Hampton--They surround Mike Smith as he sits at his desk, peering over the coach's shoulder while he answers the phone or watches game tapes.

He meets their gazes from time to time.

With a glance toward a framed picture of players standing shoulder-to-shoulder, the longtime Hampton football coach says, "That one up there is the first state championship team I ever had." With a turn of his head toward another team photo: "The guy on the left over there standing with them was a student coach, a grad assistant, and he's the mayor of Norfolk now."

In a picture of the coin toss from the 1975 championship game - the first of Smith's 11 state titles - is Dwight Stephenson, who played eight seasons at center for the Miami Dolphins after earning All-American honors at Alabama. His enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, is depicted on an afghan folded over a chair. On another wall, in a black-and-white snapshot, a youngster in plaid pants and long curls smiles ever-so-slightly on the sidelines.

The child is Smith's oldest son, Shannon, but all these people are his family.

During his 34 years at Hampton, Smith - Virginia's all-time winningest coach at 359-52-2 entering this season - has seen his share of stars suit up in the Crabbers' colors, and the tradition shows no sign of stopping. Last Thursday, Smith watched former Hampton quarterback Marques Hagans pass for 306 yards in Virginia's 26-21 upset of No. 4 Florida State.

"You've got to be so happy for them," Smith said. "You're really proud of them, like being a proud parent."

Smith isn't the only area coach busting his buttons. At Phoebus, Bill Dee has produced his share of prospects in 21 seasons with the Phantoms, including current Hokies Xavier Adibi and D.J. Parker.

The prime-time players have racked up impressive resumes over the years. Adibi and Parker were part of Phoebus' back-to-back state championships in 2001 and 2002, when the Phantoms scored three of their six all-time wins over Hampton. The Crabbers - whose freshman quarterback, Ronald Curry, came of age in a 1994 Hampton-Phoebus overtime thriller that both coaches still recall in vivid detail - won four straight crowns from 1995-98.

The teams' present-day talent - Crabbers' quarterback Tyrod Taylor and running back Jacobi Fenner, brother of ex-Crabber and current Maryland receiver Derrick Fenner; Phantoms QB Arron Ward and tight end Matt Wright, Parker's brother - will be on display tonight at Darling Stadium. The teams take the field at 7 p.m. in what has evolved into the football game of the year.

"It's exciting. There's no question," Dee said. "That's why you put the pads on, for games where you have a great crowd and two great football teams."

STARS ARE BORN

The stage seemed enormous the first time Elan Lewis stepped onto it.

"I was scared. I felt like I was playing for the Super Bowl or something," said the former Phoebus running back, who would go on to gain 7,156 yards - fourth-best in state history - before following the Phantom pipeline to Blacksburg.

One hundred and sixty-six of those yards came as a sophomore in Phoebus' 28-7 victory over Hampton in 2002. But before 2001, the Crabbers dominated the rivalry - including a regular-season and a playoff win in Hagans' junior season in 1998.

Now a senior in Charlottesville, Hagans has grown accustomed to big games in the ACC. But Hampton-Phoebus still holds a special place in his memory.

"It's not like when you're in college and one team is in one city and one team is in another, or away in another state," he said. On Hampton-Phoebus game week, he said, "It's nothing to go into the 7-11 and see people from the other team."

Players from both schools, located 15 minutes apart, often socialize before lining up against each other.

"You're friends off the field, but on the field, it's a war between the lines," said Micah Littlejohn, a former Phoebus defensive end now at Hampton University.

Former Hampton High linebacker Charles Robinson, Robinson's college teammate, has a cousin in tonight's game - Phoebus tailback Dennis Mathis.

Such proximity and intra-school connections help make the rivalry so fierce.

"That's just the beauty of it," former Hampton and current Virginia Tech player Jimmy Williams said. "(At) barber shops, they're betting on the game during the week."

Adibi, a sophomore linebacker for the Hokies, rates his first victory over Hampton, which came in 2001 and snapped a long losing streak to the Crabbers, as his best high school football memory. And Adibi was one of several head-turning players who made a lasting impression on his coach.

"Some of them just have a certain thing about them," Dee said. "What separates them is once they know they're good, what they do with it after that."

Smith has identified some common traits in his marquee players.

"They all work hard, they all respect their teammates and their coaches, respect the people in the school," he said. "They don't let the negatives bother them when they're playing. They go to the next play. . ... The game is fun to those guys."

One name crops up in conversation with both coaches as they reflect on their teams' rivalry: Ronald Curry. The current Oakland Raiders wide receiver was a freshman in 1994 when he produced the defining play in an instant classic.

Each team brought an undefeated record into that November night. Phoebus built a 14-0 lead during the second quarter, but the Crabbers rallied to send the game into overtime.

In the extra period, Phoebus scored on its first possession - without much resistance from the Crabbers, Smith said. But Hampton matched the score on Curry's 1-yard sneak.

Not wanting to face the Phantoms' offense again, Smith rolled the dice and went for two. Curry lofted a pass that Noell Rainey pulled down in the end zone for a 22-21 Hampton victory.

"I can still see that pass he threw, in the corner," Smith said.

"That was quite a game," Dee said. "We hated to lose."

Dee prefers to think about the playoff meeting two years ago, when Phoebus outlasted Hampton 24-20 - a game Smith also recalls because he spent it in the hospital, recovering from gallbladder surgery.

"There's been so many good games," Dee said. "They're a lot more fun when you win."

COACHING CONSTANTS

While the cast of characters on the field is ever-changing, the men calling the plays have been sideline-stalking fixtures for two decades.

"I loved playing for coach Smith," Hagans said. "He stayed on you hard, he practiced you hard, but when you (did) something right or won big games, he was the first one there to congratulate you and tell you how much he loved you and how proud of you he was.

"Monday through Thursday, he worked your butt off, but you appreciated it on Friday."

The victories are important, Smith said, but so is the process.

"I want these kids to succeed for themselves," he said. "In a sense, I think (football) prepares them for life, the things they have to deal with, the ups and downs. ... The objective, I think, is to put them in a situation where they're going to learn life skills."

Accomplishing that goal means more than diagramming plays. Derrick Fenner remembers lasagna dinners at Smith's house, when the coach would dip into his stockpile of jokes and stories.

"We could just chill at dinner and have a good conversation," Fenner said. "(He's) a very intelligent guy. He's got a good sense of humor."

The players know, though, that not everyone sees the softer side of their coaches.

"When people think about Coach Smith, they might think that he (is) cocky and arrogant, but once you sit down and talk to him, you'll see how funny a guy he really is," Robinson said.

Dee also has an at-times controversial reputation - a fiery demeanor his players have confronted first-hand.

Lewis remembers the first time he ever saw Dee on the practice field.

"He was fussing and cussing and yelling at everybody," Lewis said. "I thought, 'Man, I'm not gonna make it through here.' "

But Lewis got to know Dee, and began talking to his coach about school, family - anything.

"My father, he wasn't there for me growing up," Lewis said. "I could call him on the phone, (but) for some reason, I just didn't turn to him. I just turned to coach Dee all the time."

That's part of the job for coaches who have been at it as long as Smith and Dee, who can notch career victory No. 198 tonight.

"When you've got that word "coach" in front of your name, it's a code name for surrogate father," Dee said. " ... All the wins are nice, but it's also nice that you helped a lot of kids at more than just football."