They're true to the school / Alumni, boosters and residents say it's the only game in town
March 24, 2006 (Paul Woody, Richmond Times Dispatch)
Virginia Street in Ashland buzzes with activity.
Children and adults are coming and going constantly, and one of the places many of the Virginia Street residents go on a regular basis is 4 miles west.
The denizens of Virginia Street, and other parts of Ashland, are quite taken with the athletic activities they find on the fields and courts of Patrick Henry High School.
Brad and Marlynn Turner live on Virginia Street, and their daughter, Spencer Mae, 16, is a junior at Patrick Henry. Her parents enjoy watching her perform as a member of the marching band's color guard at football games throughout the fall.
The Turners also have two young daughters, Lucy Grace, 21 months, and Audrey Frances, 7 months. The family doesn't get out a great deal.
But they make it a point to get to the football games. And they have incentives other than seeing the result of all the work their daughter and her color guard and band friends have put into their preparation for the performance.
Brad Turner, 41, graduated from Patrick Henry in 1983 and played football for the Patriots. His last year there was the first year for a young head coach named Ray Long.
"He turned the program around immediately," said Turner, a sales representative for the Braden Sutphin Ink company.
Long still is the Patriots' football coach, and he has built the Patrick Henry program into one of the most successful in the Central Region.
"I'll see him in the grocery store or at a yard sale at the school," Turner said. "He's the same person. He calls you by name."
The alumni support their school.
"At one game, they announced that anyone who had played on any of the teams should come down on the field after the game to have a picture taken," Turner said. "There were about 150 people on the field for that picture."
This spring, the Turners will be at Patrick Henry a bit more than usual. Spencer Mae is a member of the girls lacrosse team, a club sport for the Patriots this year.
The Turners' neighbors, Sharon and Steve Chidsey, helped start the lacrosse program at Patrick Henry. Next year, it will be a varsity sport.
The Chidseys moved to Ashland in 1991 after living in Baltimore. Steve Chidsey, 51, is the chief of public works operations for Hanover County. Sharon, 49, is the owner of The Red Caboose store in Ashland.
Their son, Josh, a 15-year-old freshman at Patrick Henry, plays volleyball, runs cross country and plays in the lacrosse program.
The Chidseys, members of the school's athletic boosters club, attend their son's events. But they also go to the football games, even though they have no children in that sport.
"It's a small town," said Sharon Chidsey. "Everybody goes to the football game on Friday nights."
"You have to get there early," said Christy Dailey, who also lives in Ashland and has a son, Cody Dailey, who plays on the football team.
Support has not been a problem for the Patriots.
"The athletic programs keep the kids busy and active, and the busier you keep them, the better they do," Sharon Chidsey said.
"Patrick Henry is a tremendous asset to the community."
-- Contact staff writer Paul Woody at pwoody@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6444.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
MEMO: SPECIAL SECTION: EXPLORING ASHLAND
Credit: Times-Dispatch Staff Writer