At about 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, the first day of high school practices, Edmondson High football coach Pete Pompey leapt from the bed in his Randallstown home. The former Morgan State quarterback felt like he could throw a mile-long pass.

"An hour later, I'm on the Edmondson football field. It's like 100 degrees or something, and practice don't start until 8," said Pompey, 62, beginning his 29th year as a football head coach. "I don't know how long I'm going to keep doing it, but right now, I'm having too much fun. It's another football season, man, and I'm ready to roll."

In Perry Hall, an eager Roger Wrenn of Patterson emerged from a sleepless night like a child on Christmas.

"Another fitful, sleepless night, but it's been that way ever since I can remember," said Wrenn, 57, a head coach for one fewer season than Pompey. "I still get excited just like a little kid. The day I don't is the day I quit."

That day may be close for each of them, but not before they hit milestone victories next month. Wrenn goes for his 200th win in Patterson's opener against Northwestern, and if Pompey's Red Storm wins its first game, he could achieve No. 200 a week later, against neighborhood rival Walbrook.

Wrenn and Pompey have won a lot more along the way: the respect of colleagues, administrators, players - and each other.

"With all that it takes to coach in the city, they still have the energy and the desire to motivate kids," said Laura D'Anna, a city administrator who knows both coaches. "They have high standards. No excuses. No tolerating things that aren't compliant with the success of the team."

A Patterson principal for five years, D'Anna worked with Pompey for 11 years as an assistant principal at Edmondson.

"You don't see their sidelines out of order. Helmets are on, kids are focused on what's going on in the game," D'Anna said. "Coaching in the city, you have to be tough on kids but show them you care. Pete does it with a dynamic personality; Roger's low-keyed, but gets his point across quietly."

"I consider them high school masterminds," Forest Park coach Obie Barnes said. "They will finesse, technique you and then come right at you. They mix it up offensively and then deliver the knockout blow."

"When you play a Roger Wrenn-coached team, you know you have to out-motivate him. You know he's getting the best out of his kids," Pompey said.

"There are some teams when they're coming up, you're not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over it. But with Pompey as a coach, it's never just another game," Wrenn said.

Mutual respect

Adversaries on the sideline, they were face-to-face across a table during a recent brunch at a local sports bar. They clearly look forward to the next time their teams meet on the field - Oct. 11 at Utz Twardowicz Field in Patterson Park.

In head-to-head meetings, Wrenn has a 7-6-1 edge on Pompey, who coached six years at Dunbar through 1992.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I work harder against Roger than [I do against] most other guys," Pompey said. "But I respect his understanding and his ability to get his kids to do the things they need to do in a football game. You have to work your tail off to beat his teams."

Wrenn said: "In my preseason meeting with my assistant coaches, I told them we'd get out of Sunday coaches meetings at 8 p.m. - except the one before we play Edmondson. There's a star next to that one on the schedule."

If retirement is on the horizon, it's because each has given much to his players, though Pompey and Wrenn probably would argue they've gotten much in return.

"I spend a lot of long hours after practice with kids - grabbing this one, finding out what that one's problem is. Through it all, my wife, Barbara, she's been the best thing that's ever happened to me," said Pompey, who coached Dunbar to the mythical national basketball championship in 1992. "While I've been raising other people's children, she was raising my daughter. I really have to think about that. Now, I have two grandsons. They're 7 and 5. They're already playing Pop Warner football. The clock is ticking, and they're part of the calendar."

Pompey was nearly in tears recalling a tribute in February, when NFL players Tommy Polley and Warren Powers, respective Dunbar and Edmondson graduates, thanked him for being there when their fathers weren't.

Wrenn was choked up while sharing the story of a Patterson alumnus - a player so emotionally troubled by the drug-induced death of his brother that he barely made the grades to graduate from high school. However, he went on to get his college degree and became a high school coach and principal.

"Coaching mostly African- American players, it may take a while for a young man to trust you, realize you're really what you say you are," said Wrenn, who is white. "I have no hidden agenda other than their well-being and their future."

Wrenn said his sons, Alex, 22, a computer analyst, and Russell, 24, an assistant football coach at Johns Hopkins, were forced to share him with the thousands of players he has coached.

"Working sometimes 12, 14 hours a day, I didn't spend as much time with my own children as I would have liked to. It's been hard on my family," said Wrenn, divorced for six years.

Health limits Wrenn

Wrenn's health is a factor in his coaching future.

Last spring, two days before he was to begin his 28th year as Patterson's baseball coach - with 391 career victories, he ranks in the top 10 all time in the state - Wrenn retired from that position. Having suffered a stroke in November 2000, which forced him to miss the season's final football game, Wrenn had been unable to shake flu-like symptoms. The problems continued throughout the 2001-2002 school year until he surrendered to his doctor's requests to "slow down."

"[The doctor] said, 'Do you want to live to see your grandsons?' That got my attention."

However much longer they coach, Wrenn and Pompey likely will continue to bond with their players.

"It's tough love," said D'Anna, the school administrator. "They have an intense way of caring. It extends beyond the football field. They have a way of making young men see in themselves things that they ordinarily might not see."

Edmondson sophomore Mark Hicks can attest to that. Hicks recalled a game situation last fall during which Pompey had also made him believe in himself.

"I didn't get through a hole fast enough to make a tackle, and he said, 'What happened?' And I said, 'There were too many blockers,' " said Hicks, who then launched into a near-perfect imitation of the guttural Pompey. "He said, 'Look, son, your name is Mark Hicks: You can make a hole.' That right there had me pumped up. So the next time, I busted right through and made the tackle."

Pompey's tough love

Last fall, after a promising freshman season that earned him second-team All-Baltimore City/County honors, Hicks was so emotionally distraught after the December shooting death of a cousin that he nearly quit school and scrapped his football career.

A long talk with Pompey persuaded him to do otherwise.

"I was like, 'Forget all this stuff. I don't want to play any more football,' " Hicks recalled. "He said, 'Stay in school, go to college; you've got talent. You can make your family proud.'

"I've been frustrated with class or stuff outside of school when my father wasn't really there. I'm glad he yells at me. He's hard on me. Without that, I wouldn't try hard."

Patterson's Antwan Johnson, a highly recruited senior defensive end, has similar stories about Wrenn. Wrenn has cornered him about his classwork and his appearance, Johnson said.

"I like to wear long T-shirts out of my pants, stuff like that. Coach Wrenn's like, 'This is not the way you need to be dressing. Scouts and college recruiters are coming here to look at you. You want to look like a clean-cut person, not a thug on the street,' " Johnson said. "I understood that because he was telling me the truth and I needed to listen. That was a year ago, and, at the time, my father wasn't in my life. Coach Wrenn's a father on the field. He's always talking about life. I need to listen to get where I need to be."

Top winners

The top 10 coaches in football victories in the Baltimore area:

Name, School..........Wins

Doug DuVall, Wilde Lake...240

Roger Wrenn, Patterson...199

Pete Pompey, Edmondson...198

George Petrides, City...163

Dave Cesky, Fallston...136

Steve Harward, C.M. Wright...128

Obie Barnes, Forest Park...126

Roy Brown, Annapolis...95

Chuck Markiewicz, Arundel...83

Jeff Herrick, Broadneck...83