senior, this is his last shot at playing for a winning high school football team.

Hornik hasn't promised they will end the losing streak, said Robinson, the team's running back. But the coach has promised players they'll be ready for every opponent.

So how did the facilities at T.J. get so bad, so "gross and gruesome," as Boyer described the weight room?

"The issue is the funding," said Dawn Page, Richmond School Board chairwoman. During her four years on the board, she's fought for greater funding for athletics. Last year, the school system implemented an athletics task force to find ways to improve sports at all city schools. Athletic programs have been introduced at middle schools, and new sports are popping up at every city high school.

"You can't really see any improvements if you don't give it the necessary funding," Page said.

Hornik is the first coach to reach out to T.J.'s alumni and area businesses for support, Johnson said. Previous attempts to rebuild the program were fragmented.

"He's connecting the dots," Johnson added. "He's not trying to do it alone."

So why would Hornik, the 42-year-old owner of The Melting Pot in Henrico, decide to take on such a tall task?

"It's more than X's and O's," he said.

Hornik went to Florida International University on a track scholarship. Had it not been for that scholarship, he probably never would have attended school, he said. Seeing the value athletics had in his life, he hopes to give the same opportunity to the kids at Thomas Jefferson.

They might not all get scholarships, but if football is enough motivation to make a player show up for class when he otherwise wouldn't, or stay up late studying for a test, then Hornik has done his job.

By: Times-Dispatch Staff
Published: November 19, 2011

Title: managing director, Have Site Will Travel Ltd.

Born: Richmond

Education: bachelor of science in accounting and finance, 1969, and international business certificate, 2009, Virginia Commonwealth University; professional designations of master of corporate real estate, 1986, and real property administrator, 1994

Career: General Services Administration real estate specialist, U.S. Department of Justice; real estate director, CB Richard Ellis-Corporate; real estate consultant, Dominion Telecom; managing director, Have Site Will Travel Ltd.

Where do you live: Henrico County

Claim to fame: VCU 1st Ultimate RAM!

Best business decision: "Leaving Richmond to move to Washington and joining the General Services Administration to work, learn and manage at a major, diverse project level."

Worst business decision: "Not knowing more about partners and associates and their understanding and tolerance of commercial real estate practices and risks."

Mistake you learned the most from: "Leaving the real estate business for another business venture, then not returning to real estate as quickly as I wanted."

First job after college: "Accounting with Markel Service and bookkeeper for Siegel's Super Markets. Always wanted to stay in sports broadcasting and administration, but the salaries were not there when I tried it, so I started in the real estate business."

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently: "Stayed longer with a larger company to learn more about the business world from experienced leaders and expand my abilities."

Movie that inspired you the most: "The Godfather," the "Indiana Jones" series and anything with John Wayne.

Favorite/least favorite subject in school: Favorite was math; least favorite was the sciences.

VCU Library Exhibit Remembers 911 - Fri, 09/02

By: WESLEY P. HESTER | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: September 06, 2011

Walking through Virginia Commonwealth University's James Branch Cabell Library on Friday, student John Loan was stopped in his tracks by the images he saw being hung from the walls.

The prints — from artists Lili Réthi and Nicholas Solovioff — trace the construction of the World Trade Center towers in the late 1960s and early 1970s and serve as the centerpiece of an exhibit opening today about the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

"I looked at the prints, and they just floored me," said Loan, 55, a former acting coach who lived in a loft just blocks from the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. "I didn't realize I was still so affected by it still. I haven't talked about it in so many years."

Shortly after the first plane hit that morning, Loan scrambled to the roof of his building where he had an unobstructed view of the towers. Seeing the flames, he was struck with panic. He had friends who worked there, one of whom, Peter, would die that day.

"Then, the worst thing happened," Loan said, his voice quavering with emotion. "I saw the other plane coming. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was the only time in my life when I said, 'Am I dreaming this?' But I knew that I wasn't."

He said the plane seemed to scream as it hurtled into the building, exploding with deafening impact.

