THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110083
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
FOOTBALL COACH BILL Bynum thought he had seen it all in his 28 years at Broadwater Academy. A six-year span in the '80s when his Vikings won 13 games. A field named in his honor. Even a life-threatening illness.
But he'd never seen the name Broadwater Academy - which this year boasts 40 boys in its high school classes - in a state playoff bracket.
That is, until now.
``Yes, you might say there have been some lean years, some very lean ones,'' says Bynum, an Eastern Shore football mainstay who finally earned his 100th coaching victory this season. ``But we've always managed to field a team.''
That's saying something in Exmore, a town 35 miles north of Cape Charles where things are either going out of business or gone. Broadwater Academy, a private school that opened its doors in 1966, sits beyond Route 13, a mile or so down a country road - not exactly where you'd expect to find a football powerhouse.
But the Vikings - undefeated in the regular season and 14-1 in their last 15 games - meet Fuqua at 1 p.m. Saturday at home in the Division I state semifinals. The winner goes to next week's Virginia Independent Schools state championship game against either Roanoke Catholic or Atlantic Shores Christian.
``I've seen a lot of teams here that haven't done very much. I've been on a lot of teams here that haven't done very much,'' says senior linebacker Wescott Bott. ``It's a blast this year.''
The green and gold glitter signs heralding the Vikings' stellar season hang throughout the buildings that make up Broadwater Academy - which has an overall enrollment of 452 students, pre-kindergarten though 12th grade. Back in '66, the school had so few kids there wasn't a football team. There wasn't even a 12th grade.
Bynum, a native of Nassawadox, about 4 miles south
of Exmore, graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1965 with a biology degree. The former Northampton High tackle then spent a year at the Medical College of Virginia, ``where I ran out of money. Broadwater had just opened, and somebody called me and said, `Don't you have a degree in biology or chemistry? We're looking for a chemistry/biology teacher.' ''
Bynum considered it for half a second and responded, ``Sure, I'll try it for a year.''
``And 28 years later, here I sit,'' says the linebacker-sized coach wearing his game-day attire: a short-sleeve shirt and polka-dotted tie, tan pants and a bold blue watch on his right arm.
Bynum, 51, coached the school's first team to a surprising 3-3 season.
``We had a young, gregarious bunch of kids,'' he says, ``who had never played football before. The thing that really captivated my mind at the time was to watch them improve.''
Anybody who wants to can play football at Broadwater. Everybody who tries out for the Vikings ends up with the green numbered jersey that has ``Broadwater'' spelled across the back in white letters.
``You really feel this is what high school athletics should be,'' says former headmaster John Ordeman, an avid fan in the stands at Broadwater games. ``You really get the feeling it's the school's team. These are the kids on the yearbook staff, in the plays, on the paper. This is just one of their school activities.''
The '94 season marks the eighth winning season in 27 years for the Vikings, but this year's 10-1 record - marred only by a 43-6 loss to Huguenot Academy in last Saturday's Virginia Commonwealth Conference title game - is the best by far in school history. During the regular season, Broadwater outscored their opponents 369 to 49, and this year, the Vikings had the conference's most valuable players on both offense and defense. Offensive MVP Ben Willis rushed for 1,073 yards and 12 touchdowns. Jason Poulson was the defensive MVP.
They are two of the standouts on a team that relies more on quickness than size. ``We don't match up with anybody,'' says Bynum, who is affectionately called ``Mr. B'' throughout the school. ``We played against a team that had a 300-pound tackle on one side and a 295-pound tackle on the other, and I have a 165-pound tackle and a 220-pound tackle. I told 'em, `Don't even block 'em. We just won't run to them.' ''
This isn't the first year Bynum has had to make do under less-than-idyllic conditions. This year's 21-player roster is a gift compared to the depth problems in the past.
``We ended up in a ball game one year when we were playing Nansemond Suffolk when they were 7-2 and we were 2-7,'' Bynum says. ``We had 11 guys on the field and one on the sidelines. We went into overtime and wound up having 11 guys on the field and no guys on the sidelines.''
The Vikings won their final four games last season, so senior quarterback Ted Ames says he recognized the potential for this season before it began. ``I knew looking at the class that we could do it, but you never expect something like this,'' he says. ``It's a phenomenal season we've had. You've just got to get the breaks.''
You'll need your walking shoes for game day at Bynum Field, which was named for the coach a few years ago. A couple of silver bleachers sit along the sidelines, but most of the Viking faithful stand behind the line of white string that separates the team from the fan. Sometimes a parent will wander toward the team bench. Some pull up pickup trucks and watch from a distance; others bring lawn chairs and coolers, even their dogs. But most just pace up and down the field, careful not to trample the tiny girls sitting Indian style on the grass with green and gold pompons in their hair.
``We say Go! You say Vikings. We say green; you say gold,'' chant the nine cheerleaders who dance their routines without the benefit of a pep band.
``We're working on that,'' says school athletic director Tony Collins. ``Bass drums don't come too cheap.''
This year's homecoming crowd was close to 1,000, an unthinkable number just a year ago.
``This year we've been winning, and everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon,'' says senior wide receiver Philip Smith, who's being recruited by the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Pennsylvania for basketball. ``And it gets bigger and bigger every week. It's been so much fun to play at home. You see so many faces you haven't seen for a while, alumni, people home from college.''
Exmore has been good to the Vikings. Last week, the team received a free meal at McDonald's, and an area sub shop is planning another free dinner.
``Everybody on the Eastern Shore has been great,'' Bott says. ``It's not ever been like this.''
``Nothing close,'' agrees Ames.
If the Vikings walk away with the state title, they'll be doing it for Bynum. He's revered at the school that has a hallway bulletin board dedicated to him complete with photos and captions. Prominently displayed is a quote of his favorite expression in times of angst: ``Cheese and crackers!''
``He teaches you so much without even saying anything, just by the way he acts, by the way he handles himself,'' Smith says. ``He deserves all this and more.''
Bynum admittedly has mellowed through the years, mainly because of an illness that nearly took his life a year ago. He woke up with splotches covering his entire body last summer, and a series of hospital tests showed a disease that eliminates platelets from the blood. Bynum ended up in Virginia Beach General Hospital, where it was ``touch and go for a few days,'' he says.
``It's nice to be able to talk about it,'' he says. ``Philosophically, it changes you from the standpoint that you don't wait to do things you think you should have done. Every day at my desk, I feel I should get things done, because I'm not too damn sure I'll be back tomorrow.''
And there will be no tomorrows for the Vikings, who will lose more than half of this year's team to graduation.
``Probably the biggest incentive for us is making him proud,'' Smith says. ``It feels good to win and see him smile.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Bill Tiernan, Staff
Above: There's nothing fancy about football at Broadwater.
Right: Art teacher Sarah Morgan paints a logo on the concession
stand, which is really a glorified shack.
Above: Coach Bill Bynum, a local icon, has been at Broadwater since
the school opened 28 years ago.
Left: Jeanette Edwards sits with son Drew after he injured his hand
in a game.
"Everybody on the Eastern Shore has been great," says Wescott Bott,
left. "It's not ever been like this." "Nothing close," agrees
quarterback Ted Ames.
Bill Tiernan, Staff
Broadwater cheerleaders bring out the hoop that the football players
run through before each game.
by CNB