Practice time with the big boys

By Jim Sacco

Published: August 9, 2008

Gone was the pre-practice bravado some of the 8-year-olds wore like a mesh jersey. Seconds before, they said they weren’t scared. Sure, the varsity players are a lot bigger than they are but, hey, this wasn’t going to be full-contact (“Is it?” one asked), which meant guys four-times their size weren’t going to be rubbing their faces in the dirt. (“If they did,” said Tommy Pfeifer, 8, “they would crush us.”)

But then the warm-ups and stretching ground to a halt on the Waynesboro football practice field. Every level of the Waynesboro Quarterback Club — midgets, juniors and seniors — stopped and turned to their left. The click-clack of cleats on warm asphalt told the whole story. The kids’ faces just accentuated it.

“Whoa,” screamed Jordan Cain. “Look at them.”
His agape mouth clearly visible through his facemask, the 9-year-old couldn’t take his eyes off the varsity players as they, in full pads and helmets, made their way onto the field for a joint practice. A clinic, if you will.

“Lord have mercy,” Cain said, still slack-jawed in awe. “They’re huge.”
As was Friday’s event, which marked the second straight season Steve Isaacs’ varsity Little Giants ran their little league counterparts — the Lil’ Giants — through the same drills as the big boys’.

“This is my feeder program right here,” Isaacs said. “It’s just a neat experience.”
When Isaacs coached and won a state title at Bath County, bringing the little tykes in for a round or two of practice was the highlight of his team’s summer. It was also a highlight for those lucky Chargers-in-the-making who got a chance to feel like they were part of the team.

“Those kids, at home games, would all line up along the fence behind our bench,” Isaacs said.
With Waynesboro’s home-game policy of students having to sit in the bleachers during play, scenes like that will be few and far between at Little Giant games, but that mattered little to the players who ran through pylons, jumped through ropes and pushed around tackling sleds with the varsity players barking out instructions.

“They look forward to it,” said Martha Barker, president of the Waynesboro Quarterback Club. Her grandson, Christian Truxell, was excited about the event Thursday night.

Isaacs said his varsity players felt the same way.
“They love it,” he said. “They’re kinda giddy about it.”
Seniors Steven Brown and Terrell Thompson coached the kids on how to hold a football as they worked their feet in and out of a grid of ropes on the ground.

“Good job,” the two varsity players said. “Make it right.”
Each kid got a pat on the helmet as they tossed the ball back to one of the Little Giants.
“They’re teaching us a lot,” said Chris Baze, 8. “One day, we’ll be as good as them.”
And just as big.