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Lisa Boatright is a U.Va. grad and William Boatright played football |
BY JIM McCONNELL
Several years ago, William and Lisa Boatwright made a deal: The winner of the annual football game between Virginia Tech and Virginia would have its colors displayed on a flagpole outside the Boatwright home every day until the teams' next meeting.
While Lisa's blue-and-orange U.Va. flag sits neatly folded in a box, looking as new as it did the day she bought it, William already has lost two maroon-and-orange Virginia Tech flags to the weather and is working on a third.
That speaks volumes about the recent history of the commonwealth's fiercest gridiron rivalry, the 89th installment of which will take place today at noon in Charlottesville's Scott Stadium.
"Right now everybody knows us as the 'Hokie house,'" Virginia alumna Lisa Boatwright said with a laugh earlier this week. "It's how everybody finds us: Just look for the Hokie flag. But this year the tide is going to turn, and I'll get to fly my brand-new flag."
Her alma mater's football program hasn't given Lisa much to brag about since she married William, a former Tech football player, in March 1994. The Hokies have won nine of their last 12 games against the Cavaliers, including the last three by a margin of 93-24.
That success has helped William, principal at A.G. Wright Middle School in Stafford County, turn two of the couple's three daughters--5-year-old Aaryn and 2-year-old Alivia--into ardent Tech fans.
Instructed by older sister and U.Va. loyalist Alex to wear a Virginia T-shirt to bed, Aaryn adamantly refused until her father assured her it was OK.
Even more recently, Lisa was horrified when Alivia began pointing at her husband's Tech flag and squealing, "Go Hokie Bird!"
"She won't say 'Go 'Hoos!' for me," Lisa said. "It's even more personal for me now because the man has converted two of my kids."
William, whose freshman year was Frank Beamer's first year as Tech's head football coach, won't apologize for trying to raise his children to be Hokie proud.
"This isn't going to come off sounding very good, but I really believe there's a difference between Tech fans and U.Va. fans," he said. "Tech fans are rabid. They fill up the stadium every week, and they don't mind telling anyone who they cheer for. U.Va. fans support their team, too, but I don't think they're the same."
William didn't hesitate to identify one way in which the teams' fans clearly differ.
"They are kind of a strange lot, wearing ties to games," he added. "I don't think they'd last long in Blacksburg. We're just not that type of people."
Actually, William and Lisa share the same roots. They met while attending middle school on Virginia's Eastern Shore, but didn't begin dating until their senior year at Northampton High School.
Their relationship survived Lisa moving to Charlottesville and William finding a new home in Blacks- burg, and they're still going strong four months shy of their 14th wedding anniversary.
Well, except for today, the most important day of 2007 for most Hokies and Wahoos.
"We divorce one day every year," Lisa joked. "We can say whatever we want to each other, and it's all forgotten the next day."
The Boatwrights will don their respective colors this morning and pack into William's truck, which just happens to be adorned with a variety of Virginia Tech magnets, for the trip to Charlottesville.
They'll find their seats inside Scott Stadium and spend the next three hours cheering themselves hoarse as their teams battle for a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
"One of us will come home happy and one will have a long ride home," William said. "Hopefully I'll be on the better side of that."
Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444