It was as startling as seeing a bear swimming in a backyard pool.
Travis Russell, the 40-year-old Jesuit priest who’s president at Verbum Dei High, was carrying around a Craftsman tool box as if he were the school’s handyman. He pulled out a hammer to demonstrate he knows what he’s doing.
Verbum Dei president Father Travis Russell finally got around to putting up a photo of new Pope Leo XIV.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
“I had to hang up a picture of the new pope,” he said.
It’s all hands on deck at “The Verb,” a beacon of hope for many in South Los Angeles. With an enrollment of 310 students, the all-boys Catholic school in Watts has a tuition of just $4,000, with most families paying $1,200 thanks to assistance from a corporate work study program and other Catholic scholarship funds.
Once a powerhouse in basketball in the 1970s with the likes of Raymond Lewis, David Greenwood and Roy Hamilton, the school canceled its football season after four games in 2024 because of a lack of players. It was a decision made by Russell, who believed his school needed to start over.
He hired as head coach Gary Parks, who was an assistant for Verbum Dei’s 2005 championship football team and is a Verbum Dei grad. Russell hired another Verbum Dei grad, Darius Spates, to be athletic director. Parks hired five assistants who are Verbum Dei grads. Everyone decided to return to football slowly, so the team won’t play its first game this season until Oct. 19 against Belmont, then host its first home game in more than 20 years on a new grass field against Locke the following week.
The school is undergoing a $30-million reconstruction project.
“The assignment is rebuilding the legacy and tradition of Verbum Dei,” said Parks, a Baptist pastor who spent four years as head coach at Maya Angelou High until being called back to duty at The Verb.
Russell has made it clear that despite some Catholic schools using a strategy to fix sports programs quickly by turning to transfers and promises of financial breaks and other perks, he wants none of that.
“When you build for a community rather than just a school, loyalty and long-term success follow,” Russell said.
Parks wants to build with each freshman class.
“That’s what we did at Angelou,” he said. “We want you to come because Verbum Dei is a great educational institution. Football is a byproduct.”
All students participate in a corporate work study program that requires them once a week to get real work experience. Some have to show up wearing a suit and tie. They are balancing work, sports participation and school as 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds, something that prepares them for college and adulthood.
“It’s definitely going better,” said 250-pound Geovanny Gutierrez. “Last year there was no motivation to play.”
They’ve been using a synthetic turf field built by the Rams at nearby Nickerson Gardens while waiting for their new field to be finished next month. Otherwise, they work out in their weight room or asphalt next to the school parking lot.
“We’re going to make it work,” Parks said. “That’s why we don’t mind practicing on blacktop. We know what we could be.”
The program now has 26 players, including 12 freshmen. This is a program building step by step, focusing on academics during the day, study halls, then sports in the afternoon.
Adrian Alvarado was on the team last year but almost didn’t come out this year after last season’s abrupt halt.
“I felt disappointed,” he said. “I like the idea we’re starting slow. We’ve been able to recruit more students. I just want to get a game in already.”
It’s a refreshing and inspiring scene to see an administration and coaching staff on the same page by using sports to teach life lessons while not looking for shortcuts in order to win first.
Russell has never shied away from a challenge, and getting the football program back led him to say he might make a call to the Vatican with a message for Pope Leo XIV, who’s a sports fan.
“I’ll invite him to a game here,” he said.
Welcome to the new Verbum Dei, full of hope, full of dreams, full of respect for its families and community.