For the first time in nearly a decade, Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School (PF) will offer a football program to its students.
Both the junior and senior programs will be coached by J.P. Falacho, who has been coaching at St. Marguerite d’Youville Secondary School in Brampton for the past 18 years. In 2009, he took over as head coach and led his team to two Region of Peel championships.
“My family needed a change from the big city,” he explained. “It was getting overpopulated, and my daughter actually goes to a school here.”
Falacho, 43, intended to move north when he retired but has since accelerated those plans.
“There is way better air up here,” he said. “There is way more outdoors stuff. I feel like the sense of community is really strong, so I’m getting a good feeling up here.”
Falacho will also teach math and special education at PF.
“When I was scoping out coming here, I asked if there was football,” he explained. “I was told they hadn’t had football in years.”
He has taken charge of reintroducing the program with the help of school staff, parents, and community volunteers.
“The game of football is the ultimate team sport,” he said. “I think it teaches you a lot about life, and the bonds made through football can’t be broken.”
Falacho played many sports growing up, but not football.
“After watching so many years of football and loving the sport, I thought I knew a lot about football, but I knew nothing,” he said. “I learned through a lot of mentors over the years and started playing in the Northern Football Conference at 28 years old.”
Both of the PF Flames football teams will include mostly inexperienced players this year, which is an opportunity Falacho is looking forward to.
“We have a lot of guys who have played different sports here and carry different skill sets,” he said. “They can all do something that is for the betterment of the team.”
He believes having no prior football experience will result in his players being extra focused on learning.
“They just listen, retain all this information, and are willing to work hard,” he said.
Despite the inexperienced roster, Falacho has high expectations for himself and the team this year.
“We just need to know where we start and stay grounded,” he said. “We can’t become a championship team overnight.”
Falacho hopes the Flames can run plays successfully in their first game without missing assignments and drawing penalties.
“If we can get that happening, we will be successful,” he said. “I don’t know what the success will be, but it will be a success, and then we can take whatever we did wrong and learn from it.”
Ultimately, the goal is to win games in Year 1 of the program.
“We are going to be here to compete,” Falacho said. “As coaches, we need to realistically see what we can do in these next three weeks.”
Already, nearly 80 students have signed up to play this year, but the program is still in need of some volunteers.
“The more coaches we have, the better,” Falacho said, noting volunteers can get a vulnerable-sector check form from the school office.
Practices take place on weekdays after 3 p.m. The program is also in need of some financial donations. For further details, call the school at 705-325-9372.
