Alums help guide football fortunes at Hampton U.

HAMPTON

In his last job, Keith Goganious worked with lawyers. Now he deals with linebackers.

There's really not much difference, Goganious says.

"They've both kind of got a mean streak, and you're not quite sure what they're going to do if you say the wrong thing to them," he said.

Goganious, 40, smiled and wiped his brow. He was standing under the hot sun at Hampton University's football media day, clad in coaching attire - shorts and an HU T-shirt. It was a far cry from the work uniform he wore in the sales and marketing jobs he's held since retiring from the NFL more than a decade ago.

"I was a corporate guy: power suit, power tie," he said.

Football was never far from his mind, though. Now Goganious, a former star at Green Run High and Penn State, is back in it full-time as the Pirates' linebackers coach.

So is another South Hampton Roads product: Pete Allen, who starred at Granby High and the University of Virginia. Allen, who was teaching middle school, is the Pirates' new receivers coach.

Both were hired by Norview High graduate Donovan Rose, who is in his 19th year at Hampton but his first as head coach, giving the Pirates' staff a distinct South Hampton Roads flavor.

"I was looking for professionals, teachers, people that I could trust, with energy and talent," Rose said.

Rose kept three members of last year's staff and hired five newcomers, including Goganious, Allen, and former NFL player Cordell Taylor, a Norview and Hampton graduate who has since resigned for personal reasons.

Goganious was working in Washington for the American Bar Association in marketing and sponsorships. A former linebacker with Buffalo, Jacksonville and Baltimore, he also volunteered as linebackers coach at North Point High School in Waldorf, Md.

Penn State connections helped him land that job - North Point's head coach is A.K. Johnson, brother of Penn State assistant coach Larry Johnson.

It was a way to stay in the game, and it led to Goganious landing at Hampton. He called Rose last winter to tell him about a couple of North Point players the Pirates might be interested in recruiting. Rose was still an assistant coach, though by then he was in the running for the head job.

"I told him, 'Hey, if an opportunity ever came up, I'd come back home,' " Goganious said. " About a week later, he got the job and he called me and asked if I'd be interested in coaching linebackers."

Goganious was hired a couple of weeks later. In addition to coaching linebackers, he runs Hampton's football camp and serves as a liasion with the NFL. He also recruits South Hampton Roads and parts of Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio.

"I was in sales for a long time, and that's helped me be able to go out and represent the school, things outside of football we can provide for the young men," he said. "So it helps a lot coming from the corporate world."

Allen, 35, comes from the world of education, serving as a middle school geography teacher while volunteering as a coach at Maury and Great Bridge. He caught 81 passes at Virginia from 1992-95 and signed with the Falcons as a free agent in 1996.

Allen didn't stick with Atlanta, and played in the Canadian League and the Arena Football League before retiring a decade ago after rupturing an Achilles tendon for the second time.

"The same day, two years apart," he said. "I tore one on Feb. 3, then the other on the same day two years later."

It was enough to convince Allen, a slight 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, to give up playing, but not the game itself. A call from Lake Taylor coach Hank Sawyer asking Allen to come work with a player got him into coaching. He's been in it ever since.

Allen worked with former All-Tidewater receiver Logan Heastie at Great Bridge and was at Maury when Rose got the Hampton job.

"One thing led to another," Allen said.

Allen occasionally misses the classroom but believes he's found his niche working with older students in a hands-on fashion.

"He's still got a lot left in him, a lot of energy, so he can demonstrate to the guys," Rose said.

Goganious said he's feeling re-energized as well, embarking on a new, but familiar career path after years in the corporate world.

"This is full-time football for me," he said. "I'm excited to be back."

Ed Miller, (757) 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com