CLEARWATER, FLORIDA- No team has traveled like Messay Hailemariam’s St. Frances Academy Panthers have this season.

Traveling from their home of Baltimore, Maryland out to California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas and now Florida, the Panthers have surely earned all of their flier miles this 2024 season.

With St. Frances Academy finishing up having playing eight straight away games, which have included tilts versus Duncanville, Mater Dei and a host of others, it begs the question of would the Panthers like to play in their own backyard a little more often?

“I mean, who wouldn’t love to stay home and have a normal high school process,” Hailemariam said after the game. “We’re dealt this hand and we try to execute it the best we can. I commend this young men that go on the road weekly, which I don’t even think pro teams, college don’t do it as much as we do. They’re committed to a goal and they don’t let much get in their way.”

The constant catching flights and never catching feelings about doing so has this Panthers team playing some of their best football as the 2024 season winds down.

St. Frances Academy (6-3) by season’s end will have racked up over 18,000 miles traveled roundtrip, making them road warriors in a league of their own. Playing in Maryland’s MIAA Conference would make for a much less travel-heavy schedule, but until that can become reality, the Panthers continue to make the long trips out to face some of nation’s most powerful football programs a weekly endeavor.

Next week will be a nice change of pace for Hailemariam’s bunch as they will return home and host IMG Academy, the No. 4 ranked team in the country. The last time St. Frances Acadey was able to edge out the Ascenders was back in 2021, a 34-24 victory. A win over IMG Academy would certainly mean a lot to a Panthers’ team that’s seemingly been snakebitten up against teams like Duncanville and Mater Dei.

“We look forward to playing up against teams like IMG,” Hailemariam said. “(IMG Academy) has experienced national championships and we’re trying to get to where they’re at in our own process and I think each year we’re understanding what it takes to play at this level.”

Outside of playing everyone in country outside of Maryland, another team out of the Terrapin State has emerged as a nationally recognized program in Archbishop Spalding.

Archbishop Spalding is the MIAA’s top team and would certainly be an intriuging matchup for St. Frances Academy if the two ever clashed. When asked about possibly playing Spalding, Hailemariam said it’s of course something he’d love to see someday.

“I’m hoping,” Hailemariam said of the prospect of a future matchup with Spalding. “One of the biggest things I say is we’re both in the top 25, local. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to play a team that’s local like we are. I think it would be an amazing game.”

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi