NEWPORT NEWS, VA (WTKR)- The last time a football team took the field at Hampton Roads Academy was 2018. That all changes this fall as the Navigators return to the gridiron.
Dave Legg, who graduated from the school in 1980, has returned to his alma mater to help get the program back up and running. HRA will field a junior varsity team this coming fall and take on a varsity schedule for the 2025 campaign.
"Talk about career challenges, going from coaching 22-year olds to tenth graders and ninth graders," Legg said Wednesday. "I've always felt high school coaches are the best coaches. They really have to teach these guys the basics and that will be fun for me."
Legg was most recently at the University of Richmond as the director of football operations and recruiting coordinator. That was his second stint with the Spiders, where he spent 2007-2018 before heading to Delaware. Legg has also coached at Bucknell, William & Mary, Hampden-Sydney and Christopher Newport.
"The first thing you have to do when you're coaching at an academic school is realize you can win at an academic school," Legg noted. "You can do both and we're going to be really good in the classroom and we're going to try to put together a relevant football program."
After spending 36 years at the college level, the head coach is turning his attention to the high school ranks. It just felt like the right time for Legg.
"There's different points in your career where you're ready to do something different," he pointed out. "I started looking at this as a new challenge and hometown, alma mater... I think we can do some stuff to be really special here and be really relevant in the sport of football."
For his players, it will be a chance to create a foundation on which to build. While most other underclassman have upperclassman to follow, this fall's junior varsity team will be writing the first page of the new story.
"There's not going to be any seniors or juniors in front of them to fall in line and do what they do," the head coach said. "By the time they're seniors and this first group graduates, I think we'll be able to win."
