Gad Jacobs was the defensive coordinator at St. Andrew's for four years before taking the head job with the Eagles program.
St. John Paul II Academy has selected the next leader of their football program.
Gad Jacobs, who was previously the defensive coordinator at St. Andrew's, will cross the street to take over the football program at St. John Paul II Academy.
Jacobs was a significant part of the Scots' rise to the upper echelon of Class 1A in the last two seasons, and during last year, his defense held opponents to an average of just 9.6 points per game.
"Last year was definitely a very special year," Jacobs said. And I feel like we've been building up to that. What went into this decision . . . it was a good opportunity. I just kind of figured, 'hey, I'll throw my name in the hat.' I met with Jimmy, and he gave me his blessing. And he said a lot of really good things about St. John Paul."
St. John Paul II has asked him to be both the head coach and a full-time member of the school on campus, offering him a new Dean of Students role.
That was one of the pulls for Jacobs, who was splitting time between Somerset Canyons day-time work and coaching at St. Andrew's. The new role with St. John Paul II will give him the opportunity to be on campus full-time as a mentor, allowing him to cultivate the culture he wants to establish with his student-athletes both on and off the field.
St. John Paul II Academy, which in the last year has appointed both a new president and athletic director, drew the eyes of a lot of applicants, and Jacobs not only felt strong alignment with the leadership for the school and athletics, he also feels like the program is already trending upwards.
"I've been seeing these guys every year the last few years and I'm like, 'they have some talent,'" Jacobs said. "And in my meetings and my interviews, I just really felt really, really good about the energy behind the program right now.
"The future looks bright from a facility standpoint," he continued. "They just installed a brand new turf field. Last year was their first year playing on that. And that was phase one of a two-phase project. The second phase is they're building a new field house. So, they're really kind of pouring into the athletic program."
The Eagles football program compiled a 3-6 record last year and ended the season with the highest state ranking since the 2020 season, which was the last year the program had with a winning record.
The move will certainly make for some interesting rivalry games between Jacobs' Eagles and Jimmy Robertson's Scots, and the two friends-turned-rivals have already eagerly scheduled a game for the coming season.
"He's like, 'yeah, we're friends until week two,' so we see them early," Jacobs said. "And I got to go back there, so I got to go home. Which is actually crazy, because I don't think I've ever even in practice been on our visitor sideline."
This will not be Jacobs' first experience as a head coach. In addition to serving as the defensive coordinator at St. Andrew's, he was also the head coach of Village Academy for three seasons prior to the school's closure amid the pandemic.
Alex Peterman is a high school sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Gad Jacobs tabbed as next head football coach for St. John Paul II
Category: General Sports
