RICHMOND, Va. -- Lance Clelland is in his ninth season as the head coach at St. Christophers.
Nearly every year, he waits for the public school football schedules to be released. Because the Saints only have five other teams in their conference, having a 10-game schedule can be a challenge.
He's always looking for one specific opponent to have an opening and this year, it finally happened.
"I saw Douglas Freeman High School needed a game on October 28. I immediately texted George Bland, got our ADs talking and working," Clelland said.
"We've looked in years past and it's got to match up. The challenge for us is every two years, the whole thing shifts again," Bland said.
Bland has been the head coach at Freeman for the past four seasons but graduated from St. Christophers. When he played for the Saints, opportunities like this were scarce.
"I played two games under the lights my whole four years at St. Christophers and that was at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy. There may have been 100 people in the stands. It was nothing like the environment we get to experience week in and week out here," Bland said. "My first coaching job, my first teaching job was there. My oldest son was born while we were there. He learned to walk on the football field there when I was coaching there. There's certainly some mixed emotions for me, but there's no doubt that Freeman is my family now and I'll go anywhere with these guys."
Bland didn't know that the two programs haven't met since 1958 but he's keenly aware of how special it will be for everyone involved.
"Our players are excited, they've grown up with a lot of players at St. Christophers, played little league with them. Have known them their whole lives. Everyone is super excited about it," Bland said.
"Having the opportunity, an awesome group of young men from Freeman High School, compete with them, see where we measure up against the public schools but more importantly, give our seniors a chance to compete with each other and have a great time," Clelland said.
Gil Minor knows what that's like. He was on the field playing for St. Christophers in 1958 and remembers how he felt to be playing the team down the street.
"They were fun. They were intense. We were competing for our part of the city," Minor said. "When we played them the first time, we didn't really expect them to be as good as they were."
Bill Powers played for Freeman in 1956 and 1957 and later went on to be the head coach in the 70s. His memories of the games have faded slightly but there are certain aspects that still stick out.
"They had a real good running back that I remember. His first name was Bill, I think. I guess that was in '57 that I remember him because I chased him a couple times," Powers said. "Mostly running the first year we played them. But the second year we played them, we had a really good quarterback and we did throw some but throwing some back in those days meant maybe eight passes?"
There is a great deal of anticipation and excitement about this year's game and a lot of hope that it won't be another 64 years before they meet again.
"I think it would help the community. There's no reason why it wouldn't help the community to do that," Powers said.
"I would love to make it a yearly thing and I wouldn't mind playing there every year either," Clelland said.
For many years, the Virginia High School League would not give public schools any playoff ratings credit for playing private school teams. Recently, they changed that rule, which should make it more worthwhile for games like this to be scheduled.
In this series' history, the record is 1-1-1. The two teams tied in their first meeting and each won a game in the next two years.
Friday night's game will break that tie.
