WEEK 8: PART 2 FATHER AND SON

I arrived home at midnight from Ridgewood New Jersey. It was a great night enjoying the high school football atmosphere with some great people in a town that clearly takes pride in their program. This was my eighth game of the season for Traveling Coach. Every game experience has been different. I have watched games with old friends, met some new people, and saw some great atmospheres for high school football in the northeast. What I haven’t seen yet is a game that comes right down to the wire. The kind of game that gets the heart rate up, tests a team’s nerve, and serves them well later in the season.

Darien at Greenwich had that potential on a gorgeous Saturday evening. Both teams boasted 5-0 records and excellent defenses. Greenwich, which has only given up 29 points this season, and their closest game was decided by 33 points. Darien had only given up 41 points and their closest contest was a 24-8 defeat of Southington high school. Both programs are rich in tradition and have top players all over the field. Greenwich is the defending LL state champions. The 2019 version has a lot of juniors starting for the first time. The cardinals also have a first year head coach Anthony Morello after John Marinelli left to become an assistant at the University of Arizona. Darien is a senior laden group who was beaten by Newtown last year in the first round of the state playoffs. The Blue Wave had won the state title 3 years in a row prior to that loss and had only lost 3 games total in those 4 seasons. These teams don’t rebuild, they reload. They have come out this year with something to prove and today will be their first test. This has all the makings of an instant classic.


My “Wingboy” in the second half of this double header will be my son Anthony Gaetano Mascolo. Although with the moustache and deep voice he seems to be getting closer to a “wingman” than I thought. Anthony was essentially born on the football field. When he was 3 months old I got my first head coaching job at Abbott Tech High school. I was a weekend night shift security guard at Danbury hospital so during the week Anthony was always with me and accompanied me to practice. It was the very beginning for Anthony and the start of a new program at Abbott Tech. We were all learning together as we went. These days finding a free weekend to spend the day together is rare. Anthony is becoming a solid athlete and a talented swimmer. Anybody who has their kids involved in swimming knows it is very time consuming but he is very passionate, hardworking, and committed to it so it makes giving up some weekends a lot easier.

Anthony woke me up early Saturday morning. Unfortunately it was from the couch where I passed out trying to write the first half of this story. Michelle and Allison headed off to softball to leave the boys to our own devices. Since Anthony was coming with me to the game I figured the morning belonged to him and we could do whatever we wanted. We turned on the PlayStation and he eased me in by playing NBA 2K (I destroyed him in the game). Then we went outside my wheel house and played some Minecraft. I caught a small glimpse of how my father felt when I used to ask him to play video games. I would make sure I never gave him all the directions so I could quickly beat him. However Anthony is much kinder than I ever was. He definitely takes after his mother. After we got done playing we got ready to go and decided on some pregame pizza in Greenwich.

We headed to a pizza place about 10 minutes from Greenwich High school called Bella Nonna. Now that Anthony is a growing pre-teen I can no longer just share a little bit of what I am eating with him. He is done with the kids menu. He ordered a half white and half pepperoni personal pizza. Since he has started swimming three years ago his appetite has gotten a lot bigger. He ate the entire thing and I am sure if he blinks a couple of times he can burn those calories right off. Meanwhile I am still trying to burn off the carbs from a meatball sandwich in 2005. He is a fan of the pizza reviews on barstool sports so of course he scored it a 7.9. Good pizza but you don’t travel for it.We finished up our meal and got to the game early.

Greenwich High School is the second largest school in the state of Connecticut with over 2,600 students. Living in Connecticut for over 25 years I had a certain perception of the high school more specifically the athletic facilities. I figured we would walk into a state of the art stadium but as it turns out it had a good mixture of traditional high school facilities and new innovation. Anthony and I walked toward the stadium where you have to cross a very rustic wooden bridge to get to the entrance. The field was turfed surrounded by a modern track and the Jumbo Tron on the scoreboard was very impressive. As we made are way to the stands you could feel a sense of old school football atmosphere. Youth football players where grabbing free t-shirts because they wore their teams jersey. The stands where metal with much of the old rust still showing. The wooden press box was modest with a “Go big red” sign across the top and above that a banner honoring Alumni Steve Young’s 2005 Hall of Fame Induction. Instead of concession they had food trucks from local caterers. We found our spot on the 50 yard line in front of the press box and observed the crowds as they rolled in.

The Greenwich side had a different feel to it than other games I have been used too. While most crowds are mostly parents and students the Cardinals crowds seemed to have a lot more alumni. I saw a lot of old lettermen jackets and jerseys on men that probably wore the Cardinal uniform in years past. Darien’s student section came out in full force packing the visitors stands. Their enthusiasm started write off the bat as after an excellent rendition of the national anthem the students threw white powder in the air like LeBron James does in pregame. The Cardinal players entered the field running through a banner that said “Darien, Wave your win streak goodbye”. The gauntlet was thrown down for these two FCIAC powers to renew their rivalry.

