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In the end, Riverhills' record doesn't matter

By MIKE READLING

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000

Tonight, it all begins for Riverhills Christian.

This is the night more than two years and almost $17,000 worth of planning presents itself in the form of 30 Falcons players dressed out in their brand new blue and gray uniforms, taking the field in the school's first ever 11-man FHSAA-sanctioned football game.

Let's hope nobody gets hurt.

Actually, this will be the second full-squad game for Riverhills. The Falcons played their preseason warmup last week and found out what real football is all about, losing 42-6 to Temple Heights.

But that's not what this season is about if you're a Riverhills Christian player, coach or fan. This inaugural year is all about getting your feet wet, getting into a routine and, somewhere along the way, getting your bell rung. It's all part of the game, and it's all part of the learning process of playing small school football.

"Small school football."

You can't find three more appropriate words to sum up the Riverhills program.

The high school, between King and Tampa Bay Tech on Sligh Avenue, has 37 students in grades 9-12. Nineteen of those are boys. Middle-schoolers, including sixth-grader Josh Kinser, and home-schooled kids fill out the roster.

The practice field is a patch of grass stuck in the middle of some woods behind the school's parking lot. The field is on a 15-degree slope and slants so bad that trying to paint lines on it is almost ridiculous. It is short enough that quarterback Matt Custer can't throw deep patterns because his receivers would have to dodge trees or risk breaking limbs.

You can't see the field from the parking lot. In fact, the only evidence it's there at all is a pair of tire ruts, which mat down the grass and wind back through the trees.

"You just have to follow the path through the trees, and when you think you're lost, you just have to go a little bit further," coach Mark Howlett said when explaining how to find his team.

Or you could just follow the short line of players who make the walk every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to learn more about the game most of them have never played before.

And that's the most intriguing part of the 2000 Riverhills football team -- the players.

The story for many is the same. Most have never played football. Some have watched it. Many are still a little shaky on some of the rules. One of Riverhills' biggest problems last week was trying to get 11 men on the field. Next on the list will be getting the right 11 because almost every time the Falcons were short, the most attentive player on the sideline seemed to be the one who ran in to fill whichever position was empty.

Experience isn't the main requirement this season, though. The desire to learn is high on that list. So is heart. And that's one thing the Falcons are not short on.

How many teams in the state have a kid who would study all day at home, jump on a city bus and ride it to a corner 5 miles away from the school only to run the rest of the way to practice just to get there on time?

And Willie Tyler has never been late.

Sure he could take another bus that would drop him off closer to the school. There's even a bus stop less than a half-mile away. But Tyler has a good reason for why he doesn't get off there. "Because if he took another bus, he wouldn't get to practice on time," Howlett said. "If every other kid on this team had the heart that Willie Tyler does, we would be unstoppable."

That's what small school football is all about, and that's why Riverhills Christian is going to be a success this year even if it finishes 0-10 and loses its second game, against Class 3A Panama City Arnold, 86-0.

For 10 weeks this season, kids such as Tyler, Custer, Kinser and Josh Haker will have a chance to do something nobody has ever tried at a school no one ever thought about during the fall. And come November, there will be 30 kids who stood up against the greatest of odds and learned teamwork, sportsmanship and how to face a challenge.

After all, challenges in high school sports don't get much bigger than this one.

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