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First Down, a Ways to Go

The football coaches at Potomac Falls High School knew they had made a mistake once they started handing out equipment to the varsity football team. Coach Wes Driskill and defensive coordinator Elmer Fox had ordered equipment for the new school's program based on their estimation of the size of typical Group AAA players.

But the equipment intended for the junior varsity and freshman teams fit much better on the varsity players. All that was left for the freshmen were the XXL and XL pads and uniforms, which were promptly shipped back for smaller sizes.

"I just wish we could have ordered bigger people," Fox joked.

It's a refrain that could be echoed repeatedly this fall at Potomac Falls, as the new high school fields its first football team. The Panthers, who host Osbourn Park in their season opener Friday, will play a varsity schedule in the tough Concorde District, and they will do it with no seniors and only one player with varsity experience.

Most of the Panthers are like their starting quarterback, Tommy Edwards: small (Edwards is 5 feet 9, 140 pounds), young (he's a sophomore) and inexperienced (he started for Broad Run High School's freshman team last year). Only seven players are taller than 6 feet; three players are heavier than 200 pounds.

Instead of focusing on their shortcomings this season, Potomac Falls coaches are stressing to players the concept of building a football program.

"We know we're not going to be a powerhouse this year," junior running back Jordan Grantham said. "But we know that all this work will all pay off in the long run."

They say they will work extra hard on conditioning and in the weight room. The Panthers might not have any seniors now, but to them, that means they will be the only team with 22 returning starters next year. When most of the Panthers attended Broad Run last year, few started on the junior varsity team, but next year, the Panthers will have 45 players with some varsity experience.

"The kids have to have an understanding of what's expected from them at the beginning," said Dominic Zaccarelli, the football coach at Westlake High School in Waldorf, Md. He started the football program at Westlake in 1992, playing a junior varsity schedule in its first year, and last year the team made the state 3A final.

"We had to set goals and then show them how we were going to get there. It's hard to get 13- and 14-year-old kids to look down the road," Zaccarelli said. "We were 0-10 our first year with some heartbreakers. It's hard to tell the players at that point to be patient, your time will come."

That's what Driskill and the rest of his coaching staff are trying to relay to the Panthers.

"If they can see that they're making improvements, then they'll be with us," Driskill said.

All of Potomac Falls's sports teams will play a varsity schedule this year, even though none of the teams will have any seniors. Some schools choose to play a junior varsity football schedule the year they open and then move up to varsity the next year, but Potomac Falls chose to do otherwise.

"We have kids who are looking at colleges and trying to earn scholarships, and they need to play varsity games," Potomac Falls Principal E. Wayne Griffith said.

Even though the Panthers are playing varsity football without seniors, 25 of the 45 players are juniors. That, Hylton High School football coach Bill Brown says, is necessary when playing a varsity schedule as a first-year program.

"If you have juniors, it is to your benefit to play a varsity schedule in that first year," said Brown, who started programs at Potomac (Va.) High School in 1979, and Hylton in 1991. "If you don't have juniors, you can't ask your sophomores to compete at the varsity level."

The Panthers' Concorde District competition should prove challenging, however. The district includes 1996 AAA Division 6 champion Chantilly, as well as traditional powerhouses such as Herndon and Centreville.

But Grantham, who played on the varsity team at Broad Run last year, is looking forward to facing premier programs.

"That's a reason why I came here, so I could play against top-notch schools," Grantham said. "I want to see how I measure up against them."

Like the players, most of Potomac Falls's coaches came from Broad Run. Driskill was the junior varsity coach there for 14 years before taking the head position at Potomac Falls. Steve Celio and Ben Scarboro, who serve as both junior varsity coaches and varsity assistants, coached the freshman team at Broad Run last year. Fox and John Duellman, another varsity assistant, also worked at Broad Run last year.

Fox -- who had worked with the Broad Run football team for the past 12 years, spending the last six years exclusively with the varsity squad -- thought long and hard about the move. He ultimately decided to coach at Potomac Falls when he became the head of the physical education department at the new school.

"The decision [to leave Broad Run] was real hard, especially this year," Fox said. "The upcoming senior class [at Broad Run] is a super class, personality-wise and talent-wise, and I left a lot of good friends behind."

At Potomac Falls, enthusiasm is high. About 150 people turned out for a home scrimmage last Friday. It was an impressive turnout for an afternoon scrimmage that originally was scheduled for Thursday night. Susan Smith, vice president in charge of athletics for the Potomac Falls Paws (Parents Are With the School), said she has more parent volunteers than she needs to work at home games this season.

On the field, the Panthers are working hard and are improving. And Driskill knows just what he has to do with his players.

"We can't make them bigger," Driskill said. "But we can make them better."