"That's when it hit me that it was not an accident. New York was under attack. But it wasn't just New York, it was my neighborhood — my home," Loan recalled tearfully. "I couldn't move. I just stared."

Then the towers collapsed, a plume of smoke, soot and ash washing over him.

"It was just unbelievable. Nothing you can even imagine," said Loan, who moved soon after the tragedy, trying to leave the emotions and memories of that day behind with the neighborhood, to which he hasn't returned.

Loan, who was born in Virginia, returned to Richmond and enrolled at VCU where he is working toward a double major in social work and women's studies.

He said seeing the prints awakened him to the fact that 9/11 will always be a part of him, no matter how far buried beneath the surface. That's why he plans to attend the exhibit. "I have to get through this," he said. "I can't stay in denial forever."

Earlier this year, with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, VCU alumnus John Jay Schwartz came to the school with the limited-edition prints.

Schwartz, a real estate consultant who years ago had helped devise a rental strategy for the top floor of the World Trade Center, had received them as thanks from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which had commissioned them in the 1960s.

"There are lots of different perspectives on 9/11 and many folks are looking at the heroes and victims, the reaction of the country and the consequences," said university librarian John E. Ulmschneider. "With those prints, though, we saw an opportunity to take a different tack — to focus on the buildings."

As luck would have it, the school had the perfect complement on campus, courtesy of Stephen Vitiello, an associate professor in the department of kinetic imaging.

In 1999, Vitiello, an experimental musician and sound artist, was given a studio on the 91st floor of one of the towers for six months to record the sounds of the building and its surroundings.

Because the windows did not open, Vitiello mounted ultrasensitive microphones on the windows, capturing — especially in the wake of Hurricane Floyd — the vibrations of the building, its creaking and swaying, and the faint sound scape of New York City life.

The prints and Vitiello's recordings are the two main features of the university's 9/11 exhibit, which runs through Sept. 23 with an opening reception this Friday.

Just inside the library's entrance will be a "Wall of Memories," where patrons can post brief reflections on 9/11. On the fourth floor will be a series of three small exhibits, "Richmond and 9-11: 10 Years Ago," a collection of local media accounts, "Comic Artists Respond to September 11, 2001," and "Artists' Books Commemorate September 11."

Ulmschneider remembers the controversy over the construction of the towers, seen by some when he was growing up as "gigantic boxes that ruined the skyline."

But over time, he said, they "evolved into a core symbol of American preeminence and pride.

"They became such iconic buildings so important to what New York City thought of itself, what America thought of itself," he said.

Noting that many of VCU's incoming students were 8 when the towers fell, Ulmschneider said his greatest hope is that the exhibit will help them "understand why these buildings were so important, what they meant to us and what their loss meant to us."

By: Jeremy Slayton
Published: August 22, 2011

Suzanne Wolstenholme was not a very good secretary, and for that, appetites in the Richmond region are grateful.

The founder of the popular eatery and catering firm, Homemades by Suzanne, has been delighting customers' palates since she opened her first shop in Ashland nearly 30 years ago.

Originally conceived as a place for people, who have little time to cook, to pick up homemade dinners at the end of a busy workday, Homemades By Suzanne has evolved into a multi-division operation with locations in Ashland and downtown Richmond.

The company recently fulfilled one of Wolstenholme's dreams — Homemades by Suzanne handles the management, booking and catering of the two historically restored ballrooms at the Hotel John Marshall in downtown Richmond.

"It's like a dream come true," she said. "I always wished for a ballroom … and now I've got two."

A native of Richmond who now lives in Hanover County, Wolstenholme grew up in a family that would have a feast at the drop of the hat. That love of cooking stayed with her and helped plant the seed for the business she later founded.

It's a route she might not have taken had she not realized she was not cut out to be a secretary, a position she held in her early 20s, first at Reynolds Metals Co. and then at Kings Dominion.

By her own admission, she was not good at it.

"I never got fired, but I could always tell they were glad when I left," she recalled.

Even then she didn't launch herself into her company. She took a few years off work and learned chair caning at St. Joseph's Villa.

