As time ran out Dec. 10 on its home field at Baltimore’s Under Armour Stadium and St. Frances Academy finished its 37-20 rout of Corner Canyon of Utah to win the inaugural Overtime Nationals high school football title game, Panthers head coach Messay Hailermariam felt waves of joy, relief and gratitude for his players, assistants, family, school administrators and, of course, his beloved Lord.
The dominance of the Panthers throughout their 9-1 season, during which St. Frances averaged 38 points scored, while shutting out five opponents and allowing barely a touchdown per game, was not a huge surprise. Neither was its final national ranking of No. 2 by Rivals.com.
The 2025 season proved to be another pinnacle of achievement toward which the program had been building throughout Hailemariam’s 14 seasons as a coach for the Panthers.
“I am still so overwhelmed and grateful. I remember the days (in 2011) when there were only 63 students in the whole building, and five wanted to play football when I took over,” Hailemariam said. “We had no facility, (still) no room for a home (football) field. No locker room. Not even a weightroom. There was nothing designed for football.
“But the blessings are amazing. The sacrifices and the struggles that came with our success have been so worth it,” he added. “To see the great things happening to our school, to this ministry, to the football players who are not just going to college, but excelling and graduating with multiple degrees. … I don’t know what else I could ask for as a head coach.”
Most of all, though, he’s thankful. Hailemariam, a member of Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, tells his players every day that God has humbled him every step along the way.
“God gives us the oxygen we breathe and the life we can live,” he said. “Nothing is owed to you. What are you going to do to take what you think you want and deserve? I could not do this without our young people working their tails off.”
Founded in 1828 by Venerable Mary Lange and Sulpician Father James Joubert and located for decades in inner East Baltimore, St. Frances is the oldest continually operating Black Catholic School in the United States. Last year’s enrollment from grades nine to 12 had grown to about 260. The school has been coeducational since 1974.
Since Hailemariam took over the program in 2011 – after four discouraging seasons as a fledgling football school, during which the Panthers managed just one win (by forfeit) in 40 games – he has transformed St. Frances into an independent powerhouse. Fueled by elite, heavily recruited talent, the program has become a Division I football factory.
The Panthers, who now host home games at Under Armour Stadium on the Baltimore Peninsula, began to show their stuff that first year, after recovering from a lopsided 0-2 start as a member of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association “C” Conference. St. Frances turned that season around and went on to win back-to-back “C” crowns, before joining the MIAA “A” Conference.
During the next few years, Hailemariam’s aggressive recruiting energy took root, along with a financial and leadership boost from former Gilman School coach Biff Poggi (now a college coach).
Before long, the Panthers were fighting for the same talent that Catholic school stalwarts such as DeMatha, Archbishop Spalding, Mount St. Joseph and Calvert Hall were pursuing.
Soon, St. Frances ruled the MIAA “A” Conference – so much so that, after MIAA schools refused to play the dominant Panthers, citing “player safety” concerns and an “unbalanced talent level,” St. Frances in 2018 went the independent route. The Panthers face an annual schedule that includes a sizable share of national powers each year.
The 2025 season saw Hailemariam’s vision realized in phenomenal ways, as St. Frances thrived with arguably its most exceptional collection of talent ever. Nearly the entire defense has signed to play at a Division I college.
Consider that the Panthers are represented by 18 of 247Sports’ top 50 football recruits in Maryland in 2026. Most of St. Frances’ 2026 graduating (or graduated) seniors are headed to Division I. Eleven of its junior players already have committed to a Division I institution.
Some of the big senior guns on the Panthers’ championship squad included defensive back Jireh Edwards, who was offered full scholarships by five SEC schools as a freshman. He has graduated from St. Frances and is enrolled at the University of Alabama.
Then there is Zion Elee, bound for the University of Maryland as the top-rated defensive lineman in America. At 6-feet-4, 235 pounds, Elee has been timed at 4.35 seconds in the 40 and has year-old measurables that Hailemariam said add up to the top five percent of what current NFL scouting combine numbers have revealed.
Running back Jaylen Burke, likely headed for Morgan State, rushed for more than a combined 2,500 yards in his final two seasons with the Panthers. Quarterback Jae’oyn Williams, the MVP of the title game with three touchdown passes, sports a 4.2 GPA and has signed with Virginia. Offensive lineman Lamarcus Dillard, 6-3, 300, who did not receive a single D-I offer until his senior season, has signed with West Virginia.
The byproduct of the 2025 season has been sweet chaos for Hailemariam. By the morning after the final game, St. Frances had been besieged with nearly 100 applicants, hoping to get their child accepted, with a chance to play football as a Panther.
“Within 48 hours after winning that [championship] game, we had over 400 email inquiries and over 300 applicants,” said Hailemariam, who has maintained a dizzying schedule over the last two months. “It’s been insanity. I feel what God is doing. Every hardship we have gone through was for a purpose that brought us close to perfection.”
Since the moment Hailemariam felt the Lord’s presence 15 years ago, as he pondered an offer he had turned down three times – take over the fledgling football program at tiny St. Frances Academy – he sensed strongly it was time to make a significant change in his life.
Hailemariam, who had played and coached football in the Washington, D.C. area, after working his way up at the University of Maryland from a walk-on defensive back in 1992 to a scholarship player for the Terps, eventually found his financial stride as a successful businessman.
He had worked with legendary Washington Redskins Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green training high-level college prospects, while operating a chain of fitness facilities.
“My business was crazy good. I was training draft prospects for a sick amount of money,” Hailemariam said.
Hailemariam, whose family had left behind its roots in Ethiopia when he was 3 to seek a better life in the U.S., had fallen in love with the American game of football as a fourth-grader, after his father drove him to a tryout he thought was for a soccer team.
Ultimately, it was his role as a loving father that forced him to contemplate a fundamental change in his world.
Fifteen years ago, Hailemariam’s 3-year-old daughter, Phoenix, shockingly was diagnosed with skin cancer.
“I remember praying, asking God to please let me watch (Phoenix) graduate, let me walk her down the aisle. Please don’t let me bury my child,” he said.
While she was receiving successful treatments in Baltimore – she is a healthy 18-year-old now – Hailemariam got that fourth offer to take over at St. Frances.
This time, the answer struck him differently. This time, amassing steady, impressive profits did not seem as attractive. This time, he felt the Lord nudging him to use his smarts, his passion and his abilities to teach and preach to do good at this tiny school on Chase Street.
When it became clear to Hailemariam that St. Frances was on the verge of shutting down its football program, he jumped at the chance to save it.
“My daughter’s process, my humility, and the way God showed me there was nothing more important than a parent trusting me with their child, led me to where I am today,” he said.
Since the dramatic turnaround has happened, the offers to leave St. Frances Academy have come to him. Big-time college coaching offers – seven-figure kind of offers, he said.
Hailemariam admits he used to get tempted by such attention. Not anymore.
“Having this purpose – to holistically develop young people before this corrupt world gets hold of them – is really powerful,” said Hailemariam, who recited one of the messages he regularly emails to his team.
“God will take you through things you never wanted. Not to hurt you but to shape you. God never wastes those moments,” it reads. “I am a strong believer in the mission the Lord gives our entire group every year. The challenge to be better than the year before. Bible study resumes Wednesday at 2:40 pm in the cafeteria.”
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