' The Farrell game is billed as the nation's championship. Lv Moeller that good? â‚Źâ‚ŹYeah, we're good, ''said Coach Faust. ''We've got good coaches; good kids - thirteen good coaches and about two hundred good kids. We're specialized. We break it down. We've got more coaches so we can do that. And we do rUh more sophisticated patterns than most schools.
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The
Cincinnati Moelle. r football team is proud to be the best. This year. (and last year and the year before that) they are the best. Texas, California, New York and Pa all ride in the back seat. But word gets around, and everyone wants to beat the best so they can be the best. Mostly - because this is, after all, high school football - it never amounts to more than talk, but this year somebody threw down the glove. Monsignor Farrell High School from Staten Island Nlilw York challenged the reigning champs. There to pick up the gauntlet was Gerry Faust, Moeller's Coach of the Year (this year, last year and the year before that). Farrell had twenty wins in a row and $20,000 they raised to make the trip, Moeller had ... well, therein lies the tale. The Locker Room
T
he locker room is filled with signs and b~nners: e~otio~al_ cl_utter in the m1dst of stnct diSCipline and order. The signs are lettered in the color of the next opponent: for Farrell, red. They speak about dedication, desire, devotion and effort: "Who wants it bad enough'!" The locker room is also a museum of tradition, with history plastered and hung onto the walls: old teams, old stars, one "Killed in a Plane Crash." Inspiration starts on the level of mortal deities like Vince Lombardi and moves up, through St. Sebastian (patron saint of athletes) to rhe Virgin Mary (Moeller is run by the Brothers of Mary. Outside, behind the school, there is a statue of Mary and inside, there is a glossy picture 60
CINCINNATI DECEMBER 1977