It was then that a friend suggested Wolstenholme go back to college and finish her degree, which she completed in business administration and management from Virginia Commonwealth University when she was in her early 30s.

Afterward, she couldn't immediately think of what she wanted to do with a career, so eventually she combined two things she loved — entertaining people and serving food.

* * * * *

Homemades by Suzanne is no longer just a place for people to pick up homemade dinners. It has evolved to include multiple divisions that provide boxed lunches, self-service catering, gift baskets and full-service catering.

She will continue to provide many of those services when her downtown Richmond operation moves in October from The Colony Club on East Franklin Street to the historic Hotel John Marshall, a 16-story former hotel at Fifth and Franklin streets that first opened in 1929 but closed in 1988.

It is being renovated into 238 apartments and 20,000 square feet of street-level retail space.

But the ballrooms will be Wolstenholme's domain, a place to cater weddings, serve lunch or reminiscence and share decades-old memories of the hotel's grand ballrooms.

"Almost everybody you meet in Richmond has a memory of these ballrooms," she said.

Even earlier this month, as renovation work at the hotel neared completion, Wolstenholme envisioned customers sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the Marshall Room, the smaller of the two ballrooms, eating lunch.

Still, she is not straying too far from the company's early beginnings.

She will offer tenants in the Residences at the John Marshall a dinner program where they can order meals that John Marshall Catering — the new division of Homemades by Suzanne — prepares and stores in the apartment's refrigerator, ready when the tenant returns home after work.

It's much like she envisioned with she first opened Homemades by Suzanne in Ashland in 1983.

"You have to be good at the service, and the product has to be good, too," Wolstenholme said.

John C. Camper, who owns the Hampton Roads-based Virginia Atlantic Development Inc. — which acquired the John Marshall in 2005 and is co-owner on the project with Dominion Realty Partners — said he's known Wolstenholme for about seven years. But he feels as if he's known her his entire life.

"That's the way she makes you feel," said Camper, who describes the partnership with Suzanne as a win-win situation. "I think when you're a young bride or a business owner you want to feel comfortable with the person."

Wolstenholme has a long history in the Richmond region that includes once operating shops on Sixth Street in downtown Richmond, at Libbie and Grove, and at the Robins Tea House at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Her company also once provided food for the dinner theater at the Barksdale Theatre in Hanover.

Jay Leno, before his "Tonight Show" fame in the early 1990s, once stopped in at the Sixth Street store. And during the 2008 election, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin visited the Ashland location while on the campaign trail.

* * * * *

Ashland Mayor Faye O. Prichard, who has known Wolstenholme for years, said Wolstenholme has a work ethic that is second to none.

"She never seems to run out of time," Prichard said. "The rest of us are confined by a 24-hour day; I'm not sure how many hours are in Suzanne's."

Life for Wolstenholme is not limited to just the business that bears her name.

She is an avid traveler and is active in the Ashland and greater Hanover County communities. She serves on the board of directors for the Hanover Humane Society and is active with the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, where she once served as its president.

Prichard credits Wolstenholme's hard work for keeping the Hanover Humane Society going over the years through helping with fundraisers and facility improvements.

She also has made a positive impact on the lives of others. Wolstenholme and her husband, Warren, are foster parents and have welcomed eight children into their home for various lengths of time.

"I think that we just felt so grateful having been blessed with all the good fortunes that we've had," she said. "We felt like it was a calling, something we needed to do."

Wolstenholme's company was lauded two years ago with the Small Employer Award from the National Association for Persons in Supported Employment.

The award is given to a business or people who advance equitable employment for people with disabilities.

"They need an opportunity just like anybody else," she said. "If we have one to give, then that's a good thing."

Prichard said Wolstenholme is not one to shy away from being her best, whether it's at her business or her nonprofit interests.

"Suzanne is the first one to always say, 'Competition is never a bad thing. We just have to show people that what we do, we do better than anybody else,' " Prichard said. "Those are not just words. She really does do whatever she does better than anybody else."

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