How St. Joseph’s Prep built a successful football program through community service and competition

After a phone call with Nick Saban, Gabe Infante just had to call his brother.

It was April 2011. Infante had taken over as the head football coach at St. Joseph’s Prep, and he had just talked to one of the greatest college football coaches of all time on a recruiting call. He told his brother about the conversation, and much to Infante’s surprise, his brother asked if he talked to the Alabama coach “before or after the tornado hit them?”

The next day, Infante met with his players and told them about the tornado that killed more than 200 Alabama residents. Then he said something that helped build one of the most successful football teams Pennsylvania fans have seen in the last decade.

"I think we should go down there and help,” Infante told his team. And that’s what they did.

>>Read more: St. Joseph’s Prep quarterback Kyle McCord commits to Ohio State

It was the first of nine service trips the team has made since then. The players, coaches, and staff have traveled to Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Roanoke, Va.; Columbus, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Mich., and Clemson, S.C. to help communities outside their own.

“The service trips were more influential to [the players] than the state championships,” said Infante, who is now a running backs coach at Temple University. “It changed everything about us. We came home a much different team, a much different group of people.”

A St. Joe’s Prep rule requires that students put in a predetermined number of community service hours every summer based on their upcoming grade year. The trips are planned to not only help them reach the requisite time but also create bonds that make a difference for players on the field, according to Infante.

Since the first trip to Tuscaloosa, the Prep has won four state championships and has helped develop several Division I recruits and has a handful more on the current roster.

Infante, who is starting his first season at Temple after nine years with the Prep, handed over the reins to Tim Roken in the offseason. Roken had been an offensive coordinator under Infante since 2010.

The voice has changed, but the message hasn’t. Roken was not only there to see the foundation built for the team’s culture, he was also groomed to be where he is now.

“Gabe has prepared me for this day, for me becoming a head coach,” Roken said. “Whether I knew it or not, from Day 1 he was preparing me for this job. He was preparing me to be a head coach and to be a leader”

Heading into the 2019 season, St. Joe’s Prep boasts a handful of Division I-caliber players. Junior quarterback Kyle McCord is an Ohio State commit. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. are four-star recruits with offers from the best college teams in the nation.

Running back D’Andre Swift, who graduated in 2017, has played in a national championship game with the Georgia Bulldogs. Class of 2015 grad Olamide Zaccheaus is currently on the Atlanta Falcons after becoming a mainstay in the University of Virginia offense.

>>Read more: Penn State cornerback John Reid, from St. Joe’s Prep, puts a lot of time into his studies, but don’t call it a sacrifice

Both defensive back John Reid and offensive lineman Jon Runyan Jr. graduated in 2015 and have gone on to win all-Big Ten honors at Penn State and Michigan, respectively.

What makes the Prep different?

“Family is a big piece of it, and a big piece of family and relationships is trust and love,” Roken said. “Trusting each other and believing that your brother can do his job and loving him so that if he makes a mistake, you’re going to put your arm around him and coach him up and coach him hard.”

The message of ‘trust and love’ isn’t a new one for the Prep. It has been preached in the Hawks’ locker rooms for years.

“Those were the two tenants of our program,” Infante said. “That was the difference for us. Love is about sacrifice. Trust is about honesty and building relationships. That’s everything, very simply stated. The game of football is a team game. Teams are about relationships. Relationships are about trust. Trust is about honesty.”

Some critics point to the Prep’s private school status giving them a recruiting advantage over public schools. The Prep competes in the PIAA Class 6A state playoffs despite being a private school.

Infante said, “People are always going to say that. If you win, they say you recruited, and that’s why you won.”

On the field, the Prep has a luxury most schools don’t. The majority of its position groups have an upperclassman going on to play college football, with some going to Division I schools.

The competition each day in practice, combined with the workload of offseason training, makes the actual games seem a lot easier for the players.

“When we compete, it makes everyone else better,” senior offensive lineman Casey Stephenson said. “Even if they’re not a so-called starter, when they’re competing with starters it makes them better and makes them rise through the ranks.”

If the beginning of the season does feel easy for the Hawks, it won’t be for lack of effort on the coaches’ part. The team opens its season Friday against Marietta (Ga.) as a part of its non-league schedule that features nationally competitive teams. Maxpreps ranks St. Joseph’s as the No. 12 team in the country, and the Prep will play two schools in the first three weeks also ranked in the top 25.

“We’ve won state titles winning all three of those [national] games. We’ve won state titles here losing all three of those games,” Roken said. “Those games prepare us for a tough Catholic League schedule, and we understand what we need to fix when we get done. Iron sharpens iron."