J.E.B. Stuart: Field of Dreams
Football is the all-American sport. So what does a high-school coach do when his players come from Bolivia, Morocco, and Sudan? Answer: He teaches them never to give up.
By
Mary Clare Glover
Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Photograph by Matthew Worden
The campus of J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church is deserted except for about 50 boys waiting next to the bleachers. It’s almost 4 on an August afternoon, and the temperature hovers near 100 degrees. The kids make room for football coach Roy Ferri and five assistants as they walk out of the gym. Ferri is wearing a white T-shirt that says J.E.B. STUART RAIDERS on the front and GET A DAY BETTER!! on the back. “It’s not too late,” he says with a smile, daring the boys to quit before they’ve even started. “It’s pretty hot out here.” The young men attend one of the Washington area’s most diverse high schools, and almost all of them are just learning to play football. On this year’s roster are boys whose families are from Palestine, the Philippines, Jordan, Bolivia, Morocco, and Sudan. A junior lineman’s family fled Sierra Leone’s civil war five years ago. A Hispanic running back spent all summer lifting weights, trying to add muscle to his five-foot-eight frame. Today is the beginning of two-a-day practices, a ritual that marks the start of high-school football season across the country. For the Stuart Raiders, one of the losingest football teams in Northern Virginia, this first practice offers a chance for redemption.
Stuart yearbooks from the 1960s show rows and rows of young white men in blazers and ties. Most of the girls wear pearl necklaces. Named after a Confederate cavalry leader in the Civil War, J.E.B. Stuart High School was founded in 1959. In its early years, the public school was virtually all white. But as more immigrants moved to Northern Virginia in the 1980s and ’90s, Stuart’s population changed. Today, about 670 of Stuart’s 1,674 kids were born outside the United States. Eighty-one countries are represented by the students, two-thirds of whom speak a primary language other than English. Recent editions of the Stuart yearbook look like a Benetton ad—among last year’s students, 678 identified themselves as Hispanic, 326 as white, 284 as Asian or Pacific Islander, 157 as African or African-American, 103 as Middle Eastern, and 56 as multiracial or “other.” Stuart’s location—between Leesburg and Columbia pikes in Fairfax County—has fostered the school’s transformation. A diverse collection of neighborhoods feeds into it, from million-dollar houses overlooking Lake Barcroft to low-rent apartments in Culmore, where gangs have made headlines. Stuart has the largest high-school English for Speakers of Other Languages program in the county. It also has the county’s highest free-and-reduced-lunch rate—56 percent. The football team mirrors the school. The boys speak Arabic, Urdu, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Spanish, Amharic, Mandarin, and more. “With all the different religions we have,” Coach Ferri says, “somebody is missing practice to go to church every single day of the week.” Stuart football hasn’t always been terrible. A banner hanging in the gym declares that the school has been district champion eight times and made it to the Virginia state semifinals twice. But the most recent year on the banner is 1994, the year some kids on this year’s team were born. When Roy Ferri agreed to come back to Stuart to try to resurrect the program in January 2008, he told the boys that his goal was to win a district championship. He entered them in summer camps and organized weightlifting and conditioning programs. Ferri also set out to change the mindset that had become ingrained in Stuart football. He wanted to bury the bad attitudes and forget the embarrassing losses. He wanted all of them—the administration, players, coaches, alumni—to stop making excuses. So he filled a three-by-eight-foot plywood casket with old game tapes and equipment and invited his players to a funeral. The inscription on top of the casket read BAD KARMA: 1995–2008. GONE 4EVER. Roy Ferri can’t remember a time when he wasn’t coaching. Besides football, he’s taught jump shots on the basketball court and baton handoffs on the track. The son of an accountant and stay-at-home mom, Ferri grew up in North Arlington and went to Catholic schools. At Bishop O’Connell High School, he ran track, wrestled, and coached seventh-grade basketball. In 1983, two years after he graduated from St. Thomas University in Florida, Ferri landed a job as a receiver’s coach for the Stuart football team. Back then, winning seemed easy. Running back Charlie Garner—who went on to star at the University of Tennessee and have a long NFL career—led the team to the state semifinals in 1989. After seven winning seasons, Ferri felt like moving on. “When you’re 30, you think you can do bigger and better things,” he says. He left to coach track and football at Lake Braddock. In 1992, he returned to Stuart as a defensive coordinator for the football team, then became head coach in 1997. The school had changed. The easy success he remembered from the ’80s eluded him—in four seasons, Ferri won seven games and lost 33. He was let go after the 2000 season. Ferri took a job at Centreville in Fairfax and in 2007 was named girls’ indoor-track coach of the year by the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Stuart’s football program was getting worse. The Raiders had gone winless in 2006 and 2007. From 1996 to 2007, the team had a 12–107 record. By the time principal Pamela Jones approached Ferri about coming back to Stuart, the team was on a 24-game losing streak. Ferri had remained close to the school—when his two daughters were high-school age, he pulled them out of Catholic school and sent them to Stuart. He says he wanted them to meet kids who came from different places, to see that not everyone lives the way they live. Ferri wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. The disappointment from his previous stint as head coach gnawed at him. He had good friends at Centreville. He liked coaching winning teams. But he missed the Stuart kids. The kids at Lake Braddock and Centreville had role models at home, but the Stuart kids were different. At Stuart, he felt needed.
