Always a Gladiator

The four Virginia Military Institute captains greeted their homecoming foe Presbyterian college and waited for the coin toss. On the right, a massive frame supported a red jersey bearing double eights.

Towering his four comrades the 6-foot, 5-inch 250-pound Tommy Lloyd grabbed the Blue Hose captain's hand and shook it violently. It was game time.

Lloyd was playing in his final homecoming game at defensive end. He has a low stance, almost awkward looking because of his size, but he makes it work.

Every once and a while Lloyd takes a short trip back up U.S. Route 11 winding north through the mountains looking for a football stadium's silhouette in Greenville - Riverheads.

"I love going back," Lloyd said.

A small-town school cramped by an interstate and a truck stop just down the road, that is the home of VMI's defensive pulse and of the team that won the Group A State Championship twice this decade.

The Gladiators' coach Robert Casto always reminds his players in a grizzly voice that they are going to be respectful and play with class. Something that Lloyd has taken with him to the halls of VMI.

"Every bye week, I go down there and watch football, but I've been trying to get [Casto] to come to VMI games." Lloyd said. "To be honest coach Casto reminds me a lot of what VMI is all about. Hard-nosed football, and will tell you straight up how it is. He expects a lot out of you. Casto has been more than a coach to me."

It's halftime now, and the Keydets are trailing 14-7.

"We missed a lot of tackles," Lloyd said. "We had a couple of missed assignments. It was simple football that's what hurts you."

VMI hasn't been a threat for a long time now - their last winning season was in 1981. The Keydets don't offer an excuse but it's important to look at the type of athlete they have to recruit. In addition to football, Keydets have class and the military aspect of the school.

"I'm not going to lie it's hard," Lloyd said. "You got the academics and they are no joke and the military aspect you have to be involved with that too, athletes don't get time off from that. In athletics you have four hours of football then you go back to work."

Lloyd fits perfectly into the structure.

"I feel like I wanted a challenge," Lloyd said. "There was stuff at home that was mixed up that I had to straighten out and I'm glad I came. It gave me a great deal of responsibility to put on myself. It turned me into a man."

The Keydets run back onto the field after halftime festivities, its time to go back to work.

In 2006 Lloyd drove up to Harrisonburg to see his former team play in the state championship game. His prospective of high school football has come along way.

"After playing with these big guys it reminds me of playing peewee football but I just love being back around Riverheads football, it something that is going to be a part of me for a while."

The third quarter is over, the Blue Hose puts up 21 points and the game is almost decided.

"We knew it was an important game," he said.

Lloyd has a history of making impressions on his coaches and under VMI coach Jim Reid, it's no different.

"I wouldn't want to come into this season without Tommy Lloyd," the second year coach said. "No offense to anybody, but everyone knows it. Tommy has always been a favorite of mine, and almost broke my heart last year. He was going to graduate, but his girlfriend wanted him to come back and [her] mother wanted him to come back. We were in constant communication trying to get him back here."

As the coach walked by Lloyd he punched him hard on the arm. A smile formed on the defensive end's square jaw.

The game was over, VMI lost 45-21.

"I didn't feel like they were much better than us," Lloyd said. "There were mixed emotions."

Just as he did at the start of the game, Lloyd led the team but this time to stand in front of the crowd. He took his helmet off and held it high in the air, as the rest of the team did the same and led the crowd in singing VMI spirit.

In the game he recorded one and a half sacks, eight tackles and a caused a fumble. He would have traded it all for the win.