By BONNIE PRICE LOFTON

By BONNIE PRICE LOFTON

Rappahannock News Contributing Writer

Rappahannock County High School needs a football program.

No, I’m not a football maniac. I’ve probably sat through six football games in my life, and I've never watched a televised game.

And, yes, I know what kind of money we’re talking about. It’s a halfmillion to three-quarters of a million dollars to build a proper field, with bleachers, lights, fencing, and a parking lot, along with the necessary weight room, concession box, toilets and so forth.

I simply, want to see this wonderful little school, with its great kids and dedicated stall', achieve excellence.

It’s got almost all the right ingredients, but it seems to have a secondbest mentality. And I’m afraid it can be traced, in part, to Rappahannock’s unfortunate tradition of losing in almost every sport it plays.

At this year’s RC11S athletic awards banquet, every coach rose to praise his or her players for “never giving up,” no matter how far behind. This is commendable, certainly.

But why aren’t these strong, smart, motivated teens winning more? The only decent seasons were in cross country, where the girls’ and boys’ teams won several district meets, and boys’ basketball, where the team won two-thirds of its games. .

Coach Eugene Baltimore achieved a winning season his second year on the job. If he would stay for six years, we might see RCMS become a real powerhouse in basketball. But, alas, our coaches seem to move to other schools with alarming frequency.

The RCHS baseball team, for example, has had four coaches in four years. The latest arrival, Donn Hackney, appears intent on staying a while, given that he and his wife have bought a house in the county and are active in a local church.

But even so, something critical is missing. I believe it’s football.

RCHS is one of only three public high schools in the state with no football team. The others are Highland