HARRISONBURG - A day after the city school

board cleared Harrisonburg High School's football coaches from any blame in a

pain pill scandal, the star player in the middle of the police's investigation

said he's glad coach Tim Sarver and his assistants will be back next

season.

Alex Owah, a highly recruited tailback, also repeated that he plans to

return to HHS for his senior year.

"I do expect to be playing at Harrisonburg next year," Owah said

Wednesday after returning from a visit to the University of Virginia, where he

has orally committed to play football beginning in 2009. "We have a good

coaching staff. They've been there for years. [Sarver] knows what he's

doing."

At its meeting Tuesday night, the school board read a summary of an

investigation into the case that said the coaching staff did not violate any

rules or policies in its response to rumors of drug use in the school locker

room, although the board said some coaches could have done more to uncover the

problem.

Wednesday, Owah - who a police affidavit alleged was involved in an armed

robbery that helped trigger the pain pill investigation - said he and his

teammates wanted Sarver and the staff back next season.

"We were hoping they'd come back," Owah said. "We really weren't

thinking anything bad. We were just hoping everything it would all work

out."

HHS athletic director Joe Carico reiterated Wednesday that he anticipates the

entire coaching staff returning for the 2008-09 school year. School board

chairwoman Kerri Wilson said Wednesday that approval of all HHS's coaching

assignments will be reviewed by the board, as usual, at an "upcoming

meeting."

In comments to the board Tuesday night, Carico addressed what some might

consider a conflict of interest: his status as both Sarver's boss as athletic

director and his underling as an assistant football coach.

"I have never hesitated to make administrative decisions as the A.D. for

football just as I do for other sports," Carico said. "Coach Sarver

will tell you that I don't hesitate to give him directions or tell him no."

Carico acknowledged, however, that the situation could seem improper and

proposed having an administrator from outside the athletic department enter the

picture in cases involving football.

"It seems appropriate that particularly during the football season, there

should be an administrator available to assist me in situations where a conflict

of interest might be perceived," Carico told the board.

Carico, the Blue Streaks' offensive coordinator, wasn't one of the coaches named

in the police affidavit.

Wilson said Carico's dual status as athletic director and assistant coach is not

unusual.

"It's not uncommon to have an athletic director as part of the coaching

staff," Wilson said Wednesday evening.

At Tuesday's meeting, Carico and Sarver both advocated drug testing of athletes,

something the board said it would "fully explore" as part of its

planned response to the incident.

On Wednesday, Carico said he plans to research what methods of drug screening

are available to HHS.

"I'm going to be investigating all that this summer," Carico said.

"I'll be giving reports back to [superintendent Donald] Ford and the school

board with my findings."

Sarver, Harrisonburg's coach since 1985, refused to comment on the board's

findings Wednesday, as he did Tuesday night while walking out of the meeting.

"I have no comment on any of this," said Sarver, who has a 247-123-4

record at HHS and led the Blue Streaks to the 2001 state title.

Wednesday, Carico said he appreciated the turnout at Tuesday's meeting, where

about 150 onlookers came, apparently in support of the embattled coaching staff.

"You always like to have support in everything you do," Carico said.

"That's the one thing that's been constant through this entire ordeal. The

people that know Coach Sarver, myself and the rest of the coaching staff, know

what we stand for, know that we're people of integrity and know that we're here

to educate young people on the field and off the field. We try to do the best we

can."

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