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RADFORD -- Officials summoned to the Radford High School junior varsity football sidelines this fall for an explanation of an on-field ruling could be in for a lengthy discussion.

In other words, it might be a good idea for the stripe-shirted lawmen to brush up on their knowledge of current gridiron statutes. When it comes to the Bobcats JV, the term "advocacy" will take on a whole new meaning.

It's liable to get complicated with impending conferences with the officials. So complex, in fact, that the referees will need to see a lawyer. Actually, that's not entirely true. The officials will need to see two lawyers.

That's what Radford has coaching it this fall, a couple of lawyers. Brothers Richie and Bev Davis of the firm Davis, Davis, & Davis Attorneys have made it their public service project to return to their alma mater and moonlight as football coaches while continuing to practice law.

How this came to be started when the Davises, ex-Bobcats both, heard word this summer that Radford coach Norman Lineburg was short a couple of assistants on his coaching staff.

Bev Davis went right over to see Lineburg that night. Never mind that the greatest coach in Radford history habitually keeps early evening hours.

"I think I was in my pajamas when he came over," Lineburg said. "But we did need somebody to coach the JV."

Bev Davis was brief.

"If you need a coach, then my brother Richie would love to be the head JV coach," he said.

Lineburg agreed on the spot.

Richie Davis grimaces slightly when he hears that account.

"We're co-coaches," he said.

Bev Davis objected.

"Maybe on the field we're co-coaches, but everybody knows he's the head coach."

Put it this way. When a young man botches an assignment, he'll hear from Richie Davis first.

"He'll get on you when you mess something up," sophomore middle linebacker Brian Sowers said. Added end Ryan Webb: "He knows what he's talking about. You can tell he's a lawyer."

Bev Davis takes a more subtle approach.

"He'll encourage you and kind of coach you along," Sowers said. "But he can get on you, too, if you need it."

For Richie Davis, 41 and a year older than Bev Davis, coaching is nothing new. He has an extensive background as an assistant coach at both the high school and college levels after stints with the Fork Union Military Academy postgraduate team, VMI and one season a while back as a varsity assistant at Radford.

Both brothers had successful high school playing careers with the Bobcats (Richie Davis' last season was 1982; Bev Davis's was 1983). Both went on to four more years of football as players for Hampden-Sydney where, as the saying goes, men are men and women are guests.

The two are members of a distinguished line of counselors and sportsmen whose branches extend back to the family seat in Franklin County. Their father, Dick Davis, has had a long Radford career as lawyer, judge and author and continues to practice.

"He loves Radford football," Bev Davis said. "Our dad is the quintessential fence leaner. He'll take his Bobcats cushion and use it when he leans against the fence to watch the game."

Football has always been a family affair for the Davises. Their late mother, Mary Alice, was renowned for the Thursday suppers she'd fix for hordes of Bobcats who would come by between the afternoon varsity football practice and the evening JV game.

Richie Davis was a standout high school linebacker (he was the monster, in Radford lexicon) and fullback for the Bobcats; Bev Davis played quarterback and defensive back. Richie Davis started his last two college seasons at linebacker. Bev Davis was a senior starter at defensive back for the Tigers. Three of those college seasons, they were teammates.

"Both of them were fine football players for us," Lineburg said.

Richie Davis graduated from Hampden-Sydney and went on to a job as an assistant coach at Fork Union. At the same time, he was earning a master's degree in education and history at the University of Virginia. After that, from 1990-93, he served as an assistant coach to Jim Shuck at VMI.

When Shuck was fired, Richie Davis opted for law school at Samford University in Alabama, finishing in 1996.

Bev Davis went straight from undergraduate studies to the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. It was on to the family firm after that.

Coaching football has been kind of hectic for both brothers, each a family man with two small children.

Their law schedules have had to be juggled artfully. When two-a-day practices were going on, each had all his court cases continued until September. Fitting it all in has been a headache at times. Richie Davis once had to show up for a late-afternoon meeting at the Pulaski County courthouse still wearing his coaching shorts and T-shirt.

"Still, I think Bev has missed only one practice and so have I," Richie Davis said.

The brothers predict that it is unlikely their coaching careers will extend more than one season, stressing over and over that the reason they're doing it is loyalty to their former coach. The job is particularly gratifying to them because Lineburg has announced that this will be his last as coach after 37 years at Radford.

The Davises took time to salute their fellow JV coaches Jerry Hendricks and Jed DeHart as well as the rest of the coaches on the staff who have helped catch them up on things and smooth the transition.

Now that the Davises have settled in, Lineburg says that there a clear style difference between the two when it comes to coaching.

"Richie is the peremptory one when he's talking to the players," Lineburg said. "Bev says 'Please.' "