Messay Hailemariam and Donnie Woods, a pair of former University of Maryland football players from different decades, met for the first time this past summer.

Woods, an offensive lineman who played for the Terps in a 2006 Bowl game, was working out at a sport fitness center in Greenbelt where Pallotti High assistant head coach Hailemariam is an owner.

It did not take long for Hailemariam, who just finished his fifth season at Pallotti, to convince Woods to join the staff of head coach Pat Courtemanche.

Hailemariam seems to have that kind of influence on people.

"He is a winner," Courtemanche said of Hailemariam. "He cares about the kids. He is very passionate. He is all about giving people a chance."

Said Woods: "He is a motivator. You can be having the worst day of your life and you can talk with him for 10 minutes and things turn around. He is of the Christian faith and he is such a positive person. When he comes at something he goes at it 100 percent."

Hailemariam, a Howard County resident, began Star Fitness about eight years ago and currently has about 50 employees.

"You are only as good as the people you have around you," Hailemariam said. "I have people in place that do the day-to-day work."

He has also trained NFL players such as former Maryland star Shawn Merriman (Chargers), Jerome Nichols (formerly of the Packers), Kris Jenkins (Jets) and Daniel Muir (Colts), who played at Parkdale High in Riverdale.

Hailemariam, besides his involvement with Pallotti and Star Fitness, recently became part of the ownership of the Maryland Maniacs, a pro indoor football team that plays home games at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro. The team has offices on C Street in Laurel. The league had ownership problems with the forerunner of the Maniacs.

"They contacted me to see if I was interested in becoming an owner," Hailemariam said. "I always wanted to own an NFL franchise. That is the ultimate goal."

Hailemariam, with a wife and newborn daughter, has made one concession to his multiple commitments: he decided not to coach the junior varsity boys basketball team at Pallotti this coming season.

But Hailemariam has never operated in slow motion.

He grew up in Montgomery County and was a team captain in 1991 when Wootton High won the Maryland state title. Hailemariam led the state that season with eight interceptions. He had offers from the University of Delaware and Connecticut but enrolled at College Park, where he was a walk-on for the Terps in the early 1990s.

Hailemariam graduated from Maryland in 1996 and played strong safety for a semi-pro team, the Maryland Cougars of Prince George's County, in the late 1990s. He coached football at the Lanham Boys and Girls Club and at High Point High in Beltsville before coming to Pallotti.

Pallotti, 2-9 this year, ended a disappointing season with a loss at home Nov. 7 to Spalding.

Hailemariam and Woods, the first-year assistant, will still keep in touch. Woods, who said Hailemariam would make a good prep head coach, has signed to play for the Maniacs in the upcoming 2009 season.

Hailemariam, the defensive coordinator for the Panthers, can only hope the Maniacs have a better season than Pallotti.

"We started off very promising," said Hailemariam, whose Pallotti defense allowed just 16 points the first two games. "You never want to make excuses. We are not deep and we have had injuries on the defensive line and the offensive line."

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