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Comments
Ray:
By the way nice post in the Boston globe on the taunting rule. do what ya gotta do.
Posted by: ethanspapa, Dec 15, 2011 08:31:30 PM
Thx for this great information that you are sharing with us!!!
Posted by: Блог о путешествиях, Sep 25, 2011 08:32:23 AM
My 2 kids went to J.E.B. Stuart in the ’90s and the staff did a marvelous job at using its diversity as a resource in every aspect of school life. Good on ’ya, Stuart HS!
Posted by: Hank Lacy, Aug 23, 2011 07:19:52 AM
Everyday, when we walk into that locker room, we all know that we can trust every single person in there. Everyone works their hardest to achieve the unthinkable, a winning Stuart team. But we have done it. Going 5-5 this season we met a very good Stone Bridge team in the first round. Although we lost, we have proved that anything is possible. Myself and many other players agree that we were a mere ten plays from being 8-2 and seeded top 4 in the region for the Playoffs. Next year we hope to do even better things than this year. With a team full of Juniors, next year us seniors plan on doing big things in the northern region. So watch out... Stuart’s coming... and we aren’t stopping for anyone
Posted by: Stuart Football Player, Jan 08, 2011 08:25:37 AM
In the 2010 football season the Stuart football team has a record of 5-5 and has made the playoffs for the first time fine 1994, and will play Stone Bridge in the first round of regional playoffs on Friday. Just goes to show, you can make champions out of anything
Posted by: Stuart Kid, Nov 10, 2010 07:11:31 AM
RAIDERS all the way!!!!!! :))))
Posted by: carol Guerrero, May 07, 2010 04:44:42 AM
Thank you Washingtonian to write this beautiful article about Jeb Stuart the first high school I when went I came from Panama and I allways wanted to play football there but I was eliegeble to play didnt had the hight or strenght. But I never miss a Football I am died hard Raider and allways will. I just 3 cousins that used to play for Stuart but like you said in the article couldnt make it to the district but you know what is k cause Raider Fan are the Best we support our team. And before I live I got to said Raiders fan if you read this and knew my cousin Andy Anderson please have him in your heart and visit his facebook that my aunt did for him In memory of Andy anderson thanks and keep us in your prayers.
Posted by: Luis Ruiz, Mar 16, 2010 10:54:46 PM
MC - What a great article. Really moving and so well-written. Keep it up :)
-your former colleague, Sara Levine!
Posted by: Sara, Dec 11, 2009 09:12:22 AM
Thank you Washingtonian for such a great article. Brought tears to my eyes. I went to Stuart in the 80s and have seen first hand the struggles of immigrants in such a diverse school. Thank you to all my teachers who helped through those difficult years.
Posted by: Carmen Mendoza, Nov 25, 2009 06:50:16 AM
Go Raiders!!!!!
Posted by: Raider mom, Nov 15, 2009 01:30:58 PM
DIVERSITY AT STUART IS NOT A RECENT PHENOMENOM, IN FACT THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM AS A WHOLE HAS BEEN A WINNER AT LEVELS FOR ROUGHLY 30+ YEARS. GREAT SCHOOL WHOSE DIVERSE COMMUNITY AND SUCCESS HAS GONE OVERLOOKED AND ITS GREAT TO SEE IT FINALLY BEING RECOGNIZED.
