SACCO: Less coaches, more support

By Jim Sacco

Published: September 12, 2008

STUARTS DRAFT
Nobody in the Waynesboro postgame huddle even bothered to turn their head toward the Stuarts Draft side.

Why would the Little Giants want to watch the Cougars hold the coveted Ball over their collective heads for the third straight year? The cheering fans clad in maroon and white couldn’t even make the Little Giants flinch.

Three straight years of slogging through knee-deep gridiron guano makes you immune to such things. But nothing reeks worse than watching your Target Turnpike rivals rub that golden football idol once again.

Meanwhile, you stand there holding your helmet, or you put your head in your hands like so many Little Giants opted to do Friday after a 44-14 loss to the Cougars.

Sorry, fans of Giantdom, but when the single wing is your offense of choice, any semblance of a winning season takes years to gestate. It’s not born overnight.

And in year two of the Steve Isaacs era, there has been improvement, though it’s obvious there’s no convincing the arm-chair coaches who lined the chain-link fence at Draft. Throw a nickel in the air and hope to hit a supporter of what Isaacs is doing and those fans would scurry like roaches back under the refrigerator.

Maybe they should take a break from criticism and, instead of holding up the fence, carry a clipboard. But we all know how that would end. Not well, to say the least.

Or, better yet, they should do what they’re supposed to do — cheer, get behind, let a group of kids know they got their backs. And the coach’s along with them.

But Isaacs isn’t in the mood for winning any popularity contests, nor was he in the mood to talk after the latest drubbing of the Little Giants, never looking up when he told the media, “I have nothing to say.”

Maybe Isaacs was upset with his team’s play, but his postgame huddle quickly shot down that notion as he, with added panache of finger points, informed every last member of the Little Giants football team that he wouldn’t trade any one of them in the world. No fence-leaning coach outside the field of play is going to let him get down on his boys.

Isaacs isn’t battling the team on the other side of the field, he’s battling the people lined up behind him who, for reasons known only to themselves, think the best way to support this team is to bend the coach’s ear instead of helping their kids not break under pressure.

It’s sad, really. It’s not bad enough these kids live in a city that would trade them off for another $20 steakhouse near the supposed greatest thing ever to happen to Waynesboro — the West End. Forget that these boys have no semblance of their own name on their jerseys, only Waynesboro. They don’t need more critics. They need support, not another coaching search. That would just be stupid. If Isaacs has proven anything it’s that he knows how to win. And he knows it takes time.

Isaacs was right as his boys slowly looked up from the Stuarts Draft grass to make eye contact with a coach they’ve said over and over again they love and would follow to Middle Earth’s Mordor if need be.

This whole program does need to circle the wagons. It’s now the Little Giants against their school chums who give them a hard time for playing football. It’s the Little Giants against people on the street who would laugh when they see that football “W” on their varsity jacket. It’s the Little Giants against these “fans” who spend more time lobbing coaching advice toward Isaacs instead of throwing salvos of support at the guys who looked like they wanted to cry after another loss.

“I wouldn’t trade you guys for the world,” is a familiar Isaacs refrain.

“Us neither, coach,” is the unanimous reply.

They were too disappointed to respond Friday as Isaacs pointed out he wouldn’t trade them for Draft, R.E. Lee or any other I-wish-my-son-played-there team you can pick off a map of Virginia.

It is you against the world, Little Giants. It’s a tough battle, but it’s fun. Especially when you’re surrounded by a group of guys who have each other’s backs and the back of the coach who has 60 I-can-do-betters bullying up behind him.

We all know at home games they strap the students to the bleachers.

Maybe it’s time to raise the age limit on that rule.

It’s time to circle the wagons indeed.