The Navigator varsity football team takes the field
This Friday, the Navigator varsity football team will make its long-awaited return to the gridiron at Hampton Roads Academy.
The 2025 home opener, set to kick off at 7:00 pm on September 5 on HRA’s Lester Grace Field, marks the historic revitalization of a varsity program that has been on hiatus since 2018. After an impressive scrimmage at Poquoson High School on August 22 and a strong showing at Norfolk Christian on August 29, the Navigators will face off against old-time rival Norfolk Academy on their home field.
Quarterback Luke Bryant ’26 prepares to throw an impressive spiral
“Norfolk Academy is our toughest opponent, but I wanted to play them in the first game because, if you’re an alumnus from here, you remember when you played against Norfolk Academy,” said Head Coach David Legg ’80, speaking from personal experience.
This week’s contest, a campus-wide event featuring a food truck from Williamsburg favorite Old City Barbeque, will be the first of three home games that Coach Legg expects to play a powerful role in “uniting the Lower School, the Middle School, the Upper School, the parents, and the alumni.” On Thursday, October 9, HRA will invite its youngest students and their families to varsity football’s Lower School Night, where the Navigators will face Catholic High School at 6:00 pm and a food truck from Get Cheesy will serve up comfort classics. The following Friday, October 17, current students, families, faculty, and staff will join with HRA alumni from throughout the decades for the 7:00 pm Homecoming game against Atlantic Shores Christian School. Graduates will gather before kickoff for the All-Alumni Tailgate, and a food truck from Saté will offer New American creations influenced by Southern and Asian cuisines during the game.
Head of School Jay Lasley is excited for all of these campus happenings “to rally the community around Friday-night football.”
“Having varsity football empowers our entire athletic program,” he said. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm in our student body, our parent community, and our alumni base. There are so many people who have fond memories of their football playing career here, and they’re able to celebrate that through cheering on the revived football program.”
The Culmination of Years of Hard Work
The varsity team’s return is a testament to the determination of HRA’s football players, coaches, and school leadership, especially our outstanding Director of Athletics, Laura Stoner.
In the past decade, despite earning a TCIS season championship title as recently as 2010, HRA has struggled to field an 11-man varsity football team due to limited numbers, player injuries, and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stoner, along with Lasley’s predecessor Peter Mertz, conceived a plan to build back the football program through the Middle School, with the Class of 2027 as the core of the reconstituted team. In fall 2022, when this group was in eighth grade, HRA played a middle school schedule. The team transitioned to a hybrid junior-varsity/middle school schedule the following year.
Along the way, the football program had a firm supporter in former trustee and HRA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Thad Shelly ’71, whom Lasley described as “a tremendous advocate for athletics as part of the independent school experience.” Himself a multi-sport athlete during his time at HRA, competing in basketball, track and field, tennis, and (outside of school) baseball as well as football, Shelly understood the vital role of sports as a facet of a holistic education. He cheered the Navigators on from the sidelines at every home football game in fall 2023, modeling commitment for the entire school community. Shortly before Shelly’s passing last September, Lasley had the honor of visiting his home with Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83 to present this titan of HRA athletics with a game ball signed by the members of the football team.
With the retirement of Director of Finance Ron DeChirico, who had stewarded the program through the early years of its revitalization, in 2024, the school was in need of a new coach to helm the dedicated JV team it would field that fall. Lasley and Stoner could think of no better choice than David Legg.
Promising Players and an Unmatched Coach
HRA Varsity Football Coach David Legg ’80
A former Navigator student-athlete, Legg was a member of the first and only undefeated football team in HRA’s history during his sophomore year, achieving an impressive 9-0 record and going on to win the Commonwealth Conference Championship in 1977. Over the course of his career, he accumulated an impressive 36 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, helping lead teams at Bucknell University, William & Mary, Hampden-Sydney College, Christopher Newport University, and the University of Richmond.
Even after his decades of accomplishments, Coach Legg found the opportunity to “bring [varsity football] back and establish traditions at your alma mater, in your home town,” impossible to turn down.
This fall, his vision will finally come to fruition. HRA is proud to return to a full varsity schedule, with a team consisting of players in Grades 8 through 12. Boasting the only independent school football program on the Peninsula, HRA has attracted several new student-athletes for the 2025 season, including four seniors. An additional twelfth grader is new to the team but not to the school, having been one year above the age cutoff for junior varsity in 2024.
The revived program will extend opportunities to its players that would not exist for these athletes at other schools—namely, the ability to compete as varsity starters as early as eighth or ninth grade. As assistant coach and Middle School science teacher Zach Minor noted, “when our younger players are juniors and seniors, the team will be led by experienced veterans.”
An Exciting Season Ahead
Junior Sam Lasley ’27 and sophomore Tyler Motley ’28 on offense during the Navigators’ August 29 matchup with Norfolk Christian
As he prepares for strong performances on the field this fall, Coach Legg is “looking forward to seeing how far we progress” by season’s end. “These kids have put in a lot of hard work,” he said, and he knows that work will continue.
The team’s motto for 2025 is G.R.I.T.—gratitude for the opportunity to play varsity football at HRA, resilience in the face of challenges that will undoubtedly arise in the first year of a revived program, intelligence on the field as the key to victory, and the sense of togetherness that defines the Navigator community.
Among the players, the feeling of togetherness is palpable. “I am very excited to be playing under the lights every Friday with my favorite group of guys in the school,” said lineman Sam Lasley ’27.
Despite being new to the team, linebacker and fullback Andrew Miller ’26 is no less enthusiastic about sharing the field with his fellow Navigators. “Even though it is my first year at HRA, I feel like I have fit right in with the school and the team,” he said. “I am really looking forward to all of the opportunities this team has not only to improve throughout the season, but also to win some meaningful football games.”
With this tight-knit, dedicated group putting years of preparation into practice on their home field this Friday, the Norfolk Academy Bulldogs will have tough competition on their hands.
“They better come ready to play,” said Coach Legg.
