THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994                TAG: 9408250159
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN              PAGE: S13  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Football Special '94
SOURCE: BY JOHN GORDON, SUN SPORTS EDITOR 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines

FOR RAIDERS, ELIMINATING THREE PLAYERS WAS KINDEST CUT OF ALL

When the going gets tough in football, a lot of coaches counsel their teams to drop back 10 yards and punt. Southampton Academy chose to drop three players and keep playing.

The private school went to 8-man football in 1991 and is probably the only team in Virginia to have such a team. And it is the only non-North Carolina team to play in the Colonial Carolina Conference.

``Eight-man was a savior for football at this school,'' said athletic director and head football coach Dale Marks. ``If we had not gone to it, we would have had to drop the sport.''

Primary reason behind the reduction was numbers. There was an exodus of students out of the upper school, and only 12 to 14 players turned out for football.

``Fortunately, we went right into the conference,'' Marks said. ``A school dropped out just when we made our change and we just took over their schedule.''

It was an eight-member conference then, and two other North Carolina schools had dropped 11-man football for the smaller version. Incidentally, Southampton Academy is a member of the Virginia Commonwealth Conference in other sports.

Southampton Academy was 3-6 in 1991, played only junior varsity ball in 1992 and came back with a 4-5 record in 1993.

The change has proven to be more difficult for Marks and his two-man staff of Mike Harston and Steve Golman than it was for the players.

``You block, tackle, run and throw the same way,'' said Marks. ``So the techniques are the same.

``It doesn't look that different than 11-man. You can't tell the difference if you don't count the players.''

``The difference is that you take two linemen and one back out of the plays. And that takes some adjustment.''

Length of the field is the same, and the sidelines are only five yards closer on each side, according to Marks.

This makes for a more wide open game with more big plays and the scores are generally higher.

``There's not a lot of 7-6 games,'' the coach said. ``It's great for fans.''

Travel is not much of a problem either. The Raiders do travel more, but not a great deal more.

However, the number of players is still a problem. Southampton Academy has only 12 out this year whereas Marks was hoping for 16. by CNB