Weeks of 'rain or shine' have culminated in these last few crucial days of preparation for Friendship Collegiate football.
The Knights have embraced the yo-yo-like outdoor elements inherent to late fall in D.C, as they continue building their case for a DCSAA trophy.
“I actually told my teammates, I’m like ‘I’m going with no sleeves…Every time we play from now on I’m going with no sleeves. I get that from Bryan Dawkins,” standout cornerback Christian Braswell recalled conversation with teammates from early-Fall.
Braswell has stuck to that promise, as his team has stuck to their collective goals.
“We had a lot more success this season than some of the past seasons but I think what’s really taken this team to where it is now is we have a big class of seniors and a lot of senior leaders. It’s really what drives us,” said senior running back Vincent Abney.
This shot at a title is a special for this group, none of whom have experienced a championship-crowning moment as a Knight.
But these athletes are fortunate to even have the chance now to play for a championship; if they had attended the school just five years earlier, no such season-punctuating opportunity would’ve existed.
As a public independent charter school, Friendship Collegiate ended each sports season, regardless of record or success, at the close of the regular season schedule. Nearby, private D.C. schools like Gonzaga, St. John’s, and Georgetown Prep got to experience a ‘pinnacle’, as they competed in the Catholic conference’s WCAC championship.
“Back in 2011, we finished with a 9-1 record, we were seventh in the high school rankings but we weren’t eligible to play for a championship and I think that got a lot of talk, a lot of buzz going around the city of who the “real DC champion” was, so to speak,” longtime head coach Mike Hunter explained.
The competitive level of play that reached quick plateaus at the end of each season forced a thirst for a championship within the D.C. community. Then-mayor Vincent Gray responded.
The District of Columbia Athletic Association was born in 2011, creating title opportunities for fourteen sports in fourteen high schools that previously went without.
Coach Hunter, who oversees athletics at all member schools while serving as the head guy for Knights football, led Friendship to the first-ever DCSAA football title in 2012. He said the title games are exciting and can add another sense of accomplishment to the kids' pockets.
But just having sports at all means much greater opportunity for many Friendship students.
“Here at Friendship, our goal is to get our kids to and through college and that’s why sports were created here – as a mechanism to pay for college tuition. The championship is sort of, as they say, the ‘icing on the cake’.”
Student-athletes have schedule tutoring sessions at least twice per week. A weekly monitoring system requires that progress reports be distributed so kids are kept aware of where they stand academically. If any student has a 'C' or below in a course, it’s their responsibility to seek help with the respective instructor. But the coaches and faculty help guide the student-athletes towards becoming self-starters.
“They have to have a dialogue with their teacher. And that’s the most important thing, is to teach the kids how to be their own advocates…they go and they talk to their teachers about why their grades stands the way it does.”
Coach Hunter said the system actually motivates the kids to stay on top of things.
“It creates a little peer pressure -- positive peer pressure -- because we do it all together. They wanna see – ‘Hey, you got a C this time, next time, let’s make that a B.’ And they kinda police themselves, to be honest with you.”
Braswell and Abney are two student-athletes who’ve embraced the culture instilled by the charter school. Not only are they maintaining high GPAs, excelling on the field, and leading their fellow teammates, but they’re enjoying the process. The one with no sleeves, Christian Braswell, smiles as he talks about his team.
“It’s a great feeling to see that everybody on the team is having fun this year. That’s what I really think about it – everybody is having fun this year.”
