They have the same coach and the same stars, but the Hawks have chance at new beginning
By Tim Tassa
(Daily Staff Writer)
FRONT ROYAL — Classic rock, blaring from the new stadium’s sound system, shook the field and stands at Skyline High School, while photographers scrambled to shoot pictures of the team — clad in its Notre Dame-like uniforms — for the first time. As the music echoed throughout the facility, the chaotic scene had a sense of a fall Friday night.
It was, however, only a mid-morning in early August, there was no opposing team, nobody singing along to the music and the jubilant teenage student body was limited to players, managers and anybody waiting patiently in the parking lot.
But on Saturday night, in ceremonial fashion, the dress rehearsal is over, the music becomes relevant and the opposing team — Randolph-Macon Academy — eagerly awaits a Skyline opponent for the first time.
“I think for one thing there’s a whole sense of pride here because we’re a brand new school,” said athletic director Michael Patiern
Heath Gilbert, formerly the head coach at Warren County, takes on the role of foreman of Skyline’s football program in its inaugural season and brings with him some familiar faces that made the jump from Warren County High School, in particular the team’s starting quarterback and tailback, A.J. Jackson and Nathaniel Jackson.
In Gilbert’s offensive backfield, the pair of Jacksons will be called upon to lead a new spread attack for the Hawks, playing, arguably, the most scrutinized positions on the field. But that’s hardly the biggest change for the seniors, who’ve turned in their Wildcat uniforms to don the blue, gold and green of Skyline for the first time. And while different, they both agreed: it’s nice not to have to travel to the middle school for home games.
“It’s a little different,” Nathaniel Jackson said. “We have a lot of the same faces here so it’s not as much of a change because everybody is doing the same change, but it’s definitely different.”
“Everybody should be here the first game, you know, and if we put on a show everybody’s going to want to come back,” he added.
For many, Saturday’s game will be the first major public sporting event at Skyline, and even more importantly, it’s the first time that students and parents will root for the Hawks — not the Warren County Wildcats — to win the Northwestern District title in football.
Simply, as the sport is known to do throughout the country, the game will likely be the first to bring the Skyline community together.
“I think traditionally whenever you think of athletics at a school you think of football first because you think of pep rallies and Friday night games under the lights,” Patierno said.
“It’s your biggest program, it’s the one that draws the largest crowds to a single event, usually, and considering also that it starts in the fall, this is the thing that generates your school. This will set the tone for us for the whole year.”
Patierno said the school plans to incorporate a fifth quarter after game nights, inviting students from both schools to participate in a dance at a courtyard on Skyline’s campus. The campus, as the seasons begin to change, has the capacity to create an impressive visual setting as well.
“We’re going to look like this big, beautiful 57-acre campus cut out in the middle of all these trees,” Patierno said. “It’s going to be gorgeous.”
While arguments can be made for other school activities, high school football, so often revered at higher levels, can overcome the simplicities of wins and losses.
The sport is ever changing: players graduate, coaches depart, championships are few and far between. But the one constant is the mystique and excitement that surrounds the stadium, year after year. And that’s what Skyline is trying to build.
“I think our whole nation is a football nation,” Gilbert said. “Look at the success of the NFL and the enthusiasm people have for college football, and this is our area here and people are going to rally around the football team.”
“I think the community is going to be very excited about how hard we play, and hopefully the scoreboard will take care of itself, because I think we have some really good kids.”
