WYPR: Football Comes to the St. Frances Academy (2008-09-05)

As kids return to classrooms, the sounds of fall are being heard all over the area. But for one Baltimore school, Saint Frances Academy, an entirely new sound is reverberating . WYPR's Milton Kent watched the action from the sidelines and filed this report, the first in a series.

Hit the jumping jacks on me. Are you ready? READY.
Are you ready? READY
Begin. P-A-N-T-H-E-R-S.
Break down. Play
Break down. Play
Break down. Play
Yelling

With that sound, Football 101 has launched for the first time in the 180-year history of Saint Frances.

The school, which sits on a matchbox-sized piece of property in the shadow of the Maryland Penitentiary, is jumping full bore into football, under the tutelage of head coach Mike Clay.

Here, before a recent scrimmage with Annapolis Area Christian School, Clay, and assistant coach Tim Fogle walk the offensive line through engaging linebackers on a running play.

214. 214. You got him, you got him and you got him. You guys just need to work the outside linebackers right away. It's only going to be two middle linebackers. It's probably going to be a 5-2, OK? So they're probably going to have a linebacker standing right here, behind this guard and a linebacker behind this guard. Texas, on them dives, you're going to have to work to these linebackers right away. 01:28

Three months ago, football at Saint Frances, a Catholic school run by the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the nation's oldest order of African-American nuns, was just a concept.

However, in short order, the go-ahead was given and a commitment, which may run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars was made.

Clay signed on as coach, though neither he nor any of his assistants are getting paid.

Beyond molding a program out of clay, the new coach is also tasked with a very different mission than he had at the significantly more affluent Annapolis school. Namely, Clay and his coaches must, in some cases, be father figures, as well as field leaders.

Again, Coach Clay.

You've got a lot of personalities. And it's just molding them personalities and getting them to play as a team. I think they're learning right now what that means. Just because you're athletic doesn't mean you're a good football team. You've got to start believing in each other and trusting each other.

The school found a piece of Druid Hill Park to conduct daily practices, though they expect soon to be working out on a parcel of land on school property.

Helmets, pads and uniforms have been purchased, and, Saturday night, Saint Frances will open against Delmar High of Delaware at Cardinal Gibbons.

As David Owens, the school's assistant athletic director, tells it, things have moved quickly. But success may not be determined in the traditional manner.

I think the success of the program is not measured in wins and losses, but measured in men. Measured in these boys becoming men. Boys to men. That's the moral of this story.

On this day, the story has a happy ending for Saint Frances, as the Panthers score four times on their initial 12-play drive in the scrimmage.

Defensively, Saint Frances keeps Annapolis Area Christian out of the end zone on all of their possessions, a fact that school president Sister John Francis Schilling took particular delight in.

And Clay, who, like many coaches, is a stickler for detail and perfection, seemed pleased with the Panthers' progress to date.

Congratulations. Good scrimmage. I hope you learned something from it. I hope you take something from it. The main thing is we're got to keep the intensity up the whole time. Games are long, OK. They're going to seem long. You've got to keep the intensity up. That was a good first scrimmage.

Of course, this venture has barely started. There will be injuries and other adversities to cope with between now and the season's end in mid-November.

Here, Clay reminds his players that they'll need to form bonds to make this experiment work.

Remember, we're not going to be on the sidelines, we're not going to be out there on the field during the game, right? You guys are going to have to work with each other out there. That's what it's all going to come down to. You've got to band together. You can't point fingers at each other. You've got to help each other, because we're not going to be there to officiate you guys arguing with each other and everything else.

For junior Bernie Vaughn, who transferred last October from Woodlawn High and starts in the backfield, it won't take long for the Panthers to make their mark, football novices or not.

A successful year, to me, is undefeated. I'd love to go undefeated, but hey, we're a first-year team. We're trying to get it done. One game at a time. We're going to play it one game at a time.

And that all starts Saturday.

Reporting from Druid Hill Park, I'm Milton Kent for 88.1, WYPR.