At Northwest Christian the motto is faith, education, athletics.

It is what the teachers and coaches try to instill in the students and it is part of the reason behind their "no pass, no play rule."

If a student has a grade of an "F" in one class at the end of the previous week, the student will not be allowed to play in the team’s game(s) until the grade is raised.

Josh Schlesinger, the principal of Northwest Christian, said that the school tries to prevent student athletes getting an "F" by taking precautionary measures once they see a "D" in the weekly report sent to coaches.

“We send an e-mail home to their parents,” Schlesinger said. “Coaches have conversations with kids saying that they (students) need to get tutoring.”

Schlesinger said the coaches have made education a priority. This sends the message that school always comes before sports, including football, to students loud and clear

“Teachers also know they can come get a student out of practice if they need (to),” coach David Inness said. “(Students) will go there (to tutoring help) before they come to practice”

Inness said he can keep an eye on the student-athletes and their grades via a list containing the grades of all his football players that he gets every Tuesday.

Yet a majority of the time, the students will go to Inness before he talks to them.

“Kids that are struggling or are having a hard time get to teachers for extra help,” offensive coordinator Bill Henderson said. “Tutoring, whatever it takes.”

Inness said most of the time when teachers contact him about students who are struggling, there is already a plan in place for the students to in for extra help at lunch.

If the issue is more significant, than students will stay with teachers after school, which is part of the reason football practice does not start right after school.

“If the teacher is available right after school, the kids can get in right after school,” Henderson said. “They get the help they need, and then get back out to practice without missing a single thing.”

Henderson said not only does the team start the practice later at 3:45, but the coaches try to end practice by 5:45 so the students can get home and still have time to work on homework.

However, the coaches can only do so much, as most of the responsibility lies with the students.

Both Inness and Henderson agreed that the upper classmen do a good job in preparing the underclassmen for the classes they will be taking.

“The upper classmen will warn them about classes,” Inness said. “Like in this math class you have homework every night, in Spanish this and that…they give them the heads up.”

All of this, the constant checks of grades and maximizing the student’s time has created a system where for 90 percent of football, eligibility is not an issue according to Henderson.

This success is not limited the football, Schlesinger said the school has four sports in season right now, and only three or four athletes are ineligible to compete.

Schlesinger said he credits the coaches for putting academics first and the teachers for putting in the extra effort to help students.

“Our high school staff, faculty-wise, teacher wise, is amazing at staying after school for all students,” Schlesinger said. “Whether they are athletes or not.”