Back on the map

A small piece of craft paper watches over the John Carroll football practice field.

The white piece of paper likely came from a roll more than 100 feet long, but only a few feet were needed to etch the short message.

“Win.”

There wasn’t much thought put behind it. One of head coach Logan Colafrancesco’s assistants hung it up on the fence behind the end zone at Pat Sullivan Field, John Carroll’s home stadium. That sign now looks down on the field below, on the opposite side of the fence, where the Cavaliers prepare for those Friday night moments under the lights of the stadium.

Unfortunately, if that sign were put up in the previous few seasons, it would have been perceived as a joke. On the field, the Cavaliers won a total of three games from 2014-16.

Now, it serves as motivation. It serves as something to strive for. It states a real and achievable goal.

“This is my fourth year, and everybody’s been like, ‘Are you going to beat them?’ jokingly,” said Malcolm Russell, one of the team’s senior leaders. Today, players feel confident rebutting those snide remarks with bravado, regardless of the opponent in question.

“This year, we tell them, ‘Yeah, we can beat them for sure,’” Russell said. 

In Colafrancesco’s second year back at his alma mater — he graduated from John Carroll in 1996 — the program is on the rise and he has every intention of making it a winner once again.

In 2015, the Cavaliers went 0-10, and Colafrancesco was brought in before the 2016 season. In his initial campaign, John Carroll won two games, even though they were wiped from the slate after an administrative mix-up led to an ineligible player participating for the Cavaliers. 

Colafrancesco compared the team’s 13-7 win over Moody on Sept. 23, 2016 to “winning the Super Bowl,” because the Cavaliers achieved the victory in front of their home crowd, and it was the program’s first win since the finale of the 2014 season. A 40-7 win over Springville came two weeks later, giving the program tangible evidence that progress was indeed being made.

This fall, the team believes it has the potential for much more. It matched last season’s on-field win total after two weeks, with wins over Hayden and Hueytown.

“It’s night and day,” Colafrancesco said in mid-August, comparing the team’s progress to the same time a year prior. “We are more ahead now than we were about Week 7 or 8 last year. They didn’t really know me. I didn’t know them … They’ve gone through a full calendar year with us, so they’re starting to kind of figure it out.”

He felt that way despite spending most of the summer with just a pair of coaches: himself and offensive line coach Robert Crawford. Once the Cavaliers added a few coaches on the defensive side of the ball (Colafrancesco doubles as the offensive coordinator), it became a matter of adapting to the flow of practice.

Along with becoming efficient at practice, Colafrancesco emphasizes the traits of successful teams that do not require physical ability.

“Be on time, effort, attitude. That doesn’t require any talent,” he said. “If we show up with those traits, we’re going to be fine.”

The way Colafrancesco knows that those ideals are starting to take shape is when he’s not the only one pushing for progress.

He said, “What’s starting to happen is our seniors and other guys on the team are starting to tell them and put them in line instead of me having to do it, or their position coach. When they start policing themselves, that’s when we’ve really got something going.”

A major hurdle in turning a struggling program around is largely “between the ears,” according to Colafrancesco. It takes a few eye-opening moments for the student-athletes within the program to realize that significant progress has been made and that the incremental improvements show themselves eventually.

Colafrancesco gave an example of a safety laying a big hit on a running back during a summer practice and seemingly surprising himself.

“They’re starting to kind of figure out what they can do with their bodies,” Colafrancesco said. “Their bodies are getting better and more physical. They’re like, ‘Man, that’s a little bit different.’ When you can do that, that’s when you get a little bit more confidence.”

That safety is not the only player noticing a difference. After a full offseason of training, the Cavaliers feel better equipped to make an impact in 2017.

“You sense it amongst us that we know we can do something,” Russell said.

Russell called Colafrancesco “that breath of fresh air” that has enabled the Cavaliers to make significant strides on and off the field, but Colafrancesco will not be satisfied until he can roam the sidelines of Pat Sullivan Field every week with full confidence that his team has a chance.

“When John Carroll football is back on the map is when we can [go] out every Friday night and our kids believe we can win, truly believe that we can win,” Colafrancesco said. “We’re not even there yet. When it gets better, it’s going to snowball, and we’ve got a fighting chance.”

In other words, that small piece of craft paper will hold a command that the Cavaliers feel prepared to follow through with each game. 

“Win.”