Road Warriors

GAME COVERAGE
CHAT NOW: Chat about anything-game related and wish the team good luck on our message board forum.
Thursday: Jerell McFadden stands out on Osbourn's team.
Friday: Osbourn gets prepared to for the long trip to Blacksburg.
Saturday: Local school reaction, plus a game preview, including information on the starting line-up, stats, etc.
During the Game: Check for latest scores on InsideNoVA.com. Sign-up here to receive game scores after each quarter.
Sunday: A wrap-up on the game and scene in Blacksburg, including a video, a photo slideshow on InsideNoVA.com
ANYTIME: Post your photos to Snap! to share with readers
WATCH: Playbook Insider, a weekly webcast on prep football.

Osbourn is set for its second Group AAA, Division 6 title game in three years. While the success of the program may be a boon to school spirit and com-munity awareness, there will be no similar effect for the finances of the school and its activi-ties department.

Success, as Osbourn is rediscovering, is costly.

Taking the Eagles to Blacksburg and Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium for the game against Oscar Smith will cost the school just under $10,000, activi-ties director Wayne Gryder said in an e-mail. The Virginia High School League pays for part of the cost; the $2,000 payout covers transportation costs and part of the hotel bill.

That leaves Osbourn with a significant tab when it leaves this morning at 8:30 for Blacksburg.

When the Eagles won the state title two sea-sons ago, the state semifinal trip to Virginia Beach to play Salem, which was more than $1,000 cheaper, was financed by gate re-ceipts.

Gryder said gate re-ceipts will also pay for the bulk of this trip, though Os-bourn's athletic boosters and the Eagle Athletic Fund are help-ing to defray costs.

Gryder is handling most of the money issues.

Head coach Steve Schultze is also delving into the details; he said practices were one of the few times a day when his focus could be solely on football.

"All the restau-rants, the hotels -- there's a lot to do," Schultze said.

Even two days from the game, Schultze was completing final details, like cashing a check for $3,000 from the booster club that will become the players' meal money.

But it wasn't as simple as walking in and walking out; Schultze also had to make sure he had the right cash amount for each of the 48 players who are making the trip.

And that was only one aspect of one area of the logistical challenge. Schultze also had to figure out where the team would eat, keep-ing nutritional needs in mind; in all, the Eagles will have five meals on the road, one more than their last trip to the finals. And each of those meals required a call to restaurant man-agers to see if they were willing and able to handle the sudden crush of hungry teenage football players.

The Eagles will stop at a fast-food place in Roanoke on the way down today; that same night, they'll eat in a steakhouse that is also hosting other teams.

Schultze said a slot was available, so he signed the team up.

Schultze said the over-night trip to Virginia Beach two years ago was easier in that re-gard.

The hotel that the team stayed at had a restau-rant attached, but many of the hotels in Blacks-burg and nearby Chris-tiansburg do not.

The Eagles also had to find somewhere to practice. There won't be any walk-throughs at Lane Stadium itself; instead, Schultze will take his team today to Blacks-burg Middle School. Schultze was in touch with school officials in Blacksburg to make sure his team would be allowed to use their fields.

Schultze wasn't sure yet where the team would practice Satur-day.

And then there's the matter of playing in wholly unfamiliar terri-tory.

In preparation for the state final at Virginia Tech, Schultze talked to Woodbridge head coach Keith King and former Woodbridge assistant Tom Gryder, who went through this a year ago when the Vikings played in the state championship at the University of Vir-ginia.

Because they shared a locker room with an-other team (there are two state championship games played back to back and the Vikings had the second game), Woodbridge had to dress outside its desig-nated locker room while it waited for the first team to finish up.

Schultze wanted to avoid that kind of dis-traction.

Arrangements were made so that Osbourn will dress in a temporary locker room before heading out to the field for warmups.

Once the regular locker room the Eagles will use is cleared out, Os-bourn school personnel will move their stuff into that area.

Not only are the Eagles four hours from home, but they'll be playing in a stadium unlike anything they've ever played in before. Their own field, James J. Leo Stadium, holds a few thousand people at most. Lane Sta-dium's capacity is more than 66,000.

"We've talked to the kids and it's not like we're going to be in awe," Schultze said. "Both sides will be anxious ... It's another foot-ball game. A big one, but it's just an-other game. We're playing a team that's na-tionally known, but we've beaten good teams all along."

It's the chance of a lifetime for junior Mac Clark, whose parents are Tech graduates and have season tickets. Schultze even allowed Clark to miss some Saturday film sessions to attend Tech home games.

Clark, however, will be able to simply prepare for and play in the game that will certainly be special for him and his family. But merely get-ting to that joyous mo-ment will be the culmi-nation of one busy week for Gryder, Schultze and the coaching staff.