Learning Through Adversity

This has been a trying season filled with frustration and injuries for the Archbishop Carroll football team and its first-year coach Joe Powel. The Patriots are 1-8, losing for the eighth-straight time this year, and have the unenviable task of closing outs its season—barring an amazing upset—against state powerhouse Archbishop Wood this weekend in the Philadelphia Catholic League Class AAA playoffs.

It was Powel that once built Wood into a power. He’s shown great patience and diligence this season sticking with a team that lost its starting quarterback for the season in the first game against Radnor, then its top tailback a few weeks later.

“What I keep stressing each week is that we keep playing, and keep playing hard,” Powel said a few weeks ago. “That’s what I’ve seen so far, commitment and dedication, and that’s something you love to see during a season like this. The kids keep fighting and keep trying, there is no quit.”

Carroll lost to Wood 55-7 back on October 14.