Cardinal Hayes High School stands as a wide, four-story edifice on the Grand Concourse in a busy section of the South Bronx. Behind it, one of New York City’s most successful football programs practices on a field two-thirds the size of a regulation one, with one end zone a little shorter than the other.
The field is far from the luxurious accommodations enjoyed by Hayes’ Catholic High School Football League opponents in Westchester, Long Island and Staten Island. But it’s home.
“Of course, if anyone is willing to build us any field, we would love our own [full] practice field and games there,” Cardinal Hayes coach CJ O’Neil said. “But ‘[it] is a great place. It serves us well.”
The blue-collar nature of the program is all around.
As pads and helmets hit and whistles blow, you can hear in the background the rumbling of a bustling Metro North train. The all-boys school, with an enrollment of a little less than 1,000, sits in one of the poorest Congressional districts in the country. The Cardinals have also been nomads, playing “home” games at Riverbank State Park, SUNY Maritime and Macombs Dam Park.
The blue-collar nature of the program is their fuel.
The Cardinals have gradually elevated themselves into one of the top programs in the five boroughs and New York State during O’Neil’s 17 years as coach. Hayes won the CHSFL’s Class A crown in 2005 and the Class AA title in 2013 before claiming in 2016 the first Class AAA championship (the largest classification) by a New York City school in 16 seasons.
“There is no secret to success in life,” O’Neil said. “It’s no mystery. You set a goal and you work toward it day in and day out, and when you do, the sky is the limit for kids.”
O’Neil, longtime assistant Craig Joseph, junior varsity coach Abdurrahim Ali and others around the team drill toughness, brotherhood and grit into the players. If that isn’t enough, there’s clear evidence of recent players who wholeheartedly embraced the message, as outside of the locker rooms are pictures of some of the 50 former Hayes players currently playing college football.
Famous alumni, such as former seven-year NFL lineman Stalin Colinet and Super Bowl champion and current broadcaster Willie Colon, who played for the Jets, come back to the school often. Their experience at Hayes wasn’t too much different than the current players’.
“We don’t sit and wallow and say what we don’t have and what we wish we had,” said assistant coach Erle Ladson, who starred at Hayes before playing at the University of Delaware and making the practice squads of the NFL’s Browns and Raiders.
“We’re not going to have the nicest stuff. I mean, the [tackling] sled that we used is the same I used when I was here.”
This September, O’Neil felt his team was ready to test its mettle against some of the powerful New Jersey parochial schools. They played a non-league contest against St. Joseph’s of Montvale, ranked in the Top 25 in the country by USA Today at the time. Hayes was competitive early in the contest before eventually falling 33-7 at MetLife Stadium. It’s all part of the continued growth of the program.
“The biggest thing here is consistency,” O’Neil said. “We get good players here and we develop them. We are a very disciplined place and we put kids in position to where they grind.”
Hayes’ reputation helped earn it a special visitor last season when Giants running back Saquon Barkley visited the school and a Hayes practice in conjunction with a Campbell’s Soup advertising campaign.
Senior Jalen Smith was still beaming a year later.
“When Saquon came last year, it motivated me a lot,” Smith said. “He really told us some stuff that we actually used in the season. It motivated me a lot. What are the odds of Saquon coming to this school, than other schools?”
Going forward, O’Neil said the program wants to maintain its upper-echelon status in the CHSFL while trying to raise its stature against teams outside of the state. That’s the challenge the program embraces because it is used to overcoming any obstacles placed in front of it.
“There will be setbacks at times, but the best part of football is that it’s just a microcosm of life,” O’Neil said. “You get the opportunity, there will be bad days, great days, positive things will happen and you got to swim in those waters. You don’t have the opportunity to stand there — you’re going to drown. You got to keep swimming. It’s a great life lesson, and we’re going to keep growing.”