Painfully Talented
By JEHAN BOER ‘21
Twelve people sat in the stands of Maryland’s best high school football team as they got ready to play Canada Prep Academy, a small team that drove 9 hours to play in Baltimore because no one else would. Saint Frances Academy is a small Catholic school located in relatively poor area of Baltimore, Maryland. This school year, the Saint Frances team played just five games, all against teams in their own independent league, which they created for themselves because no one in their league would play them. They were just “too good.” But the fear of this team has only recently appeared. In fact, in recent years they have won only a minuscule percentage of their games, with a record 0 in 2010 and just 2 in 2015. So what, since then, has changed for this joke of a high school team? What catalyzed its transformation into such a strong program that in 2017 won every single game, outscoring the opponents by a total of 473 points? Most of the Saint Frances Panthers’ newfound success is at the hands of recently appointed head coach Biff Poggi, who is both an exceptional businessman and a stellar coach. Upon arrival at Saint Frances, Poggi certainly brought his wallet with him, having so far invested 2.5 million dollars into creating what he hoped will be a “national championship winning team.”
Puggi’s financial tactics, as well as his playbook, have obviously made the Panthers a nearly perfect team, with Saint Frances now ranked first in Maryland and seventh in the United States, but at a huge cost: the Panthers have suffered from a huge stroke of boredom this season, in hopes of just being able to compete. They have played five full games so far this whole school year. Puggi’s new program, its success, and the cause of that success have all been controversial topics. Supporters applaud the opportunity it has given and will give many teenagers from low-income Baltimore to receive numerous Division One football offers, yet critics find Puggi’s money-driven, ego-based obsession with being the best distasteful.
Regardless of your opinion on Puggi’s approach, it asks a very important question in the wide world of sports: what comes next? Is a “perfect” team worth it? In sports, similar, intentional situations often arise: for example, the French soccer club Paris Saint Germain (PSG), who for the past few years have received substantial funding from wealthy business owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi, spent well over a billion dollars in six years. PSG’s stacked squad have only lost one game out of their 25 this domestic season, an enormously above-average percentage, and they already lead the France Ligue 1 by a whopping 17 points. We may as well crown them champions already. So what happens next for these powerhouse teams, who are the instant favorites against any team they play? Obviously, the goal is to go bigger, to compete more nationally, and to win larger trophies until everything has been won. However, when you have no competition, the significance of being number one fades. I guess we will see whether Saint Frances’ and PSG’s overpowered squads and tedious domestic seasons buffer their playing as they go on to play larger teams and pursue grander titles, Saint Frances is shooting for the national championship, and PSG is craving to be crowned the champions of Europe. Stay tuned.