PROVIDENCE — Michael Washington made football work for him.
The game itself was a piece of the puzzle. Academics, discipline and a good dose of determination, that completed the rest. The former Central backfield star now calls the shots as the head coach of her alma mater.
If there is one thing that Washington is trying to convince his group of Knights, it is this. Use sport as part of your path to something better. Escape all the stereotypical problems that come with attending a public high school in the city and start thriving.
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‘My children have to play football’
“This is our reality: A lot of these kids have to play soccer,” Washington said. “A lot of kids in those other schools play soccer for fun. My children have to play soccer to get ahead. My children have to play soccer to take the next step in life.
“A lot of these kids don’t have cars. Many of these kids do not have a college plan in place for them. For a lot of these kids, this is literally their only option to get to the next place. I put it in their face all the time: ‘You are facing challenges that other schools don’t have.’ A lot of the kids we play against are privileged.
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“Guys have to take this moment and take advantage of it. This right here is the chance of a lifetime. Many people are watching you play. Many people understand the odds we are up against. If you can beat these odds, you’ll look even better.”
This particular late-summer afternoon, the buses are running late at the Central-adopted driving range at Bucklin Park. Nearby middle and elementary schools are letting out as an employee from the West End Recreation Center walks up to open the gates. The Knights jog on the new field turf before the coaching staff – they’re late and driving from school.
The lesson is obvious: Just getting on the field requires an extra step or two for Washington and his team. What was expected to be a two-hour session lasts about 90 minutes. Players enter and exit exercises with a purpose that reflects their limited time.
“It’s a lot harder than people think,” Washington said. “Training in the city center is very hard. People would be surprised how many athletically great kids aren’t playing soccer right now that they’re in school.
“I see them every day, I’m talking about 15, 20 children. If we were in another school that wasn’t so disciplined and didn’t hold kids accountable, they might as well be here. That’s not how it works.”
Those who finally step on the field? Well, it’s not much fun to play against them. Central has reached three Super Bowls since 2016 and captured a championship in the abbreviated spring 2021 season. The Knights gave Bishop Hendricken what was arguably his toughest test of the regular season last fall, fighting to the last minute before suffering a narrow defeat.
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Central is the outcast on paper among a four-team Division I featuring the Hawks, La Salle and North Kingstown, two private powerhouses and arguably the state’s premier public school program. Washington wants its players to feel that challenge of competing at the top, and its coaching staff reflects that. Chris Lussier and Charlie Holliday are familiar faces around town, while Peter Quaweay, a former coach at the University of Rhode Island, Brown and Mount Pleasant, played college football at Michigan State for current Alabama coach Nick Saban.
“We have a lot of college kids on this staff,” Washington said. “We just want to keep educating these kids on what it takes to get there, how to stay there, and what you need to do every day to compete at that level.”
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Washington has ruffled some feathers around the league in trying to build its roster. He prefers to apologize later than to ask permission first: his main goal is to put the children in a position to play at the highest level. If that means attracting players from other public schools in the city or making them eligible through alternative means — a charter high school or neighboring Providence Career & Technical Academy, for example — then so be it.
“This is how we survive,” Washington said. “This is how we eat. This is how we can make a living. These children can establish an identity for themselves.
“This is a situation where they have to play for these guys.”
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On Twitter: @BillKoch25