Hugh Brown is the VP of American Life League. He is also the Chairman of the board of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and he's the head coach of the Warriors, the school's football team.
He explained in an interview with AFN that his family founded the Catholic high school back in 2004, and it opened in 2006 with twelve kids in the basement of a doctor's office.
It took about ten years to get it off the ground.
"And everywhere we turned, the answer was no, including the diocese."
He explained they wanted Christ in the center of their children's lives.
St. Michael, the Warrior angel
“We named it St. Michael because there was war in heaven, and Michael and his angels cast Satan and a third of all the stars from heaven out. We thought, well, the culture in the 90s and early 2000s was not the
greatest for young people to grow up in, so that would be a great namesake and a good patron saint. My gosh, how things have just continued to deteriorate. The witness of Jesus Christ is needed more than ever for our young people."
Brown explained he played football in high school, but had no scholarship offers. His dad wouldn't let him give up on himself, and he walked on at The University of Maryland in the 80s and 90s, where he would push himself and later earn a scholarship. Brown said some of the best relationships he's had in his life have been in football. In 2017, they founded the St. Michael football program.
Things got off to a slow start, Brown said.
"I didn't coach it. It didn't go very well. Hired some good people, but some bad decisions were made, and during the season we had to fire a bunch of people and hire an interim coach. It seemed like it probably had been a very bad idea to introduce football to a school that was 11 years old.”
He explained that through a series of difficulties and tragedy, miraculous events, and his wife suggesting he could be the coach, the school went on to win a national championship more than once.
In the end, the goal is for the students to learn the courage to be faithful Christians.
"I say all the time in football, mental toughness is rare. The ability to fight through adversity against your own mind. What's even rarer than that is moral courage, but moral courage comes from mental toughness, and mental toughness comes from fear of the Lord.”
Love as a motivation
Christians need to be motivated by their love for the Lord, Brown said.
“We've got to be willing, to not want to offend the Lord, to love him so much that we’re going to put him first in all things and just like a good football player, good student, good business person, be willing to do the things we don't want to do that make us better.”
Those hard decisions have to be made off the field as well.
“That includes character. That includes the language that we use. That includes the music that we listen to. Those are probably the two things that I harp on the most because the language and the music in this culture can be a challenge to get young men to realize that's not how we conduct ourselves. Those are little things, but they lead to better things. They lead to making better decisions. They lead to being better people. In the end, that's what we want. We want young men who give themselves to Christ, who dedicate their lives as men to serving Him."
