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In the past, when Fairmont Heights High School football coach Ralph Paden stared across the field and saw Eric Knight opposing him it likely meant it was a big game.
"Eric and I, when we used to play our games, we used to play for it all. Now, we're also-rans," Paden said after Knight's Crossland Cavaliers defeated Fairmont Heights, 2-0, on Saturday. A fourth-quarter safety by Crossland senior lineman Stanley Malivert provided the only points of the game.
"Ralph Paden and I have some classic battles, and I still have them all on tape, but they were classic battles and we packed the stands," Knight said.
That was hardly the case on Saturday. It was Crossland's homecoming, but the records of the two teams (a combined 3-9 entering the game) and the cold, windy, rainy afternoon limited the crowd to dozens, not hundreds.
"We're both, right now, in the bottom of half of the league, and it used to be that we were always in the top half of the league," Knight said. "Our games were always slugfests, with implications of playoffs or implications of league titles on the line."
Knight is trying to rally Crossland (3-4 overall, 2-3 in the County 3A/2A/1A League) after a 1-4 start to avoid the first back-to-back losing seasons of his career. Crossland was 2-8 last year and will face Knight's former school, Potomac, on Saturday, before closing the season against Largo and Gwynn Park. Paden was asked to come out of retirement and steward the Hornets (1-6, 0-4) for this season after second-year head coach Derek Deane was suspended for the rest of this season for playing two ineligible players in a 37-14 loss to Bishop McNamara. Fairmont Heights had to forfeit its season opening win over Eastern (D.C.) because of the ineligible players.
Having two long-time coaches together provided a rare chance to ask them what changes they have seen over the years.
"The athletes of today, I think they're not quite as tough as the athletes of 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago," Knight said. "I think the biggest difference is technology. A lot of players spend more time playing video games than they do playing football at home, or playing sports at home. We were active as kids, you came in to eat, and that was it. Today, they eat while they're playing the video games."
For Paden the biggest difference comes from what he is hearing from parents.
"I don't think the game has changed so much as the kids have changed a lot," Paden said. "And the parents think they're always right, and they're wrong a lot of the time."
After Saturday's game, one of Paden's players refused to join the traditional line to shake hands and instead shouted his displeasure at Hornets' 2-0 defeat. There was a brief shouting altercation between the teams on the field before the two coaches separated them. There was another brief altercation in the parking lot as the players left the field that had Paden rushing to get his team on the bus.
"Our kids gave a great effort," Paden said. "I'm proud of the way they played, but I'm not proud of the way they are acting after the game."
