Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
High schools
Olympic Heights coach got work ethic from immigrant parents
Olympic Heights coach Baz Alfred, left, uses his Haitian heritage work ethic to inspire his team.
BOCA RATON — Baz Alfred learned about hard work from a very young age.
As the son of Haitian immigrants, the 33-year-old football coach witnessed it first-hand in Delray Beach. His dad worked over 25 years in landscaping, while his mother worked two cleaning jobs to provide Alfred and four of his siblings a better life in America.
“They would do everything to provide for us and make sure we had everything we needed to be successful in life,” Alfred said. “If we needed books, crayons, pencils, my mom would go work at someone’s house and clean it up to make sure we had that extra money.”
That work ethic rubbed off on Alfred, who’s now thriving in his first year as Olympic Heights’ head football coach.
Promoted from offensive coordinator in April, Alfred has the Lions in the driver’s seat of the District 13-7A title race after engineering a major upset of perennial power Dwyer. With that victory, Heights (3-2, 2-0) is in position to capture the district title if it can win its final three district games.
That would be heady territory for a school that hasn’t won its district in 20 years, with a bottoming-out in 2014 with a 0-10 season where they were outscored 517-24.
More importantly for Alfred, he also holds the distinction of being the only Haitian-American head football coach in Palm Beach County. Alfred takes great pride in his heritage, which he relays to the Lions’ Haitian players, who make up more than a quarter of his roster.
“I tell [my Haitian players]: You’re the hardest workers out here,” said Alfred. “You have it harder than anyone else. Your parents came from Haiti in order to provide, put clothes on your back, food on the table, for you to go to school, so you don’t have to be in the same situation they’re in.
“We live by the three L’s. What we call it in Creole: “lekol, legliz, lakay.” It means school, church and home.”
Alfred was born in Opa-locka, then moved with his family to Palm Beach County. Alfred and his siblings quickly learned they wouldn’t be allowed to loaf around the house.
“My dad was so strict he would take the power cord out of the TV at night,” Alfred said.
He starred at Boca Raton High School and then played at Muskingum College as a wide receiver. He returned to Delray Beach to pursue his dream of becoming a head coach. After five assistant gigs, Alfred finally got his chance.
“It’s a lifetime achievement,” said Alfred, whose younger brother Bee serves as his defensive coordinator.
A defining moment came for him in 2010 when he was watching the AFC Championship game. After the Indianapolis Colts’ win, Pierre Garçon, a John I. Leonard graduate, proudly displayed a large Haitian flag.
“It was one of those moments where it’s like, ‘We made it,’ ” said Alfred. “For me being promoted, it’s the same thing. … We’re there with the big dogs like everyone else.”
Alfred, who last visited Haiti when he was 12 years old, says he and his cousins are hoping to visit the country soon.
Alfred’s success has been a pleasure to watch for Chris Kokell. The two met 10 years ago as assistants at Boca Raton High School and Alfred later served as Kokell’s right-hand man during head coaching jobs at then-Pope John Paul II, Forest Hill and Olympic Heights.
“We have a lot of coaches who like to preach ‘kids first’ but he’s the one who actually puts kids first,” Kokell said. “He’s a role model, whether it’s in the Haitian community or in Delray Beach. We tell the kids to look up to NFL players, but you have a local guy right here who’s helping kids in the neighborhood where he grew up.
“He’s what’s right about high school football.”