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They've got spirit

Spoto High School's football team is building tradition with every snap. One important ingredient helps.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM Times Staff Writer
Published September 14, 2007

	Social studies department head Ross Webster busts a move with Spoto High's varsity cheerleaders during the school's first home varsity football game on Sept. 7. "A lot of the girls are in my class, and they wanted me to do the Spartan Rumble with them," Webster said. "It's all good fun." Spoto beat Bloomingdale.
[Stephen J. Coddington | Times photo]

RIVERVIEW

The stands are filling up, and the sun is sinking low, but Coach Palmer is still stalking the field, booming in his Big Coach voice.

"Get up on your horse, big boy! Again, again!"

He's trying, at the last-minute, to drill his team on the basics, he says.

Such as?

"Blocking. Holding the ball."

This is the first year Spoto High School has had a varsity team.

This Sept. 7 game against Bloomingdale High School will be the Spartans' first home game.

Ever.

This team has no history. No traditions. No legends of past players or past coaches.

Only three Spoto Spartans have ever played varsity before, at other schools.

Palmer says it shows.

"We're going through some growing pains," he says before the game. His first name is Scott, but he looks like a guy who gets called Coach, burly and broad, with a small ginger goatee.

"You have your peaks and your valleys, and with a first-year program you venture into some more valleys than you would if you had an established team."

Over on the sidelines, the cheerleaders are conferring. They're trying to figure out which cheer they're going to do.

"It's hard," says coach Sarah LaPage. "Because of the newness of things, there's no ritual."

No ritual. No pattern to follow. Little things - how they warm up, who they look to for guidance, the songs they sing on the bus over to away games - all of it's a blank slate.

"We're still trying to make it ours," LaPage says.

Her girls, in their royal purple uniforms, start to cheer: BLACK, PURPLE, SILVER! COME ON BLACK, PURPLE, SILVER!

"Our lines are messed up," one girl hisses.

Another left her pompoms at home by mistake.

Kickoff. The Spartans gather at the edge of the field. Last year as junior varsity players, they went undefeated. This year, they have yet to score.

"It's been rough," says Khayri McCray, 15. "People doubting us, saying we're not going to win a game."

"We had a lot of people pulling us down," says Keith Richmond, 16.

Then it happens - the Spartans score a touchdown. Cheerleaders cheer. Coach Palmer bawls at his players: "Don't you DARE relax! There's no enjoying tonight! Not till after the game!"

Darrell Hernandez, 17, staggers in from the field, covered in sweat. He's one of Palmer's few experienced players. He played varsity football at East Bay High School before he came here.

Like most of the starting players, though, he has a tight bond with his teammates. They're mostly from the same neighborhood; they knew each other from Little League on up.

"We know a lot about each other," he says. "What we can do, our strengths and our weaknesses, how to talk to each other."

When they're off the field, they hang out at Marquis Green's house, sometimes as many as 10 or 15 players. Marquis' mom cooks them pasta or soul food, collard greens, ribs.

Touchdown number two, and players are tense.

By halftime they're ahead, but not by a lot. They lie in the grass and stretch while the offensive/defensive line coach, Mike Hernandez, berates them.

"Be a man!" he yells. "Get your head out of your a-- and play ball! Man up!"

They break apart, the players calling encouragement to each other.

"Hey! We can't take them lightly!" Randall Anderson yells. "We're only ahead by eight points!"

He's a newcomer to the neighborhood, but Darrell and Marquis have adopted him.

"I just met all these guys," Anderson says. "They're real cool."

The game passes in a blur. Someone sprains an ankle. The crowd has a long conversation with the cheerleaders about which group has more spirit.

Bloomingdale plays hard, but they don't catch up. The clock runs down as an anticlimax.

As players pull off their gear, Palmer assembles them around him.

"Am I going to be happy with this game?"

No, they answer.

"Fumbles, mistakes, that's undisciplined, knucklehead football," he says.

From the back, Devonte Davis speaks up.

"Thanks for being hard on us," he says. "You make us work harder."

They hit the showers. Palmer watches them go. They're good kids, he thinks.

Maybe they'll do better.

Next time.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 08:14:55]