Verbum Deis football team prepares to rise again,

It was as startling as seeing a bear swimming in a yard pool.

Travis Russell, the 40-year-old Jesuit priest who’s president at Verbum Dei High, was carrying around a Craftsman software box as if he have been the varsity’s handyman. He pulled out a hammer to exhibit he is aware of what he’s doing.

“I had to hang up a picture of the new pope,” he said.

It’s all palms on deck at “The Verb,” a beacon of hope for many in South Los Angeles. With an enrollment of 310 college students, the all-boys Catholic faculty in Watts has a tuition of just $4,000, with most households paying $1,200 thanks to help from a company work research program and other Catholic scholarship funds.

Once a powerhouse in basketball in the Nineteen Seventies with the likes of Raymond Lewis, David Greenwood and Roy Hamilton, the varsity canceled its football season after 4 video games in 2024 because of a lack of gamers. It was a choice made by Russell, who believed his faculty needed to start over.

He employed as head coach Gary Parks, who was an assistant for Verbum Dei’s 2005 championship football team and is a Verbum Dei grad. Russell employed another Verbum Dei grad, Darius Spates, to be athletic director. Parks employed 5 assistants who are Verbum Dei grads. Everyone determined to return to football slowly, so the team gained’t play its first sport this season until Sept. 19 against against Belmont, then host its first home sport in more than 20 years on a new grass discipline against Rancho Dominguez on Oct. 24.

The faculty is present process a $30-million reconstruction project.

“The assignment is rebuilding the legacy and tradition of Verbum Dei,” said Parks, a Baptist pastor who spent 4 years as head coach at Maya Angelou High until being called back to obligation at The Verb.

Russell has made it clear that despite some Catholic colleges utilizing a strategy to repair sports activities applications shortly by turning to transfers and guarantees of financial breaks and other perks, he desires none of that.

“When you build for a community rather than just a school, loyalty and long-term success follow,” Russell said.

Parks desires to construct with each freshman class.

“That’s what we did at Angelou,” he said. “We want you to come because Verbum Dei is a great educational institution. Football is a byproduct.”

All college students take part in a company work research program that requires them once a week to get real work expertise. Some have to show up carrying a swimsuit and tie. They are balancing work, sports activities participation and faculty as 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds, one thing that prepares them for faculty and maturity.

“It’s definitely going better,” said 250-pound Geovanny Gutierrez. “Last year there was no motivation to play.”

They’ve been utilizing a artificial turf discipline constructed by the Rams at close by Nickerson Gardens while ready for their new discipline to be completed next month. Otherwise, they work out in their weight room or asphalt next to the varsity parking zone.

“We’re going to make it work,” Parks said. “That’s why we don’t mind practicing on blacktop. We know what we could be.”

The program now has 26 gamers, including 12 freshmen. This is a program building step by step, focusing on lecturers during the day, research halls, then sports activities in the afternoon.

Adrian Alvarado was on the team last 12 months but virtually didn’t come out this 12 months after last season’s abrupt halt.

“I felt disappointed,” he said. “I like the idea we’re starting slow. We’ve been able to recruit more students. I just want to get a game in already.”

It’s a refreshing and inspiring scene to see an administration and teaching employees on the same web page by utilizing sports activities to educate life classes while not trying for shortcuts in order to win first.

Russell has never shied away from a problem, and getting the football program back led him to say he would possibly make a call to the Vatican with a message for Pope Leo XIV, who’s a sports activities fan.

“I’ll invite him to a game here,” he said.

Welcome to the new Verbum Dei, full of hope, full of goals, full of respect for its households and group.