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Riverhills starts out real small

By MIKE READLING

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000

TAMPA -- Riverhills Christian School is a 2-year-old gray building on Sligh Avenue, between King and Tampa Bay Tech.

The first building you pass when you enter the gate is a church office. Visitors are asked to park in the choir parking lot to the left and ring an intercom to be buzzed into the main building. The building itself is small, but it has more than enough space to house the 37 high school students who attend classes every day.

In another part of the school, students ranging in age from kindergarten to eighth grade file in each day. All in all, Riverhills is no different than any other private, church-based academy in the state -- except for one thing.

Starting Aug. 25 with a kickoff classic against Temple Heights, the Falcons will become one of the smallest schools in the state to field an 11-man football team. According to 1999-2000 attendance figures, Lakeland's Evangel Christian and Sonrise Christian, which played in the six-man league last season, are smaller than Riverhills. Evangel has 25 students while Sonrise has 19. Three years after deciding to add football to a school that already plays volleyball, baseball, softball and basketball, Riverhills is employing almost every boy in the school and dipping into the middle school and home-schooled students along the way.

"It's not a requirement, but it's strongly encouraged that you try out for the team when you show up to sign up for school," principal Warren Baucom said jokingly.

That might sound funny, but it's not that far from the truth. Riverhills bursts onto the football scene with 37 students in grades 9-12, 18 of which are boys. The official roster includes 22 players.

"That's our big selling point, "Come be a part of the smallest thing going,"' coach Mark Howlett said.

Despite the school's size, the Riverhills administration and players are determined to make it work.

Since former principal Darlene Allen approved football in 1998, Howlett was hired and Baucom, a retired geography teacher who taught in the Hillsborough County school system for 311/2 years, came on board last summer.

Last season, the Falcons dipped their cleats in the prep football pool by playing in a six-team, six-on-six passing league, finishing second. Those games attracted 40 to 60 fans, Baucom said.

This season, they're playing a full schedule followed by a "bowl game" in November against Coudersport, Pa., at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

"The students are excited about it," Baucom said. "They make banners for the team in the halls and take them out and hang them on the fences. The players wear their jerseys to school on game day, and the cheerleaders wear their uniforms."

According to cheerleading captain Pearl Watson, the addition of the team has increased involvement in school activities and brought the student body closer together.

"It's brought a lot of unity to the school and a lot of school spirit," Watson said. "There are more opportunities for the cheerleaders to cheer, and more parents come to the games now."

Co-captain cheerleader Lorianna Joos said while the games have added to the squad's workload, the chance for the school to have a football team makes it worthwhile.

"The night of the first game, we have to cheer at three volleyball games and then go in and change and run out to the football game," Joos said. "But the students are excited, especially the ones who saw them play last year. All the high school kids are excited about."

Excitement at a small school like Riverhills doesn't come cheap, though.

Last year, the school bought uniforms, pads, helmets, footballs ... everything necessary to run a big-time program. The result was some hefty bills.

Thanks to the sale of chicken dinners and hot dogs sales out of a truck at home games, which are played at Antioch Field in Thonotosassa, and various car washes and other fund-raisers, some of those costs have been defrayed. Baucom said there are other plans in the works to help keep the program running, but so far, it has all depended on the work of the players and their parents.

"Whatever we can do to raise money at this point," Baucom said. "It cost us a little last year, but luckily, we didn't have to buy as much this season."

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