Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 30, 1994 TAG: 9405010061
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN DeVIDO STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When Steve Ragsdale arrived 16 years ago, Giles High School did not have much of a football program. The finale of his first season as the Spartans' coach, a game at Galax, was an eye-opener.
"I'm not exaggerating," he says, "but we probably had about 10 fans at that game."
My how things have changed at the Pearisburg school. Now, it's common for a couple of thousand Spartans fans to fill the bleachers on Friday nights, but it has taken a lot of hard work by Ragsdale and his staff.
"We expect now when we play a game on a Friday night - no matter where we play - to have more fans than the opposition," says Ragsdale, whose team won the Group A Division 2 state football title in the fall.
Ragsdale, who has had at least 70 players in his junior varsity and varsity programs for the past 10 years, summed up the reason for that success in two words: community support.
"When you've got a community that supports you monetarily, by being out there on Friday nights, by giving you a pat on the back on Saturdays and all the other things that go along with it, they [the players] love it," Ragsdale says. "That sets up a situation where your kids want to participate."
It wasn't always that way.
"Oh, it's something we've had to work at," he says. "We had a great group of athletes my first year, so we were successful and that got the ball rolling. We had a radio show every Saturday morning, where after the game Friday night our PA announcer would interview me and run parts of the game. And I think our being a rural community, there's not a whole lot of other things going on, so they're looking forward to those Friday night football games.
"It's something where you've got to be stirring a fire up and thinking up new ideas [to keep the fans interested]. You can't sit back and hope they come out, because you'll be fighting a losing battle."
Coaches pleased with their turnout agree that support from the community is a key, as is a proud football tradition.
Dean Sissler, the coach at George Marshall in Falls Church, says his school has benefited from alumni support.
"The kids who play at Marshall come back," says the coach of the Northern Virginia school. "Joe and Billy Swarm [who went on to play at Virginia Tech] and Keith Lyle [who played at Virginia] come in and work out and are accessible, good role models. That helps."
Marshall also is in a unique situation in that it draws players from more than one area. The school has students from Vienna, McLean and Falls Church.
"One year they used a slogan, `The school without a community,' " Sissler says. "But we get parents whose kids have graduated still coming to the games."
Joel Hicks, whose Pulaski County teams have played in the Group AAA Division 6 championship game the past two years, says his numbers have been steady for the past 10 years. "The last two or three years, we've been up a little bit, even though we've dropped in enrollment," Hicks says.
Taylor Edwards, Martinsville's coach, has seen his school's enrollment drop from 900 to 500 students since he arrived 16 years ago, but his numbers have remained steady.
"I guess we're fortunate to have a tradition," he says. "A lot of our kids' [fathers] played for us."
Covington is another school where the enrollment has declined dramatically, from as many as 1,000 students to the mid 300s. Nevertheless, coach John Woodzell says his numbers have stayed solid.
"Our community is very supportive of athletic programs," Woodzell says. "This community has an excellent tradition. It's something that was built back beyond from before when I was here."
Jeff Highfill, William Byrd's coach, is optimistic about the future, although his numbers have been down recently.
"Our sandlot programs have started picking up," he says. "When I got here in 1981, there was only one sandlot team in the Vinton area. There's about eight or nine now. There's been a lot of young interest, and it'll start showing up in the numbers here."
In Rocky Mount, Horace Green has focused attention on the middle school program in his third year as head coach at Franklin County. The results have been nothing short of spectacular: 140 seventh- and eighth-graders participated in the middle school football program last year.
"Before I got here, they'd have 80-90 kids out and only 12-14 were actually playing," Green says. "The rest were just watching. Jerry [Little, Franklin County's athletic director,] and I talked, and we said we'd make it a middle school program where we would put them through an eight- or nine-circuit station where they'd learn football."
Green divided the students into six teams. Players choose their team's name, and they play under the lights at the school on Wednesday nights. Everybody plays. And on Thursdays after school, the players get together, eat popcorn and watch game films.
"This is what most middle schools will start doing," Green says. "Why not? We want these kids to have fun. They're only in high school for four years. We just want them to learn and play football."
Since the program is relatively new, Green won't know its effects - whether or not a large numbers of players will stick with the program for four years of high school - for a few more years.
Jim Hickam, Northside's coach, says the trend has been upward at his school, mainly because the ninth grade has recently been added as a part of the athletic program.
"We have a little over 80 in our program," he says. "Our success the past few years tends to help some. We have runs of times where kids are more interested in participating, but nothing I can lay my finger on."
by CNB