It must be a big football game coming up at 1 p.m. tomorrow between No. 9 Wilde Lake and No. 1 River Hill because yesterday’s Wildecats’ practice was overpopulated by former Wilde Lake players and the word had spread all the way to California.

"I’m in L.A. and I’m getting e-mail about it," said Patrick Brown, who played tight end for the 1992 Wildecats. "The idea was that they’d show up at the end of the afternoon conditioning drills to help motivate the players for the big game and as a thank you to coach [Doug] DuVall, who’s coaching his last season."

More than 25 former players came to practice. Brown wished he could be with them, but he was on his way to an audition for a Kellogg’s commercial. Brown is an actor, who you might have seen in small parts in television series like Las Vegas, Boston Legal and The Wire. In March, he will be seen in Sandra Bullock’s new movie "All About Steve."

"I’ve been here four years and it takes 10 years to be an overnight success in this town," he said. "I’m going through the process."

Brown perseveres, a trait he learned while playing football.

The lessons learned playing for DuVall at Wilde Lake were the main point made yesterday by the former players.

Brent Guyton, The Baltimore Sun’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1991, who went on to play for UCLA, made a point about expectations.

"You leave everything you have on the field," said Guyton, who carries the memory of winning a state championship in the last game he ever played for the Wildecats. He told the current players they needed "to have the character to do that for themselves and for one another."

Also present was Keith Gonsouland, who played fullback from 1988 through the 1990 season. Gonsouland now coaches lacrosse at River Hill.

"Fifteen of my lacrosse players are on the River Hill football team," he said. "I’ll want both sides to do well, but quite honestly coach DuVall taught me the lessons of life. One of the biggest of those was to have character in the face of adversity and to take pride in who you are and what you do."

The idea of showing their support was generated by Jack Bradford, the 1985 team captain, and the players who showed up represented teams from 1974 to 2004.

When DuVall saw them, he cried.

"Must have been the wind in my eyes," he said, then admitted to his emotion. "That was amazing. Everybody in life should be so lucky as to have a moment like that. And it had such an impact on the kids."

When Brown was in high school, he had no idea how long-lived his interest in the school football team would be. In fact, he very well might not have even been on the team had it not been for his late friend Eric Sutton, who dragged him out of bed on the morning two-a-days began and simply made him try out and continue to go to practice.

"I thought I was more interested in hanging out and partying," said Brown. "But my old friend Eric, he was a linebacker for the 1991 class, made me go to practice and keep going."

And once he was there, he found motivation from DuVall, who many expect to be at his best tomorrow, when he gives his pre-game speech.

"I think this game is going to be a tough test," said Brown. "It sounds like River Hill is a new powerhouse in the area... But Coach DuVall’s love and passion for the game comes through in his pre-game speeches.

"He had us ready to pull down walls for him."

Brown said he couldn’t -- or just wouldn’t, actually -- give details of those speeches, because, "they were something we hold pretty close to our hearts." But Brown said he knows DuVall still finds great, motivational stories to tell.

"I will tell you this. he’ll talk about the ghosts in the uniforms they’re wearing," he said. "He’ll talk about the players of the past coming back from five state championships. Coach DuVall lets them know there were people before them who wore the same number and pads, who were willing to do everything they could to be the best."

Tomorrow, DuVall knows it will take everything Wilde Lake has to beat the best.

Asked if the appearance and speeches by his former players will make a difference in the way his current team plays, the coach thought for only a moment.

"I don’t know if it will make a difference in how we play," he said. "But I know it will make a difference in how they grow up."

-- Sandra McKee