With head coach hired, St. Joseph Catholic High starts building a football program
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- Jeramy Hunt-Loveless poses for a photograph at St. Joseph Catholic High School on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. Hunt-Loveless is the head coach of the newly created eight-player football team at the school.
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- Jeramy Hunt-Loveless poses for a photograph at St. Joseph Catholic High School on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. Hunt-Loveless is the head coach of the newly created eight-player football team at the school.
OGDEN — Jeramy Hunt-Loveless arrived at St. Joseph Catholic High at the start of this school year, hired as a teacher and head coach of a brand-new football team set to start playing there in 2023.
He realized there were a few things missing when he got to campus, including one vital piece of equipment.
“We gotta get money in the door, we gotta get field goal posts and bleachers, I gotta get — there were no footballs on this campus when I got here, and I have one right now that I was given. Luckily, Lyndon Johnson gave it to me so I can start doing some stuff,” Hunt-Loveless said in a recent phone interview.
There’s a literal football in his classroom now, so that part’s taken care of. Now, Hunt-Loveless can try to tackle the 40 other things that have to happen between now and August 2023.
A long list of to-dos are ahead, but the Jayhawks’ new football coach has jumped right in to start building the program.
“It’s exhilarating, it’s exciting. It’s not scary in any way. It’s like, it’s neat. Here’s this hurdle, I’ve got some hurdles in front of me, I’ve got this Rubik’s cube in front of me, I’ve got to figure out how to line up some things,” he said.
Hunt-Loveless grew up in Davis and Weber counties (mostly Davis) and went to Clearfield High, then played linebacker at Utah State.
He’s coached football and wrestling at a handful of schools in Utah at both the high school and youth levels. St. Joseph is his first head football coaching job at the high school level and first foray into eight-player football.
“I think he fits the bill. He’s been working hard already these last few weeks trying to make some connections, we’ve sent him over to Judge (Memorial) to observe them and see what they do,” SJCHS Principal Clay Jones said. “It’s a pretty large task obviously to start from scratch, but he’s real excited about it.”
Schematically, eight-player football differs from 11-player in a few ways. It’s typically higher-scoring compared to 11-player, as there’s more field space per player in an eight-player game.
Eight-player teams typically play with three offensive linemen, a quarterback and a mix of backs, receivers or maybe more linemen/tight ends. Defenses typically go with two to three players per position group, but mix it up if needed.
Tackling, blocking, throwing, catching, running and kicking in eight-player football are the same as in 11-player, so Hunt-Loveless said he’s not too worried about coaching a different type of ball, per se.
Rather, his concerns are with the myriad list of things needed between now and next August, when a Jayhawks football team will take the field for the first time in school history.
A LONG LIST, AND GAUGING INTEREST
Hunt-Loveless’ hire is the second thing the school has done concerning its new football program, the first thing being deciding to actually add football.
Remaining on the list: fundraise, buy uniforms and equipment, fundraise, add bleachers and lights to the turf field, fundraise, bring in assistant coaches, get students interested in playing and fundraise some more.
After that, there’s a fair bit of instruction and training that’ll have to go into safely fielding a team.
“You’ve got a nucleus that’s never played football before. Most of the kids here have never played little league or junior high ball. Of course, most of those kids (who have played before) are at another high school; they went there because of football,” Hunt-Loveless said.
Hunt-Loveless teaches strength and conditioning plus English as a second language at St. Joseph, which has a long history of athletic success in soccer, cross country, basketball and academics.
Part of his plan for recruiting the school hallways is to literally toss a football to students when they’re called on in his class, or just get the sport of American football in front of the students in some way, shape or form. He calls it “buying brain cells.”
It’s not just students he has to recruit, but also parents who may be hesitant about letting their children play a sport that’s been especially scrutinized from a safety perspective the last decade.
“Equipment is better, the game is the safest it’s been. Tackling is better and smarter with the rugby style of tackling and you’re not blasting people head to head,” he said.
Back in the spring, the UHSAA created an eight-player football division for the 2022 season comprised of 1A schools. In doing so, the UHSAA said 2A non-football schools could also sign up for eight-player football. That put the wheels in motion at St. Joseph.
There was enough interest from students in the spring to the point that St. Joseph could’ve played football in 2022; however, supply-chain issues delayed football equipment and uniform arrival until August, hence why the school chose to play in 2023 instead of 2022.
That gives plenty of time to buy equipment — footballs, tackling dummies, helmets, etc. — and about 25-30 uniforms. Jones said the school expects to outfit its turf field for football by installing lights and putting bleachers up against the hillside.
One-time startup costs for just the football equipment will easily end up somewhere in the $50,000-$60,000 range. Combined with the bleachers, lights and other things, St. Joseph’s looking at a possible six-figure investment to start football.
The school’s hoping for donations and any kind of grant money it can find to help finance the new team. It’s also hoping, and maybe needing, more students in classrooms.
THE ENROLLMENT QUESTION
Jones said in the spring that the decision about whether or not to add football at the school would come down to whether it would bring an increase in enrollment. He was unsure in the spring whether adding football would equal more students.
St. Joseph has 172 students as of last week, Jones said. The school typically tries to make it work out for students and families who want to attend, no matter what their financial, religious or academic situations are.
That said, a private, Catholic school in LDS-heavy Utah with tuition costs and high academic requirements will always deter plenty of families, so it’s not the easiest school to get into.
Jones hopes adding football will add five to 10 more students next year. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.
Hunt-Loveless said that he has a lot of work to do with “letting the world know we play football,” whether that means selling the idea of football to students at St. Joseph Elementary, students who’ve left St. Joseph and play football elsewhere or others.
So far, football’s caught on a little bit, Hunt-Loveless said. He’s confident the Jayhawks can field a team of about 18 players next year, based on who’s said yes and no.
Hunt-Loveless has bounced around different jobs a lot in his career, from the mortgage industry, to coaching wrestling and teaching.
“This is fun to get back to my first love,” he said.
Hunt-Loveless uses a lot of analogies — for instance, getting the new football program going involves a lot of “planting seeds,” “cultivating the fields” and whatnot.
It’s a fairly accurate comparison, since there’s a lot to be done and he’s not sure what’s in the soil, so to speak.
Already, things are starting to line up. He’s ready to get potential football players in the weight room this winter for workouts, get interested players into some sort of passing league, do some sort of spring camp, “And before we know it, we’re playing,” Hunt-Loveless said.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.