The Blue Wave dominated the first half with their smothering physical defense. Their pass rush led by David Evanchick (2 sacks) and Will Bothwell (3 sacks) which relentlessly pursued quarterback James Rinello in the first 24 minutes of this game. Led by 2-way playmaker Jackson Peters who scored the first touchdown and snagged an interception in Greenwich territory that led to the second score. My hopes of a close game were fading fast. It was also evident Anthony was starting to lose interest. I gave him a couple of bucks to head to snack stand before the half.

As a young father especially one that values athletics as much as I do you naturally assume your kids will be into sports like you are. As a coach I learned early on that you can’t expect them to have the same passions as you do. You have to let them find their way. I probably coached over 500 kids over the years. I’ve seen some kids who only play because of their parents and that’s usually a no win situation for both the player and the coach. Unfortunately, that is usually the situation where that parent is the most vocal about everything that goes on. Being a son and then becoming a father is very much the same as being a player and becoming a coach, your perspective changes. When you’re a son or a player you’re searching for your role and your way in this world. You’re looking to your coach or parent for guidance. Subsequently as a coach or a parent you need to look more selflessly at situations and what is best for the player or child.

At the end of the first half the perspective of this game changed. Struggling for 23 minutes of the half Greenwich finally broke through when Quarterback James Rinello found a wide open Kobe Comizio for a 65 yard Touchdown to make the score 21-7 at the half. Suddenly there was a little hope after a half of struggles.

The second half began much like the first half ended. On the ensuing kickoff Darien fumbled the ball away and two plays later Running Back Hunter Clark powered his way into the endzone to cut the lead to 21-14. After a Greenwich defensive stop Rinello completed 3 passes on the next drive with the final one being a 24 yard connection with AJ Barber. The score was 21-21 setting up for that classic ending I have been looking for all year. Whether it was the excitement of the game or the two bags of sour patch kids he had, Anthony was starting to get into the game.

Greenwich’s Defense dug in and forced Darien to punt on the three consecutive drives. However in the fourth quarter a key personal foul penalty poked the bear and sparked the Blue Waves offense. Darien quarterback Peter Graham was fired up after being hit late and then fired a strike to Jackson Peters for his second score of the day. Graham may have high fived every member of the Blue Wave after this go ahead score. Darien’s lead was 27-21 after the extra point was blocked.

With less than 3 minutes to go and down by six points on their own 40 yard line this was lining up perfectly for a dramatic finish. Anthony and I were locked into every play as the clock ticked down in the ball game. Rinello worked the offense down the field.  The first year starter looked to have complete control of the offense getting the ball out quickly and completing 5 of 6 passes on the final drive. The key play was an outstanding diving catch from Kobe Comizio over the middle for a 21 yard gain. On a 3rd and 9 Rinello completed a pass to Mason Muir getting the Cardinals down to Darien’s 13. There was some confusion as the Cardinals offense rushed to line with no timeouts left. Rinello took the snap and spiked the football to stop the clock. The ball bounced back into his hands from the ground and he looked over to the down marker realizing it was 4^th down.  I would image he thought he had a first down on the completion but Greenwich was about a yard short. As Darien rushed the field to celebrate the victory I looked at my son and although I was glad to have finally seen a classic, my heart broke for that kid. The game shouldn’t be defined by one play, no football game should.  There are so many twists in turns in a great football game you can point to, so many situations you can say “what if”. We walked out through the mob of fans. The Darien students being kids where making light of the Greenwich QBs mishap. I told Anthony one thing that I immediately thought of after the fact. That quarterback who played an outstanding game under immense pressure is now battle tested and what happened tonight will pay dividends for him down the road. A great lesson learned for any young athlete.

Traffic was heavy as we made our way for some wings. Anthony started to ask me question. For some reason he asked me how retirement works. Who knows how that topic came up? I guess when your 11 years old that concept doesn’t make sense. I mean at 38 I barely does for me. He asked me about his grandma and if she ever had a job. I said she worked in food service mostly and this made sense to him of why she is such a good cook. It was nice to talk about other stuff other than sports and football. We arrived to Macduff’s Pub and both quickly realized this wasn’t a sports bar at all. It looked more like a hangout for 30 somethings to have a drink and socialize. The waitress was very nice and seated us quickly. We ordered a couple of sodas and some wings for each of us, mild and BBQ. The wings came out and weren’t good. They did not have enough sauce and were very dry. These wings are a 1 star recruit. Essentially a kids who played football in high school, became a commuter student and wanted to do other things with his life.


I am not under any illusion that my son became a big football fan tonight. He at a young age however appreciates passion and a competitive spirit. Whether it’s on the field, in the pool, on the court, or in the classroom it’s all relative. The wing review tonight was disappointing and very forgettable but what wasn’t forgettable was the great game I got to share with my “Wingman” for life.


Next Week :

Game: Springfield vs. Westfield

Grub: Shortstops Bar and Grill