Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 2 | October 2019

inside.hokiesports.com 7 Brooks and Young renew acquaintances The hiring of Mike Young as the Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach not only brought him back to Blacksburg near his native home of Radford, Virginia, but also brought him in close proximity to a man he once recruited—Tech women’s basketball head coach Kenny Brooks. As most know, Brooks played college basketball at James Madison, but as a junior at Waynesboro High School, Brooks found himself being recruited by Young, who served as an assistant at Emory & Henry for two seasons following his graduation from the school in 1986. “He came in and talked to me and another one of my teammates,” Brooks said. “He came to my high school. He made an impression. I knew him and got to like him. He was always very cordial and nice to me. Yeah, we go way back. Needless to say, I didn’t go to Emory & Henry. I went to JMU, but that was the first time I met him. I was 17 or 18, and he was in his early 20s.” Like most coaches, Young remembers pretty much every detail of every game and every recruiting trip. He often stayed with friends in Orange, Virginia or Richmond while recruiting Central Virginia, and of course, he remembers walking into the gym at Waynesboro High to watch a skinny guard work his magic. “Kenny was a heckuva player, but spindly,” Young said. “Skinny. He was little. I thought he looked like a college basketball player, and I thought, ‘Man, this kid would be a helluva player in the ODAC.’ That was his junior year. He kept getting better and better. I saw him in his senior year in early January. I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was obvious he had played his way out of … he was going to be a Division I player. He went to Madison and had a helluva career for Lefty [Driesell].” Brooks and Young have maintained a relationship over the years. People tend to forget that Brooks served as a men’s assistant coach for nine seasons before moving over to the women’s side, so he established by Jimmy Robertson a lot of contacts—and friends—on the men’s side. He probably has more friends on the men’s side because assistants often do more networking than head coaches. “It’s a treat for me when the men are playing a lot of the teams that come through here because I get to re-connect with a lot of people that I grew up in the business with—like Kevin Keatts [NC State head coach],” Brooks said. “He and I are very close. We would share hotel rooms at the Final Four when we were first getting into the business. There are a lot of those guys. Brad Brownell [Clemson head coach] is another. A lot of those guys are good friends of mine, and I have relationships that I built when I first started off in the business.” So needless to say, there may be a lot of stories emanating from the Hahn Hurst Practice Center these days. “Kenny Brooks was then, as he is today, a class guy,” Young said. “It’s a pleasure to see him most every day and work alongside of him. He’s a good man and a good friend.” Drive for 25 Blitz a success The Virginia Tech Athletics Department’s Drive for 25 Blitz was a huge success, as fans, students, alumni, faculty, staff and others combined to give more than $800,000 during a 2.5-day period that started at noon on the Wednesday before the Tech-Duke football game and concluded at midnight after the game. In addition to securing the financial resources during this blitz to help Virginia Tech Athletics, the Hokie Club staff also added more than 1,900 new members to the Hokie Club, bringing the current membership to nearly 18,000. Since 2016, the Hokie Club has expanded by nearly 9,000 members. In all, more than 3,100 people contributed during the Drive for 25 Blitz, combining for a total of $807,000. In looking at other numbers, the football program secured the most gifts with 372, followed by women’s soccer (285), swimming and diving (234), and women’s tennis (194). The men’s basketball program secured the most money at nearly $70,000 from 154 gifts. Kitty Newton Photo KitKatNewt1@gmail.com “The Farmhouse... Eating Great Food here for over 30 Years.” – Coach Frank Beamer thefarmhousechristiansburg.com 285 Ridinger Street, Christiansburg, VA 24073 • (540) 251-7600 Prime Rib • Steaks • Seafood • Outdoor Courtyard • Private Dining • Weekend Brunch