Sapakoff: Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer, like his mother, ‘always has a plan’ | South Carolina

Everything that Shane Beamer received from his parents – in fact, both from an underrated mother and from the famous father – is summed up in two words.

The answer to a routine question explains the knowledge about football gained from Virginia Tech legend Frank Beamer, and under coaches George O’Leary, Phil Fulmer, Sylvester Croom, Steve Spurrier, Kirby Smart and Lincoln Riley.

It is also an accurate reflection of Cheryl Beamer’s influence as a master of details. Notice, too, that she describes herself as a “chatterbox”, rarely accused of brevity.

So, Mrs. Beamer, what advice would you give to a son who is preparing for his first season as head coach in South Carolina in the SEC challenge?

“Really nothing,” said Cheryl Beamer without hesitation.

That’s because Shane Beamer, 43, grew up watching her mother make lists, more lists and then lists of all those lists. The eldest of Frank and Cheryl’s two children scripted primary school; he had his clothes packed, his book bag ready, and lunch money ready every night.

Of course, Beamer arrived this week at the Gamecocks football building before dawn and stayed up late in his rented apartment making his own lists. Because the same guy scoured the itinerary before his dad’s game and, like his dad, wore a suit on trips – when he was a fourth grader.

“Shane has his acting together, obviously,” Cheryl Beamer said. “He saw. I’ve been there, done that. Just take care of his health, it’s the only thing I would tell him to do.

“He always has a plan.”

Planning, preparation, whatever you want to call it. Shane’s existence is proof that luck is the residue of his mother’s project.

Former Cheryl Oakley of Richmond, Virginia, met her husband while at Virginia Tech, where she used to spend weekends visiting her older sister. Sheila Oakley was dating Hokies player (and future husband) Waddey Harvey.

Cheryl, who studied at UNC Greensboro, got tired of being a third wheel and said so.

Which led Sheila and Waddey to pull out a Virginia Tech football media guide that included short biographies of each player.

Ah, this one …

Frank Beamer.

He grew up on a farm in Fancy Gap, Virginia.

A really nice guy.

How about him?

It was in the fall of 1968. The Beamers were married in April 1972.

So when Shane Beamer in Columbia says, “I wake up every morning, long before sunrise”, and “I can’t wait to get into this building” and “I don’t do much, except sit in my office and try to make this better program ”is not just a Frank Beamer thing.

Of course, you don’t grow up as the only son of a coach who has won 238 games in 29 seasons at Virginia Tech – so many that there’s a tan statue of Frank Beamer on campus – and you don’t benefit. Much.

Frank Beamer trained in 23 bowl games and took the Hokies to the 1999 BCS National Championship Game (a loss to Florida State at the Sugar Bowl on January 4, 2000).

But there was both Cheryl and Frank in Shane’s smile as he pedaled a bicycle to Virginia Tech training.

The refined Shane borrowed Sister Casey’s Fisher-Price walkie-talkies to tell the pieces of a perch at Beamer’s Blacksburg home to other kids playing football outside.

One day at school, Shane Beamer told his father that he seriously wanted to work as a coach.

Frank Beamer, perplexed: “Are you crazy?”

Mom saw it coming.

Charleston and Kiawah

Cheryl Beamer was the productive producer of thank-you notes at home with the kids when Frank was at work and Shane was writing for college and NFL teams asking for more media guides to study.

She knew that in Frank Beamer’s difficult first years at Virginia Tech – 2-9 followed by 3-8 – Shane was teased at school.

And that, surprisingly, he didn’t bother much about it. She watched Shane reading and rereading old Citadel manuals from when Frank Beamer was on the team of Bobby Ross and Art Baker in Charleston, where Shane was born on March 31, 1977.

“How much time do you have?” Shane Beamer said when asked about his mother. “She is the wife of an unbelievable coach. An incredible mother. “

She took Shane “all over Virginia” to youth sporting events. I never lost a game.

“To this day, no matter where I have been,” said Beamer, “I arrive off the field and five minutes after every game she called.”

And those mothers, they notice every little thing. Like the time, a few years ago, at a home game in Oklahoma, when Cheryl Beamer looked at the huge video card in Norman to see a quick side shot of her son.

“What’s wrong with Shane’s eye?” she said to Emily Beamer, Shane’s wife.

He had just headbutted a player to celebrate a blocked kick.

“So now he’s bleeding and it’s a TV timeout and they have to patch him up and he has to change his shirt,” said Cheryl Beamer, laughing at that now.

It’s a close-knit family, it always has been. Cheryl’s mother still lives in Richmond. Shane’s sister, Casey Prater, worked in marketing for the Carolina Panthers and lives in Charlotte. She is married to former Virginia Tech fighter Canaan Prater, an orthopedic surgeon.

Emily and the children (daughters Sutton and Olivia and son Hunter) are still in Oklahoma, but regularly FaceTime with Shane.

And, of course, with Cheryl, the loving 73-year-old grandmother.

Cheryl and Casey occasionally enjoy mother and daughter weekends in Charleston. Shane, Emily and the kids love their week on Kiawah Island every summer. Both traditions date from Frank Beamer’s time at the Citadel, when the Beamers lived on campus.

They cycled to Battery to exercise. Cheryl worked in the school library.

However, Beamers also know when to be apart.

Gamecock expectations

Although Shane was a longtime guy and wide receiver at Virginia Tech, Cheryl says that Frank Beamer never made a call to help him get a job.

Frank will be available for unofficial choice, Cheryl Beamer said, but will not have an official role in South Carolina.

“Sometimes having a surname like Beamer opens doors,” said Marcus Satterfield, the new offensive coordinator from South Carolina who has known Shane since they were graduate assistants in Tennessee in 2002. “But Shane works very, very hard to prove that he achieved everything he obtained not because his surname is Beamer, but because he is a great football coach and a constant football coach who works hard at everything he does. “

Beamer, as a graduate assistant in Tennessee, made sure to know the recruits well. Even the names of the prom dates.

He gave a PowerPoint presentation in his initial interview in South Carolina in December. Atlético director Ray Tanner, after firing Will Muschamp, was determined to contain the enthusiasm stemming from broad support for Beamer among former players. They liked the energy and organizational skills of a young assistant coach who, from 2007 to 2010, helped Spurrier lay the groundwork for the best years of the program.

But Tanner was appalled by Beamer’s general command.

“Shane is who he is,” said Cheryl Beamer. “He will always be direct with you.

“I just hope that people’s expectations are not out of step. I hope they are excited that he is excited, but realize that things don’t happen overnight. It is a process. Coach Muschamp and his team did a good job and worked hard, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you think they should. “

To protect himself from this, Shane Beamer, since childhood and thanks to both parents, is working on a good plan.

Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff