This past weekend was packed with sports for Traveling Coach. Friday night kicked it off with a trip to Ridgefield, Connecticut to meet up with a teammate and friend Jay Nielsen for some Friday night bites and lights. Saturday was the Immaculate High School Hall of Fame Ceremony at the Ethan Allen Inn with former player Zack Long’s induction. The weekend closed with a trip to Masuk High School in Monroe for the first swim meet of the year for Anthony with the New Milford Barracudas. What may seem like 3 separate events, are much intertwined in a very special way, in my sports life. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were a road map to the journey starting as a player, continuing as a coach, and becoming a father. Aside from being a husband, these are three of the most important jobs I have had in my life.
Player:
When I was 14 years old I arrived at Immaculate High School unfamiliar with the people I was going to encounter. I had been in 3 different schools in 2 years when we moved from Pennsylvania. I remember after one of our first practices in preseason camp waiting on the curb for my parents. Fellow freshman Jay Nielsen was on the curb with me that day talking about football and the season ahead. Since that day, we really haven’t stop talking about every aspect of the game we both fell in love with at Immaculate High School. Jay was the guy who had the stones to play quarterback, never playing the position at the youth level. He started the first game of the season that year as a freshman and I remember thinking how much pressure that must have been on a 14 year kid to step in and be the starter, commanding a huddle, surrounded by seniors. We were both three year starters at Immaculate High school me at middle linebacker and him at quarterback. It was always competitive and he always knew how to piss me off in practice which didn’t take much. Neither of us were all-state players but we brought a kind of physical, competitive enthusiasm to a program that had some down years prior. In his junior and seniors years as a starter we went 16-2. More times than not, he found a way to make a big play when we needed it most. He attended Arizona State and stayed out on the west coast for 10 years. There isn’t a more passionate Arizona State Football fan out there. Since he moved back east with his Wife Dena (Immaculate alumni) and 2 kids, I regularly get texts during the football season about how bad the Giants look or if I want to come over for an 11 pm ASU game. My percentage is about 75% in attending. My wife always says to me “go ahead, have fun, I’ll be asleep anyway”. He lives in Ridgefield now and is always down for any kind of sporting event and the occasional cocktail. So I headed to Ridgefield Friday evening, stopping first at HooDoo Brown BBQ before the game.
HooDoo Browns is a popular BBQ joint in Ridgefield, Connecticut. I had been there before but have never really dove into their wing selection. I pulled into the parking lot and outside are all the smokers working and a variety of delicious smells bellowing from them. I shot Jay a text and said “I here, where are you?” he replied simple “at bar”. At this point in our friendship I should have known better and just b lined to the stools. He was already there like he owned the place. The guy has an energy about him that is infectious. We talked about PAC12 football, our kids, and his trip to a Green Bay Packer game with his dad, brother, and sister. His father, Bob Nielsen, a Wisconsin native had never been to Lambeau Field. That was all Jay needed to hear and found a way to get some tickets and go. The guy knows how to make sports memories. After about 20 minutes it was time to get down to some wing business. I wanted a little variety so we went with a four wing sauce selection. The lineup consisted of BBQ (naturally), Spicy Buffalo (classic), Gold Rush (Sweet and spicy), and Chipotle Honey (wild card). We order six of each. I accompanied my wings with a Bud Light(watching my figure) and Jay was drinking some Two Roads beer that I couldn’t pick out of a lineup. Typical selections, I go for the form tackle and he scrambles around and dives head first for the pylon. The wings showed up with a nice BBQ style presentation on a sheet tray sectioned off by flavor. The wings are smoked which adds a unique flavor profile. They were not as crispy as I usually like but the meat was tender and flavorful. The actually wing itself was large and held the sauce well. The spicy buffalo had that buttery buffalo flavor but didn’t add much as far as spice, the Ryan Fitzpatrick gets the job done but yet not dynamic. BBQ was excellent hitting all the notes as a classic BBQ sauce, sweet and savory. BBQ falls into the Aaron Rodgers mode in terms of it’s not going to make many mistakes, sometimes gets over looked, but you always look up and it’s at the top of the list year in and year out. The Gold Rush (hot sauce and honey mustard) sauce wings were a miss for me. It was too much gold and not enough rush. Gold Rush was the prototypical can’t miss prospect i.e. Matt Leinart who doesn’t quite live up to the hype. Lastly was the Chipotle Honey. This sauce had a very unique flavor giving you double hint of smoke flavor coming from both the cooking process and Chipotle pepper. This one was my favorite because of this dual threat combo. Think ASU’s own Jake Plummer who could use both his big arm and quick legs to be effective in college and the pros. He even sported a little honey of his own with a sweet mustache later in his career. I gave them a 3.5 / 5 they are not the goat but you can definitely win games with them any day of the week.
