* * "Spoon" comes back for a visit

Many basketball legends are known by one word, a name or nickname. Magic. Shaq. LaBron. Kobe.

So too with Hokie legends. Dell. Bimbo. Ace.

Perhaps the most beloved of all is “Spoon.”

Spoon is the nickname of Lisa Witherspoon, who was the catalyst for the most productive era in Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball. From 1995 until 1999, she dished out more assists than anyone in school history, men or women. Her career total of 635 dwarfs Olympian Bimbo Coles’ second place 547 and might possibly never be reached again. “Spoon” is a most appropriate moniker for someone who has served up opportunities for her teammates like no other.

But more than that, she and her teammates built a rock-star like following among area fans, my family among them. Thousands of children, especially girls, followed her as if she was the Pied Piper. In a sport populated by tall women, she was tiny, pixie-like, with dark bangs hanging over her forehead, certainly not the image of a basketball star.

Lisa was in one of my wife’s classes. We quickly became regular fans and got to know Lisa personally. Lisa left Blacksburg after graduation but was in town briefly last week, and we sat down to catch up.

We had a long, rambling, and at times emotional conversation that I’ll report in two installments.

Lisa is from Newton, North Carolina. She played AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball for a team that played often in Roanoke. On one of her trips here, her dad suggested they visit Virginia Tech’s campus. “I was focused on the ACC schools in North Carolina. I remember Tech had a beautiful campus. On the first day college coaches were able to contact recruits, I got a call from assistant coach Bonnie Henrickson. She said to me, ‘We want you at Tech. We are extremely excited to have you on board.’

“The next time I walked on campus and began to seriously consider Tech, it felt like home. It just grabbed me. The point guard Terri Garland was a rising senior, and I thought I could get some playing time even as a freshman. It had a great reputation in Physical Education and Exercise Science. But I chose the school for basketball. It was a perfect fit.

Lisa got off to a rocky start. Henrickson, an assistant under head coach Carol Alfano, left to coach at Iowa. The team went into a tailspin, having losing records in Lisa’s first two years. Then Alfano was let go and Henrickson was brought back as head coach. Things really started to take off. “When Bonnie returned, we were elated! I can’t tell you the level of confidence we had the moment she arrived back in the locker room.”

With essentially the same players in her junior year as in her sophomore season, the team turned around dramatically, from 11-21 to 22-10.

 “It was unbelievable. It was all about confidence. (Bonnie) had recruited us and knew us. She knew the roles we needed to play. And we trusted her. If she had told us that by standing on our heads for 30 seconds and blowing bubbles we would win, we would have all done it. A coach can instill that kind of respect and confidence in her players.”

Lisa came through high school as a straight-A student without really studying or even knowing how to study. But college was harder. Then Bonnie insisted they visit schools, hospitals and nursing homes. They were tired, often injured, overwhelmed at the demands. “We were studying on buses, on airplanes, in hotel rooms. We had to turn in our assignments early. It was extremely difficult. But we learned time management, organization, and priorities. Our sorority was our team. We didn’t party or drink. But it wasn’t a sacrifice. We lived to make our fans and coaches happy, and to win. We were all on the same page.

“The things we did in the community were not a burden. They changed my life forever. We wanted to go to the schools and read to the children. It made us feel good about ourselves. I’ll never forget the looks on the kids’ faces. Moms would tear up when we came to birthday parties. Now that I have my own child, I hope that somebody does that for her. It was a surreal time in my life to touch so many lives. After our games, hundreds of kids would line up to get an autograph or a photo of us. We were proud, thankful and humble.”

Lisa was also eager to acknowledge the support from her family and childhood mentors. “My parents came to every home game and most of the away games. My grandparents came too. Dad drove to Dayton, Ohio, seven hours each way from North Carolina in a snowstorm to watch me play. He came even when we were terrible.

“There was one game that I had back spasms and Bonnie wouldn’t let me play. We went into, like, four overtime periods. I couldn’t stand it, just watching. Bonnie didn’t care if we lost. She wouldn’t let me get hurt. In one game, I broke my nose in the second quarter, but I finished the game. I just lived to play and win.”

In Lisa’s senior year, the wins started coming! It was the best in school history when they took a 28-2 record into an NCAA tournament game against powerhouse Tennessee, featuring Chamique Holdsclaw, arguably the best women’s basketball player of all time. Tennessee prevailed, but Tech gave them a helluva fight! The 28-3 final record may never be broken.

“I was just inducted into my hometown county’s sports Hall of Fame. Someone came to me afterwards and told me he was a Hokie. He was in his late 40s and had played basketball with Dell Curry. All he wanted to talk about was community and people and Hokies and Blacksburg. We bonded immediately. He said, ‘We’re special. All these other people don’t understand what it means to be a Hokie.’ You can go to your Duke or your Carolina. You can go to your Penn State or Notre Dame. Until you experienced what we experienced in Blacksburg, you won’t get it. It cannot be explained.”

Lisa met with the current women’s basketball coach, Dennis Wolff, who she said, “talked extensively! He wants to get back what Bonnie had.

“Bonnie had a rare group of kids. She got the best from each of us. We weren’t supposed to beat UVA by 15. We weren’t supposed to beat Duke at Duke. We weren’t better athletes, but we were better players. We were smart, fundamentally sound. We played as a team.

“We grabbed our fans and they grabbed us. It was a shared success. I still can’t believe, gosh Michael, we looked into the stands, and we couldn’t believe how many people there were! I remember coming home from a game we lost on the road. We were afraid our fans would desert us. We were afraid they would be upset with us. You know what? Even more came.”

On this trip, Lisa brought her boyfriend Chris to Blacksburg for the first time. She said, “I was recognized at the restaurant where we had dinner. The clerk at the front desk at the motel remembered my name. It was amazing. I told Chris on our way here that he was not going to understand Blacksburg. People still remembered me, and I left thirteen years ago. It blows my mind.

“I have been to dozens of colleges, dozens of campuses. Basketball games. Football games. There is not another campus like it.”

Lisa had many great moments at Tech. Her favorite was the final home game of her career in the NCAA tournament played at Cassell Coliseum. “We were playing Auburn. From the minute we arrived at the back of Cassell, we could see lines of fans waiting to get in. It was cold! People were shivering, but they were there hours before the game started. Once we got inside and were doing warm-ups, more people came in. Then more. And more. Women’s basketball had never packed the place before that year, but we were going to have a full house. We were elated!

“Fans were holding up signs. People brought aluminum-foil covered cut-outs in the shape of a spoon (for my nickname). It was a surreal experience. It was near the end of my career and I relished every moment.”

Tech was leading at the end and with the ball, Lisa was able to dribble out the last few seconds. “Katie (O’Connor) came over and picked me up and spun me around. The whole team was together. It was an amazing moment.

“The fans had no idea how important they were. Auburn had an amazing point guard. One of her first shots missed everything. From that moment on, every time she touched the ball, 10,000 people were yelling at her “Air ball, air ball.’ Our fans got into her head. That was a game changer for us.”

Lisa said she and her teammates never felt fully capable of conveying to the community how grateful they were to them.

  “I miss Blacksburg and Tech so much! Here we are, a dozen years after graduation, and I know there are still families like yours that stay in touch with me and the other players. I share custody of my daughter with her father and so I’m likely staying in Florida, but I would move back here in an instant if I could. I loved my fans. We felt the appreciation, the passion, and the love we received.”