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Coaches rise to rooftops for athletes Offbeat fund-raiser plans to help Special Olympics effort By BILL VARBLE What makes an otherwise sane man agree to spend two days and nights atop a discount store building in the middle of a Rogue Valley winter? In a word, Special Olympics. "It's for a good cause, says Crater Football Coach Randy Heath, one of six coaches planning to ascend a pair of Wal-Mart stores this afternoon and not come down until Sunday afternoon. In the season of the Rose Bowl, the Aloha Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and their proliferating ilk, say hello to the Rooftop Bowl. The goal is to raise $50,000 for Special Olympics, which has been aiding special-needs folks for 30 years and now helps more than 1 million special athletes. "I think it's important to support that," Heath says. Karen Parnell, area director of Southern Oregon Special Olympics, says the idea stems from an event in Nebraska in which a cop raised some $70,000 by sitting on a billboard. Why coaches? Because, like Special Olympics, they're sports-oriented, Parnell says. Participating coaches in addition to Heath are Jim Nagel, of Ashland, Joe Hagler, Phoenix, Breet Wolfe, North Medford, Bill Singler, South Medford, and Mike Johnston, Eagle Point. Nagel, Hagler and Heath say they will camp out atop the Talent Wal-Mart. Wolfe, Singler and Johnston say that they plan to set up housekeeping at the Medford store on Highway 62. "I'm sure we'll have a good conversation," Heath says with a slight chuckle. Area police officers, each bearing a "notice of surrender," will call for the coaches at their schools today, "arrest" them and haul them off to the stores. The coaches are scheduled to go up at 4 p.m. at both stores and remain there until 5 p.m. Sunday, unless they reach $50,000 before that. In any event, they're to remain at least 24 hours. Heath says the playbook calls for him and his colleagues to be equipped with bullhorns so they can talk to people on the ground. "We'll guilt people into giving money," he says. Fans of each school's teams are gearing up to see who can raise the most money. According to Parnell, the Procter and Gamble company will match the money raised through the event. Area restaurants are planning to come up with meals to feed the rooftoppers, and Wal-Mart is donating camping gear for them to use on the chilly rooftops, Parnell says. "We'll have a heater, too," Heath says. And if anybody tries to wimp out? "No, You can't do that," Heath says. "It won't be me, anyway." To contribute, or for more information, call Special Olympics at 779-7120 or 482-3506. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA