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St. Frances Academy Begins to Embrace New Football Program

Milton Kent

BALTIMORE, MD 2008-10-15

In the third installment of our occasional series, First and Goal: Football at St. Frances, WYPR's Milton Kent takes a look at how the St. Frances Academy community prepares not only to host a game, but to change a culture.

It's 6:30 on a warm Saturday October evening, and with just one hour to go before kickoff, Lyn Townes is scurrying about.

Townes is the parent-coordinator for the newly created St. Frances' football program. Right now, she's moving between the concession stand and the entrance to Cardinal Gibbons Stadium.

Her sole objective: to get things up and running.

It's our goal to have hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, chips, the average concession stand snack. Nothing too fancy right now, because it's not our kitchen. Usually, St. Frances will do it up big with concessions, but it's not our concession, so, we'll do it moderate, but good.

If all there was to creating a football culture was just rolling out the balls, St. Frances, a 180-year old private Catholic school in East Baltimore, might have done it years ago, rather than waiting until four months ago.

As it is, the school has been known in recent decades as a basketball school, with both the boys and girls teams winning their respective league championships last year.

But football has a different vibe to the school.

As Janae Hill, a St. Frances senior and the football team's manager, tells it, football has added a new discussion point in the school's hallways.

It's like we always got picked on because, wow, St. Frances is nothing but basketball. You'll never be anything but basketball. That's all we were known for. But we've put a spot on the map that we can be more than just basketball. 01:29

The Panthers arrived at last Friday's game after a tumultuous couple of weeks.

Following their shutout loss at Ballou in Southeast Washington three weeks ago, some of the St. Frances' players began showing up to practice late.

Some of them, upset about a possible change in their roles, threatened to quit.

Head coach Mike Clay laid down the law, telling the players that slacking off and insolent behavior would no longer be tolerated. The message got through, and the Panthers came back in the fourth quarter of a tough road game against Mahanoy City of Eastern Pennsylvania to win 25-21.

Travis Johnson, a St. Frances alum, and an assistant coach, says the players now have a better understanding of the commitment football demands.

Now, it's football. Now the pads are loosened, the anxiety's gone. Now, it's alright, time to do homework, play ball and time to actually this is their job. It's time to go to work. It's time to go to work.

Last Friday. St. Frances scored two touchdowns on six plays in the first quarter, and never looked back. The Panthers pitched a 26-0 shutout Friday against Mount Zion Baptist Christian School of East Baltimore, and return home this Friday against Caravel Academy of Delaware.

As proof that football is becoming a big deal at St. Frances, there's talk that the Midnight Madness launch of the basketball season might be replaced by a football pep rally next month.

For Lyn Townes, however, football is already a winner at St. Frances.
These boys came together. They didn't know each other, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, they came together and formed a family. And they did something that has not been done at this school in the 180 years of its existence. They started a brand new team. And that's success to me.

Sometimes, victories are about much more than numbers on a scoreboard.

I'm Milton Kent, reporting from Southwest Baltimore, for 88.1 WYPR.