Pope John Paul the Great opens its first football season

By Joe Conroy

Published: August 12, 2008

There is no nickname picked yet and construction of the education facilities is still under way, but the Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School fall sports are in the midst of preparing for the 2008 season just like every other program in the state.
The new school, located in Dumfries, is dealing with the logistics of opening for the first time and Athletic Director Mark St. Germain’s programs are no different.
With the start of football practice Monday, St. Germain said the school felt alive and almost completed.
“It was awesome. We finally got to the point where we had kids at the school,” he said. “It’s not a school until the kids are in the building.”
St. Germain said the team, run by Carl Patton, had 32 boys show at the practice, the first full workout on the field. Patton worked as the principal of St. Mark’s in Maryland last year and spent time as a head coach at Paul VI prior to that (Patton ran the junior varsity and freshman teams).
But getting on the field has been an adventure in itself. With construction on the school building still being completed, St. Germain had to get special permits to get the players to the field during construction work.
Aside from that, everything has run relatively smoothly for St. Germain as he starts his first athletic department.
St. Germain, who was an associate athletic director with St. Albans in D.C. for three years and worked at Flint Hill and St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes before that, had to first determine how many potential athletes the school would have and what sports they would all want to participate in.
“What we had to start with was last spring, a preseason registration for all sports, not just football,” St. Germain said. “We had to identify those sports and then we had the task of coaches reaching out to the interested students.”
Once the numbers were estimated to a satisfactory level, equipment and jerseys were the next step.
“We’re fully outfitted with helmets, shoulder pads and jerseys for football,” he said. “We’ve even got some left over in case.”
Wearing green, black and white, St. Germain’s program is still without a nickname or mascot, but he’s not in any hurry to find one.
“We’re going to decide that based on a combination as a school: the faculty, students and administration are going to have a say,” St. Germain said. “But really, we won’t know who we are until we know who we are.”
As cryptic as that may sound, St. Germain believes the school’s and team’s identity will come about naturally and a nickname will likely be decided on by the end of the school year. The football team will wear jerseys displaying “John Paul” across the front and have no logos or lettering on the helmets.
“It’s kind of the Penn State look,” St. Germain said.
With the length of the school’s name being a bit cumbersome, St. Germain and the school decided to shorten it to just John Paul or JP when dealing with the athletic programs (practice shorts, for example, will be emblazoned with the JP on a pant leg).
St. Germain said he told students and athletes that the program is looking for a name and is open to suggestions.
“We’ve already gotten a varied list,” he said with a laugh.
The school is competing at the junior varsity this year since the 200-student enrollment is not enough to facilitate varsity squads yet. St. Germain hopes that by the 2009-10 school year most, if not all, of the teams will be able to support both varsity and JV at least.