Reaching out

Chris Wallace knew it.

So did Magic Benton.

Even before the quarterback's spiral hit the receiver in stride — even before the crowd stood to cheer — the arenafootball2 stars were content, knowing they once again had caught the defense by surprise.

Wallace pumped his fist and casually turned away from the field. Benton raised his arms to signal a touchdown.

Nothing new there. Wallace and Benton are to the Florida Firecats what Montana and Rice were to the San Francisco 49ers, connecting for scores inside Germain Arena like two kids on a sandlot.

But there was something different about this particular touchdown. Wallace and Benton, for once, were not the players responsible for the score.

They simply called the play.

Welcome to the other side of the Sunday morning headlines, where Wallace and Benton, teammates with the Firecats for three seasons, hold clipboards and play sheets instead of records and press conferences.

They aren't alone, either.

Photo by MICHEL FORTIER, Daily News

Florida Christian Institute coach Victor Hall, foreground right, along with coaches Chris Wallace, center right, and Magic Benton, backround far right, celebrate a second-quarter touchdown May 25 against Evangelical Christian. The three coaches, along with Brent Burnside, all play or coach for the Florida Firecats.

Florida Christian Institute, a Fort Myers school for students with special needs, calls its football team the Eagles. But the helmets are purple and the offense is diverse, appropriate given the Firecats flavor that spills from the sideline.

It begins with Victor Hall, the head coach. He is the only man ever to win a championship ring in the AFL (Orlando, 1998) and the af2 (Florida, 2004). His playing days might be over — he retired two years ago — but his coaching career is still young. He's been at the helm of FCI football for two seasons.

And how about Brent Burnside? The Firecats wide receiver/defensive back, tall, slender and articulate, sure looks the part of a teacher. He coaches the secondary for FCI, instructing corners and safeties to focus on the quarterback's eyes as they backpedal into coverage — something he, it so happens, does every week in arena ball.

Then you have Wallace and Benton. Wallace, Florida's quarterback, is the offensive coordinator, relaying the plays to Benton, the receivers coach, on the FCI sideline. Benton then shoots some hand signals to the offensive huddle.

Just like in pro ball.

"Not too many players can go watch their own coaches play the game on Saturday," said FCI president Keith Leonardo, who, with wife Kim, founded the school in the fall of 2002. "There are a lot of good football programs in Southwest Florida, but there can't be too many coaching staffs of this caliber. Our kids can't question the instruction of the coaches. That they play for the Firecats gives them instant credibility."

And it shows.

The Eagles played their first spring game last week, traveling across town to face Evangelical Christian. It was a mismatch from the beginning, with Eric Johnson's 9-yard toss to Kevin Taylor — the play Wallace and Benton just knew was a score — capping FCI's first offensive possession, opening the way for a 32-21 victory.

Not that such a performance was unexpected. That FCI is an affiliate member of the Florida High School Athletic Associaiton, which means it must play an independent schedule and is not eligible for district competition, might be good news for some opponents.

Consider that last season, as FCI got its first taste of tackle football, the Eagles went 9-2, advancing to the Division I championship game of the National Association of Christian Athletes tournament. They lost to a team from South Carolina by eight points.

This year should be even better. Wallace is ecstatic to have Johnson, a Dunbar High transfer, as his quarterback, eager each day to put the next piece in place.

"Everybody is excited to see how this is going to work," Wallace said last week, on the eve of the May 25 spring game, "because we're more complex right now than we ever thought about being. I'm just excited to see how we're going to look when we spread out all the athletes we have. I still have four formations we won't put in until this summer."

Johnson, like Wallace, is ready for more. The son of a Fort Myers minister, he carries a Bible with him in one hand. The other is reserved for his play sheet.

"He tells me the little things I need and he keeps me relaxed," Johnson said of Wallace, who implemented a multiple-set, pro-style attack this spring, ditching the Wing T offense the Eagles ran last fall. "He tells me what I need to know to be a great quarterback. He knows I'm going to play at the next level. He's given me a taste of what it's going to be like in college."

• • •

Photo by MICHEL FORTIER, Daily News

Florida Christian Academy coach Brent Burnside, who plays for the Florida Firecats, goes over passing routes with an FCI football player during the first quarter of Thursday's springtime match-up against Evangelical Christian Academy.

FCI is not for pretty boys.

Roughly 175 students attend the school, grades K-12. Some of them, it seems, are one poor choice from being a different kind of statistic.

The school was created as an alternative for kids with learning disabilities, but many of the students are from broken homes and troubled pasts. FCI's mission is to erase obstacles that might exist in public schools, stressing one-on-one attention in its classrooms and allowing the students to work at their own pace.

Johnson, however, is here for another reason. He has made As and Bs for most of his life and is a praise leader at his father's church. Going to FCI, where he enrolled in November, wouldn't make much sense for him, were he not such a football nut.

When Eric Johnson Sr. moved his family to Southwest Florida in August, the logical decision was to have the quarterback attend nearby Dunbar. But Junior played only sparingly in his one season there, completing 10-of-26 passes for 192 yards and one touchdown.

