Prep football teams build chemistry through pregame meal

The Outback Steakhouse on Potomac Mills Road is quiet. The tables are spotless and food is almost ready for the Gar-Field football team.
A total of 44 players line up outside the eatery wearing their red home jerseys.
At 2:45 p.m., restaurant managing partner Reggie McGee opens the door and greets players who enter as they do every Friday during football season.
One-by-one, they shake McGee’s hand before heading to a four-person booth.
It is time for the pre-game meal, a ritual many high school programs do to build mental focus and camaraderie in a relaxed atmosphere prior to kickoff.
Gar-Field is not the lone area prep team to do this. Other area schools such as Battlefield and Manassas Park convene at their respective schools for a pre-game meal.
Brentsville’s football players continue a tradition coach Dean Reedy began seven years ago. Before every home game, they wear their black and orange jerseys and march through Nokesville to Joe’s Pizza and Subs NY Style.
The time together ensures athletes have the right amount of food in their system.
“It gives us an opportunity to make sure kids are nourished properly before each game,” said Manassas Park coach David Coccoli, whose team eats at 4 p.m. “They come together and focus on the task at hand in the evening.”
Moods vary at each team’s get-together. Coccoli’s players eat in relative silence. Battlefield coach Mark Cox wants his to be at ease, but not too loose.
“I don’t want any goofing off,” Cox said.
Cox is no stranger to pre-game get-togethers. He has overseen this since he was the head coach at Falls Church High School in 1993. He has players assemble at either 3:30 p.m. for an away game or 4 p.m. for a home game.
Food consists of pasta, Subway subs or subs from other restaurants. Players’ mothers bring in food, continuing a system passed down from one group of senior-class parents to the next.
Costs are covered by donations from players’ parents. Cox covers non-covered expenses through his booster account, a combined amount of money coaches are given from the booster club and money raised through fundraisers.
But the meal occurs before every game. That way, Cox knows his players’ whereabouts and what they are doing.
“The last thing you want is the kids out running around,” before a game, he said. “They need to get focused and direct that toward the game.
“It’s also about team unity. We make sure everybody’s safe and starting to get focused. If you didn’t have something, the kids could be out doing who knows what. When we have dinner, we know everybody’s there and accounted for.”
Other coaches do not prefer to have a pre-game meal or have tried to have one if players show interest.
Woodbridge coach Keith King feels his players should leave school following their final class and rest before reporting at 5 p.m. for pre-game meetings. That gives them three hours of free time. King only asks his players to drink water.
“It’s important for them to get away from the school setting,” King said. “It’s good for them to do their thing and eat food they want to eat.”
Hylton coach Lou Sorrentino offers his players a pre-game meal. Sorrentino meets with younger athletes who do not have transportation home after school and they eat in Hylton’s cafeteria prior to kickoff.
Sorrentino offered to have the cafeteria opened last Thursday, but “when I said that, I didn’t have one guy say I’m coming in,” Sorrentino said.
Teams that do pre-game meals use the hour it takes to talk football. Gar-Field’s athletes converse about perfecting their assignments for that night’s game with Freedom as they eat fettuccini alfredo, chicken, bread and lemonade.
“When we come here, we’ve got to focus,” cornerback Keshaun Allen said.
Gar-Field defensive tackle Randy Jenkins has the phrase, “Go G-F” on his cheeks and the letters R-E-D-S-T-O-R-M, the nickname of the Indians’ defense, across the lower parts of his fingers.
“We think about what we’re going to do in the game,” Jenkins said.
They speak of how many tackles each player wants to get, who may have the most sacks, or who may make the game-changing play.
But other non-football related matters are discusses.
“We talk about kids’ stuff like girls,” running back Bryce Miller said.
Gar-Field coach Tom Gryder allows players to order food from Outback’s menu, but monitors how much they eat and drink.
“We don’t want them gorging,” Gryder said. “We try to keep it light, so it’s not heavy. You want to get them so they have a good amount of food without going overboard.
“That’s part of making sure there are restrictions on what they drink as well. You don’t want anything carbonated or anything that’s too much caffeine-based.”
Gar-Field would not be at Outback were it not for McGee’s commitment to community involvement. A member of Outback since age 18, McGee worked in Richmond with a managing partner dedicated to helping prep athletes.
“I always remember the one thing that stuck out in my mind was getting involved in high school sports, getting involved with some of the high school football teams down there,” McGee said.
The managing partner of Outback since July, McGee first spoke with Gryder during the summer about the team coming over to eat.
Gryder wanted to do this because he witnessed the partnership between Outback and Gar-Field in 2002 while serving as an assistant under former Indians coach Jim Poythress.
“We bounced some ideas off each other with Gar-Field High School being so close,” McGee said. “It was something that was really attractive to me to get involved with the kids. It’s nice to live that high school football dream again and have a team to root for.”
The restaurant is only open to Gar-Field’s football team on Friday afternoons during the season. McGee brings in 10 combined servers and managers to ensure the team’s visit is pleasant.
It clearly is as the bond between the players and staff has grown since the season began. McGee gives $45 Outback gift cards to Gar-Field players whom the coaches select as the top performer from the previous week’s game.
“We know most of the team by first name,” McGee said. “It’s like we’re all just hanging out. We talk about last week’s game, this week’s game.”
To show their appreciation, each player provides the staff a two dollar tip to cover meal costs. McGee says the cost to feed the team is $200 per visit.
A byproduct of the Outback-Gar-Field relationship is Friday’s Outback Bowl between Hylton and Gar-Field. The teams will eat together at Outback during the afternoon and a trophy, which the winning team receives after the game, is going to be shown off during the meal.
McGee will cook food for tailgaters prior to kickoff. Banners will be hung around Gar-Field’s football stadium and an Outback player of the game is to be named at the conclusion of the game.
Cards to sample appetizers at Outback will go in several game programs.
“We just wanted to throw something out there and have fun,” McGee said.