The Cost of Winning

- The following is a presentation of HBO Sports.

- Everybody out for their self in the city, so...

I lost a lot of friends this year,

and me growing up with them how we grew up together,

it was always "You take one of mine, I take one of yours."

When I'm on the field, I feel like

it's kind of a safe haven.

Put this right. You fix everything.

- Break down the games of the week

in high school football.

I don't know it gets any bigger than number two,

St. Frances Academy.

- St. Frances Academy have one of the best teams

anywhere in the country.

- The most talented team I've seen

in the past 41 years is St. Frances.

- It took only two seasons for Biff Poggi

to turn St. Frances Academy into a national powerhouse.

- And he put up his own money to do it.

- I'm a polarizing figure. Look right here.

I don't care.

He has gone

to one of the poorest schools in the country,

in one of the toughest neighborhoods.

What's happened in this city over the last ten years

breaks your heart.

- We are their worst nightmare.

We don't flinch.

What did we talk about?

Are you out of your mind?

Biff has built such a powerhouse

that it's got a lot of people running scared.

- One, two, three! - Hey!

- Let's go, you cupcakes. Come on.

I bet right now, you wish you had a haircut like this.

- Yes, sir. - Let's go.

- You know, the elephant in the room

are these preseason rankings,

those number two preseason rankings.

And quite frankly,

I think it's ridiculous,

because we ought to be number one.

We're not gonna say anything about that now.

That's it; that's the last time we're gonna talk about that.

- We're in a position to win a national championship,

and that's what we're playing for every year.

But our goal always, and it's the same this year,

we want every kid to go to college and get it paid for.

We're three years for three years so far.

We've been 100%.

Certainly all of our seniors.

All of them will go on scholarship somewhere.

But then we have our juniors, a lot of our sophomores.

Even some of our freshmen have offers.

- The most successful high school football teams

in the country.

They're also in the middle

of an athletic controversy here in Baltimore.

- Nobody wants to play St. Frances Academy.

This is the second season

St. Frances is playing a national schedule,

and its first season as an independent program,

making a full split from

the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association.

- The MIAA is the private school league

around the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Finish through.

Finish, let's go.

In June of 2018, the schools felt like

they couldn't beat us on the field.

Every team forfeited

their games against St. Frances.

- They cite player safety issues

as well as a competitive advantage

that they don't feel they can overcome.

- And I think fear plays a big part in why

some schools will not schedule St. Frances.

I think what happened was

they came up with player safety

and complaining about the way we recruit

as the reason for not wanting to play us.

It is numbing.

It's numbing that we can't play here,

that we don't have a league.

It's numbing.

It's a league.

We didn't break any rules. Get better.

You do what we do and get better.

- I think it sends a horrible message

to not just the kids from St. Frances,

but the kids at the other schools.

- Come on. - It's like telling them that,

"Well, you know, you're not good enough.

"You can't play against these big, bad kids.

So why even bother?"

Let's go, let's go.

It's not fair to take away

a chance for our kids to play for a state championship,

or a league championship.

But we all know the reason why

is because we're a school

that doesn't have a whole lot

that caters to the less advantaged.

Oh!

- That league is made up almost exclusively

of Catholic schools.

White Catholic schools.

So for these kids,

who don't look like anybody else in that league,

to use the tools that are at their disposal

and to beat the crap out of these other kids

who don't look like them,

I'm sure it ruffles some feathers.

- Heavenly Father, we come before you

grateful for this new school year.

We ask that your holy spirit descend upon us

and dwell with us as we begin this year.

I get frustrated at the way

the outside world stereotypes us at times,

um, stereotypes our kids.

They are immediately dismissed as thugs or throwaway

or academically deficient.

It's very unfair to our kids.

When we were in the MIAA,

a couple of the majority-white schools,

they called us N-words

and saying we slaves to Coach Poggi, stuff like that.

And we know the truth, so we don't let that get to us.

We just hit 'em even harder.

Like, you gonna have to come harder than that.

If you can't hit us physically, your words not gonna hurt us.

- I feel it's a extremely complex matter.

I believe it would do an injustice to how they feel

to say that race is not a factor.

But there's a lot of factors.

I think they did a tremendous job of acquiring

really, really good football players,

and they did so very quickly,

and that's going to create angst or anxiety

among anyone who's not a direct supporter.

- I was here as the head coach from 2011 to 2015,

took over a program that was in disarray, to say the least.

One and 39, lost 33 in a row.

And then the bottom fell out underneath.

2015, lost every game

only because lack of resources.

- I was the head coach at Gilman.

Gilman was the most exclusive school in the MIAA.

I don't know how I got on it,

but St. Frances asked me to be on their board.

And, um, I liked it.

I saw a lot of opportunities for that school.

And, you know, I love the story,

because my story is so much like my kids that I coach.

It's ridiculous.

Get your work done, will you? - Yes, sir.

- Come on. I want great things for you.

- All right. - Get that finished.

- I got you. - I was a troubled kid.

I mean, I think I went to seven or eight schools

before the tenth grade.

I was rough around the edges.

Football was my safe place.

Without God using the game in my life,

I would be in prison or dead.

Give me the scout team defense over here,

and let's get going. Come on.

- I don't want-- - We're doing--You're doing...

First of all, there's no such thing as a fat guy.

My bad, coach.

Where the big sexy guys at?

Thank you.

Big sexy dudes are one-on-one, okay?

For the last 35 years, I've been investing in companies

and building companies and running companies,

and by good fortune,

we have been blessed, and we've been lucky.

And so we feel very strongly about giving back

and doing something with that dough that matters.

You got to be more up the hash there.

And St. Frances was probably ready to end the program,

so when they called and said,

"Hey, look, would you consider running it?"

it just was the right thing to do.

- I was willing to step aside as the head coach

as time went on.