So Dad shopped around. He considered sending Eric to a number of schools in the area, looking for the one that would help his son snag a Division I scholarship. He stopped looking when he heard of FCI, which had the one ingredient no one else could match.

"One of the things that's very difficult to find is a good quarterback coach," said Eric Johnson Sr., who relocated from Sarasota last year to start the West Coast Christian Center in downtown Fort Myers. "I'm big on having a coach who's played the position and knows what he's doing. People kept referring us to Florida Christian. The biggest difference was the coaching staff here. My son wants to quarterback in college."

Think it's a pipe dream?

You must not have seen Johnson in the spring game, throwing Evangelical Christian for a loop. The Sentinels expected FCI to run right at them, just as it did to opponents the previous season. Not this year. The transfer completed 12-of-16 attempts for 185 yards and three scores, looking stellar against a Class A team with five straight playoff appearances.

A fast start, to be sure, but credit Wallace with an assist.

Aside from jotting down plays for Johnson to keep on his wristband during the games, the veteran quarterback has wrapped his passing arm around the 6-foot-2, 215-pound teenager. He invited him to be a ball boy for the Firecats this season, a job that allows him access to the Florida locker room.

"It's like you're playing through the kids," Hall said, explaining why the job is such a joy. "You're not out there, but you're in their minds. You are opening doors. You let them see things you've seen throughout the course of your career."

Hall, for one, has seen a lot. He played nearly a decade of arena football, beginning in the AFL and ending in the af2. He is now the assistant head coach for the Firecats, coaching linemen to play the game the way he did.

Hall has been FCI's principal since August, awarded the job two years after becoming the head coach. It was a different ballgame back then. The team competed in the Gulfside Christian Athletic Conference for the first two seasons, winning the league's flag football championship both years.

It was, well, too easy.

"The talent level we have can compete with anybody," Hall said, scanning the 2006 schedule for the first time. "I would take these 25 guys and play them against any team in the surrounding areas. We have variety this year. We can go into any offense at any given time depending on what defense we see."

It is true that coaching at FCI, just like teaching there, takes patience and understanding. The players are sure to grasp the concepts, but the instruction must be repeated again and again.

Something about football, though, pulls stronger than science or mathematics. Leonardo and Hall have noticed that athletics, like any privilege, can act as leverage against students who fail to meet everyday responsibilities.

Drive by Shady Oaks Park and the impact is obvious. When the Eagles make the 10-minute commute to practice each day, they bring a bus that carries 25 players. That's strong stuff for a school with 40 boys from the ninth grade up.

Clearly, the kids love football.

"We use it a lot as motivation," said Leonardo, who coaches the FCI basketball team. "We played a game last year, for example, up at Mount Dora in football. We had six kids who'd either smart- mouthed a teacher or didn't have all their work done. And every one of them got told two days before the game, 'You're not dressing, you're not going.' All six were starters. We still won the game, which is a benefit to being successful. But it wouldn't have mattered. We're real firm about what we expect your character to be."

• • •

FCI was Firecats Coaching Institute almost from the beginning.

Less than a year after the school opened its doors, Leonardo, who advertised the school on radio broadcasts, got a call from team president Chris Vallozzi. A couple of the players were looking for a place to teach. One of them was star receiver Cainon Lamb, who would help coach FCI's first flag team.

The wheels were in motion.

Eight Firecats have taught at FCI in the last four years, including Hall, Benton, Wallace and Burnside, who occupy spots on the staff today, working double duty during the months when their two jobs overlap.

There are some football players, of course, who need just one form of employment: play football. None of them, though, happens to be employed by the af2, a lunch-pail league full of bus trips and value meals.

Players in the af2 are throwbacks. They get paid by the game — $250 for a win, $200 for a loss — so having additional income is a must. It's the reason the Firecats practice in the evening, after the players have gotten off work.

Coaching football, to be sure, beats some of the alternatives. Especially for someone such as Wallace, who sees himself on the sideline for years to come.

"You draw a play up," Wallace said, "you want it to work this way. You predict the defense is going to do this. And then it happens that way and it absolutely works. That's like hitting a home run. Or throwing a touchdown pass."

The Firecats are passing more than instruction, however, when they report to work each day. They are role models for the kids, capable of impacting their lives in a way that other teachers can't.

Just ask Javian Battle.

The FCI receiver will be a sophomore next year, which means Benton could be his home-room teacher once again. Good thing. Battle has learned as much from the Florida star inside the school — where Benton encourages him to run straight ahead, avoiding those who try to bump him off his route to college — as he has outside of it.

"He's told me to stay away from the wrong crowd," Battle said. "He knows I hope to get a Division I scholarship down the road."

Down the road, of course, is where the inspiration lies.

Down the road, in Estero, is where the FCI coaches play the game, taking the field every Saturday night. Instead of simply issuing roadmaps to success, these mentors lead the way.

"We have all the positions covered," Johnson said. "To have all these coaches here is a big advantage. At some high schools some coaches never played at the next level. These coaches played at the next level and the pro level, so they've seen it all. It feels good just to be around them."