We headed over to Ridgefield high school to take in the Friday night matchup between the Westhill Vikings and Ridgefield Tigers. Ridgefield has a 3-1 record going in. After an early season loss to Greenwich the Tigers put together some huge victories against Xavier High School (28-7) and Newtown High School (10-7). Westhill on the contrary has struggled this year in a tough FCIAC Schedule and the tragic loss of senior teammate Jordan Martinez.
Ridgefield Stadium is being renovated. New turf is going in on the main field and the Tigers are utilizing the alternate field for home games. This certainly did not stop the student section, which came out in droves on a hill behind the goal post to cheer on their home town team. We found our way over to the bleachers a little late. The game had begun and to my surprise we were scoreless deep into the first quarter. Westhill defense played tough the entire first half led by linebacker Marquis Rutherford. The Vikings certainly were ready to play but they had to play mistake free football in order to have a shot at an upset. Westhill was stopping the Tiger run game but as Jay and I starting discussing it only takes one assignment blown to kick the door open on the score board. No sooner did we say that, starting quarterback Justin Keller found a wide open Logan Gels for the first score of the game late in the first quarter. Unfortunately for the Vikings, the Tigers would take advantage of these breakdowns all game.
Led by the power running of Nacho Brina (early favorite for name of the year) and Kai Kuwata Ridgefield began to wear down the Vikings. Junior quarterback Justin Keller starred for Ridgefield with 3 touchdown passes and another rushing. Keller is very much in command of the Tiger spread offense using his quick feet and quick release to his advantage. Ridgefield took the lead and never looked back with the score 33-0 (40-0 final) we headed for the exits late in the 4th quarter. We went back to have one more beer at HooDoo Browns. The conversation stayed on football but not 100% of the time. We talked about coaching our sons and our new found love of country music after all the years of listening to Metallica and Guns and Roses. It was one of those Friday nights when you realize you should do this more often. We all need more of hanging out with friends that make your life better. Friends you can laugh with, tell stories, and relax without thinking about bills or worldly issues. When I need this I know one number I will always have on standby.
Coach:
After a fun Friday night of memories with a former teammate I head to the Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury to do some reminiscing about coaching. I was invited by Zack Long to celebrate his induction into the Hall of Fame. I hadn’t been to one of these events since Steve Kaplanis was inducted in 2008. I coached Zach from 2001-2004. Zach was a multi-sport athlete but his true passion was football. He was a part of two excellent teams at Immaculate in ’03 and ’04. Those two seasons were fun, challenging, and exciting ending in 2 division titles, 2 conference championship game appearances, and 2 state playoff appearances.
I sat at a table with my brother John, Roger Hancock (coach me my senior year and I coached with for 6 years at Immaculate), and two Palmer brothers Mike and Garrett. We shared our memories at Immaculate. Immaculate was a community intertwined by towns all around the greater Danbury area. In sports you start off as rivals and then a year later at Immaculate you end up being teammates. I enjoyed listening to Zach talk enthusiastically about the bonds he formed while at Immaculate. This was coming from a guy who played college football at Davidson and then went overseas with the army serving our country. He constantly pointed back to his time at Immaculate that helped shape that person he’s become. My mind began to drift back to last week when talking about judging coaching success years later to see what kind of person someone has become. The prideful way he talked about his wife and his children, especially his daughter Avery and the emotion that stirred up. It even brought a tear to my eye. As we get further away from those times together, events like Saturday night happen I am often reminded how important those times were. Not so much stats or wins and losses but the permanent tattoo that those pockets of time put an imprint on you as a person. It was a special night for a great group of Mustangs.
Father:
This brings me to Sunday. First I was a player, then a coach, and now a father. My son and my daughter are both into athletics, now none of this interest pertains to football but my son has shown some interest recently, and according to my daughter she throws a football further than anyone at recess boy or girl. Athletics is woven into the fabric of our house. Whether is coaching, swimming, basketball, Jujitsu, boxing and anything else we can throw, catch, run, or jump into its happening at some point every day. This particular Sunday it was a swim meet at Masuk High School for Anthony. This would be the first swim meet in which I got to sit in the stands indoors and watch him since the pandemic. Although we moved, he still swims for the New Milford Barracudas Swim Club. This makes for a lot of long rides, but also a lot of good conversations as we trek 40 minutes to and from practice 4 days a week. I love listening to my kids talk about what they are passionate about, even if I have no idea what they are saying, the level of enthusiasm that they deliver this information with has become one of the favorite parts of my day. It was great to see how pumped he was to be back in the water and competing. He did great competing against kids that were older than him (hit a personal best on the 50 freestyle with 25.26 seconds). In swimming it’s more of a battle against the clock than any singular opponent. Sitting in the stands with my wife and daughter cheering him on is special, especially when we are constantly moving in different directions for work, school, and activities. This was great way to close a family, food, and football weekend.
So there you have it. 40 years of memories and moments packed into 3 days. I first was a player, then a coach, now a father. Each one of these has made me better for other ones. Here’s to continuing to get better every day.
