NEWPORT NEWS, VA (WTKR)- It's been five years since Hampton Roads Academy has had junior varsity or varsity football of any kind, but the road to turning the Friday night lights back on is nearly complete.
The Navigators are relaunching their JV program this season, part of a five year plan to return the sport at all levels to the school. The junior varsity stage is the latest step in building football back up.
"It'll grow as we go, but this core group, they're going to have a lot to be proud of," said HRA head coach Dave Legg.
"I'm a big Navigator," sophomore offensive and defensive lineman Micah Fulcher added. "I love HRA football. I want it to be the best it possibly can."
Hampton Roads Academy last fielded a varsity and JV 11-man football team in 2017 (11 players on the field for each team at a time). The program went down to eight man football in 2018 and began the 2019 season, but was unable to finish the campaign. Following the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the sport did not return. Director of athletics Laura Stoner and her staff launched the five year plan in 2021, starting with middle school football and adding a new level periodically. Now the current sophomores are taking the lead of the new JV program, with varsity set to return next year.
"Our class, sophomores, we're almost like the building block," sophomore lineman Sam Lasley pointed out. "We're leading everybody."
"The kind of get to set their own traditions and their own culture," Legg said.
A Hampton Roads Academy alumnus, Legg returned to his old stomping grounds to lead the charge with the football program. He brings more than three decades of college coaching experience back to his alma mater.
"It's the uniqueness of the situation that appeals to me, plus I went to high school here and I get it," he noted.
"Coach Legg came in, he's been great, he's taught us a lot of things," said Fulcher. "He has experience, great coaching honestly. I couldn't ask for anything better."
"He's been really pushing us to be our best," Lasley added. "Hard coaching, but we like it."
The Navigators hope all the work they're putting in watching film and during practice carries over to the field. The group enters the 2024 season hungry with a lot to prove.
"We've got a chip on our shoulder," said Lasley. "Everybody's doubting us, especially next year when we come in as a varsity team, nobody's going to be believing in us."
"We may be overlooked, but once they play us, they're going to see that we've got something special for sure," declared Fulcher.
Players that are taking the field for the Navigators are coming in on the ground floor. They're working to build the program brick-by-brick all the way to the top.
"We want to win conference titles, state titles, everything," Lasley said.
"This is really a building year," added Fulcher. "Next year, we're going to come even strong, then the year after that, but this year we're definitely going to succeed."
"Set the standard, start to build our own traditions and be ready to be very relavent as a varsity football team next year," Legg said of what success would look like in 2024.
Hampton Roads Academy JV football kicks off its season at home September 5 against Norfolk Academy.