Posted by: PT57, Nov 03, 2009 03:49:19 PM
legit, well done
Posted by: J Dubas, Nov 01, 2009 06:52:10 AM
I taught at Stuart for 5 years. Loved every minute of it and still miss it! Great school!
Posted by: Wendy, Oct 28, 2009 06:46:17 PM
Stuart is a wonderful place. The philosophy extolled by Mr. Ferri extends into all other areas of the school. They are building fine young men and women in the sports, arts and academically. It is not just about winning, it is about having earned the right to win even if you don’t. Go Raiders!
Posted by: samney, Oct 28, 2009 04:52:51 PM
RAIDER BALL - Class of 01 - Great article! Thanks WaPo for highlighting us. Good luck to Ferri, Mike A. and the rest of the staff. And to Raider nation, do your best and wear the jersey with pride. GO RAIDERS!
Posted by: D. Stewart, Oct 28, 2009 02:27:17 PM
I went to Stuart and graduated in 1979. I’m so proud to see that the Raider spirit is still alive and well in this new generation of students. Kudos to Coach Ferri for teaching these new Americans never to give up and that in America, you can do anything you set your mind to. Go Raiders!
Posted by: Margaret, Oct 27, 2009 06:25:44 PM
The Stuart coaches do a great job in all sports, as they all deal with the same hurdles. The swim and dive team, the volley ball, the rowing team and the boys basketball team all competed at championship levels last year.
So "The nation" is doing amazing things with the athletes that show up ready to work... great article and Stuart is an amazing place to grow...
Posted by: #1 fan, Oct 27, 2009 01:42:28 PM
I went to school in DC; a proud grad of the DC Public Schools. My daughter now attends JEB - I could not be prouder of her and the wonderfully diverse school that JEB represents. I wish all kids in the US could experience the world, simply by attending high school!
Posted by: Lisa, Oct 27, 2009 12:57:30 PM
Thank you Washingtonian! I will keep this article on myself for the rest of my life!
Posted by: Carl Wilson, Oct 25, 2009 06:31:55 PM
soooo beast.
Posted by: Christian Bambao, Oct 24, 2009 05:09:18 PM
hahaha MIKE HARRIS super hyped ahahah
Posted by: Greg Owen, Oct 24, 2009 03:45:29 PM
This is a very great article that will be kept in our schools history for many years.
Thank You Washingtonian!
Posted by: Karim Aboubakr, Oct 24, 2009 03:36:36 PM
JEB Stuart, all day everyday
Posted by: Zyiad Mutawy, Oct 24, 2009 10:30:01 AM
More often than not, parents and administrators believe the success of a high school football program is only about winning on the field. Thank you Washingtonian for your article on the JEB Stuart Football program, and thank you athletes and coaching staff for reminding us all that it’s not all about the win/loss column. I hope other high school programs can learn by the fine example set by JEB Stuart High School.
Posted by: Annette F., Oct 23, 2009 07:26:23 PM
Thank you, Ms. Fleury and Washingtonian Magazine for capturing what it truly means to be a part of the Raider Nation. No matter who they are or where they come from our students and staff "bring it" every day. That is why they will be Raiders for Life.
Posted by: Kb, Oct 23, 2009 07:14:57 AM
YEAH!!!!!!!STUART WON!!!!!!!
Posted by: Mohammed Sharieff, Oct 23, 2009 05:56:46 AM
It is a great tribute to the ability of the Stuart coaching staff and the school’s administrators and student body to bring together such a diverse group of young people and compete at a high level. It also is refreshing to hear the coach correctly address the real role of sports in helping shape the outlooks and attitudes of such young people.
Posted by: Celeste and Joe Ferri, Oct 22, 2009 08:25:04 PM
this is kind of beast :)
Posted by: jmeltcheer, Oct 22, 2009 07:40:37 PM
Thank you Washingtonian for showing who we really are
Posted by: Leo Guedes, Oct 22, 2009 07:28:17 PM
I just wanted to thank the Washingtonian for doing such a great job of covering JEB Stuart High School. I will keep this article sacred for the rest of my life.
Posted by: Danny Laurence, Oct 22, 2009 04:40:27 PM
stuart ftw
Posted by: mike, Oct 22, 2009 04:39:52 PM
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