When Jeff Golas was looking for someone to take over the Anne Arundel Admirals semi-pro football team he owned and ran for seven years, he wanted to give the team to someone he could trust, someone who would carry on his legacy.

Golas' first choice was an Arnold couple he had known for as long as the team had been in existence. The coupled jumped at the opportunity.

Tina DeLauter and Shawn Perkins have been a couple for several years and Golas knew how dedicated they have been to the team. Perkins played for the team in its first two seasons and then coached every year since. DeLauter was always with him at the games and the practices, doing whatever she could to help.

"He trusted us," DeLauter said, "and because we love the game and love the team so much we immediately said 'absolutely yes.' We figured we would figure out the details and such later. He knew we're all about football."

Now, DeLauter is the owner of the Admirals, which will play this spring in the East Coast Football Alliance. And while she is a partner with Perkins, he says in no uncertain terms, "We're in it together but she is the owner and I'm the defensive coordinator.

"Tina definitely holds the ship together. She knows football, really knows it," said Perkins, a graduate of Broadneck High who also played at Wake Forest University. "She knows football, she understands it. She doesn't have to ask what a Cover 2 defense is or why they do certain things.

"She understands the positions and what the players' jobs are who are playing those positions," Perkins said with more than a hint of pride.

She is a petite woman, an unlikely owner of a football team and a mother of a teenage son.

More importantly, she is also a knowledgeable and opinionated football fan. She has specific expectations of the players and the team and she readily lets them be known. She is a no-nonsense, business-minded, discipline-oriented boss.

"Some of the players think I'm a team mom instead of the owner," said DeLauter.

While that may be her perceived persona at the practices and games, she shoulders the responsibilities of owner away from the field.

"I'm out going to store owners and restaurant owners and anyone else who might help us as a partial sponsor of the team. That's been very stressful, but we need sponsors badly," DeLauter related.

She said that it will cost in the vicinity of $14,000 to keep the team going for the year and that is with the players having to pay dues to be a member of the team and buy most of their own equipment.

"We're a non-profit organization, really non-profit in every way," DeLauter said with a laugh. "We've seen our bank accounts go down fast. Running the team is a huge task, but it's something we love doing."

DeLauter, who moved here 10 years ago from Howard County, is an office manager for a local law firm. Perkins, who coached the Cape St. Clair youth teams where DeLauter's son Cody Weese played for several years, is a telecommunications technician in Washington.

Yet they are willing to use their own money if that's what it takes to keep the Admirals alive and well - and winning.

"It would be nice if the players didn't have to buy their own equipment, but we also have to pay league dues, pay officials' fees and we'd like to be able to have both home and away jerseys, team sweatshirts and T-shirts and such. But we really don't have funds to do that," Perkins said.

"I want to get bars or restaurants as sponsors so we can have places to meet. I want other businesses (involved) so that I'll be able to give the players things they need to make them feel they're special because to us they are," DeLauter explained. "We want the players to feel appreciated."

The roster includes 45 players, whittled down from 136 who showed up for tryouts in October, many of whom underestimated the seriousness of management. Several thought they just had to show up to make the team.

"I wanted to instill the fact that we're not a beer league team, that we're serious about what we're doing. Nobody was going to come out to practice drunk, practices were tightly run and the games would be more disciplined. A lot of the guys who came out actually cut themselves," Perkins said.

Currently, 90 percent of the players who will play their first game on March 10 at the Cape St. Clair Recreation Council Field are local, most of them from Broadneck and Old Mill high schools.

"Our main focus when we took over the team was to make the team for hometown players. We wanted to be a representative of Anne Arundel County," Perkins said.

DeLauter said she loves seeing the ongoing rivalry between the Broadneck and Old Mill graduates because it makes for a lot of fun and helps team chemistry.

"One of the things we love most is seeing a lot of players we've known or seen on the football field since they played in the youth leagues and then in high school," DeLauter said.

"Some of them came to us after college, some came because they didn't go to college. Some others went to a college that didn't work out for them so they came to play for us to stay in football," Perkins said.

"There are some kids who are playing for us who may be going to college next year and want to use our game tapes to help them try to play football."

DeLauter pointed out that players who don't realize she's the owner often come to her for anything: "Do you have tape? Did you get a good picture of me today?"

That's OK with her and she laughs at the perception that she's simply being Perkins' other half.

But she doesn't shy away from playing the owner role as well.

"At one practice I was seeing a few things that weren't making me happy," DeLauter related. "At the end of the practice, when everybody got together to listen to what the coaches had to say, I stepped in and said loudly, 'I saw some things that I did not like.' And the players looked at me with their heads crooked.

"I looked at them and said, 'Yes, I understand football, too.' And they were stunned," she said with her omnipresent laugh.

Jeff Golas can rest easy: There's no doubt that with Tina DeLauter running the show, the Admirals are definitely in good hands.