Published: 12:02 AM, Fri Aug 06, 2010
Village Christian's Fumarola eager to watch program grow
By Tyler Dunne
Staff writer
Somebody please remind Richard Fumarola that his team won zero games last season, that they scored 31 points and allowed nearly 500. That half of his players never played Pop Warner-level football. That this year could be a rerun of last year.
"I love it, I love it," repeated Fumarola, head coach at Village Christian.
The grin embroidered across Fumarola's face isn't fading any time soon. After competing as a jayvee team in 2008, Village Christian is entering its second year as a varsity program. For the Knights, success is defined by things other than wins and losses - incremental baby steps toward learning a new sport.
Fumarola is attempting to do exactly what he did at Fayetteville Christian not too long ago. He's building a football program from the ground up.
"If we get our fanny beat and we had a great first quarter, the next week let's try to get two quarters. Or one-and-a-half quarters," Fumarola said. "All I wanted to see out of them was constant improvement."
Improvement last year never led to a win. With only 22 players, Village Christian was mostly a punching bag. Still, there are signs of growth. Fumarola, who works full-time at Copiers Plus, can't hit the classroom-to-classroom campaign trail himself since he's not at the school regularly. But, internally, a program is building.
Last season, students kept a close eye on the team. From a distance, they watched others enter this unfamiliar combat zone.
"And even though we had a 0-10 season, kids see that nobody died last year," said Fumarola, laughing.
As a result, interest snowballed. This year, Fumarola expects 55 to 60 players on Village Christian's JV and varsity teams. On one summer conditioning day, some 100 yards behind Fumarola, players lift and move a soccer goal out of their way. Football is becoming a presence at the private school.
Naturally, dealing with a program in its infancy isn't easy. Fumarola doesn't have the luxury of skipping the basics. This is Football 1.0. The energy is there, but the knowledge isn't.
Fumarola assumes nothing. During the offseason, he bought instructional DVDs online and loaned them out to players. He held open forums to teach the game. On a blackboard, Fumarola taught players the difference between the A-gap and the B-gap, and how to block certain defensive fronts - concepts their high school football peers absorbed long ago.
At first, some players gazed the X's and O's in French-class confusion. But they asked questions. More and more potential players showed up. Gradually, they are picking up this sport.
Unlike last year, when he became head coach at the 11th hour, Fumarola had the benefit of a full offseason.
"It's been all about just teaching them what football is," Fumarola said. "Going into a second-year program, you can't take for granted that they know everything."
So the team keeps growing, picking up newcomers such as Chris Bentley. A hockey player his entire life, Bentley was a right-winger for the Junior Hurricanes in Raleigh. Fumarola sees a possible workhorse running back in the 185-pounder.
Sure, football is new to Bentley, but there are similarities.
"Roughness. Intensity. I'm liking it," Bentley said. "Just trying something new. I've always wanted to play football and couldn't with hockey season."
Fumarola isn't dreading another year of drubbings. His goal is go .500. And beyond that, the coach is dreaming big.
Maybe he'll post a scripture over the locker-room door. Maybe he'll create a "Knights Cup" with the North Raleigh Christian Knights, with a trophy to go to the annual winner.
Fumarola pauses, turns and points behind him. Back there, he says, that's where a new stadium could be built someday. An architect is stopping by soon to scope out the terrain.
Until then, more one-sided shutouts are likely. Last year, morale was tested weekly.
"We took some tremendous beatings," Fumarola said.
A sampling: 72-0, 60-6, 58-0. The program easily could've crumbled, another causality of lost interest. Football was a novelty to these freshmen and sophomores, a sport they had only played on Xbox. But instead of running for the hills, players came back for more. After the season, Fumarola said several approached him with a message.
They were embarrassed by the losses and wanted to do something about it.
Building credibility will take years. For another year, Village Christian is penciled in as the homecoming game for so many schools. Fumarola can laugh that off. At some point, his team will win its first game and the coach knows it'll be sweet.
"I'm sure it will be," he said.
Tyler Dunne can be reached at dunnet@fayobserver.com or 486-3513.