The 2020 football season is finally set to begin for St. Anthony’s but in a much different way than expected. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the Friars will not be playing contact football this fall; unlike public schools, the New York Catholic High School football league decided to play football a little bit differently. The NYCHSFL will be having a five game 7v7 schedule this fall against Long Island opposition and against Christ the King from Queens.
Head Coach, Joe Minucci, who’s looking to help his team bounce back from a 3-6 season a year ago has to prepare differently this fall for 7v7 compared to a usual contact season. Coach Minucci stated, “These first two weeks we’ve been doing conditioning and strength work, we’ll pick up the football stuff and obviously next week as well as getting ready for our first game. It’s been a little bit of a concern, kids coming in and not really having a full offseason and just trying to work to get them in shape and to be able to run routes all day.”
The Friars graduated a ton of talent from a senior heavy team a year ago. Leaders like Nick Alvarado, Mario Escobar and Jaden Jernigan will be very hard to replace, but the new talent seems up to the challenge. Multisport athlete Senior Kieran Mckenna is now the leader of the linebacker core as he’s one of three captains, with senior running back Luke Rizzo and senior defensive back Emmanuel Green. Mckenna will be accompanied by junior linebackers, Andrew Bardak and Matt Moss, two players who helped lead a strong JV to a Triple-A title appearance.
Mckenna said, “With me being the only senior linebacker this year it’s so important that I set an example for the other guys, Andrew and Matt, all the time whether it’s on the field or not. They’re great leaders themselves so they make my job pretty easy and I’m very grateful for them, but I’m used to stepping up as a leader and I’ve always loved it.” The secondary is highlighted by Seniors Dante Antoine and Emmanuel Green. Both of those players had great junior seasons and the leadership between those two will be huge in anchoring the defense in these 7v7’s.
On offense the Friars’ will be looking for new leaders. After graduating running back Mario Escobar. Jr, running back Luke Rizzo will now take duty as the lead back for these 7v7’s games. The Friars graduated almost every wide receiver from last season. The new WR corps will be led by senior Dominic Dipalma and junior Richie Hosein. They’ll be joined by younger guys as this St. Anthony’s team could be one of the youngest groups we’ve seen in a while. Transfers such as junior RB Dakim Griffin who was a star at Half Hollow Hills West and sophomore WR Keynon Miles look to make an impact on offense in their first season as Friars.
The race for the starting quarterback job is between seniors Connor McCreery, Danny Buffa, Nick Honerkamp, and Dante Torres. Whoever ends up taking the snaps will have a very young receiving core to work with, but will also have a new tight end as senior defensive end Gio Silva will be playing some offense in these 7v7’s. Silva said, “The transition is definitely a challenge because on the D-line where I’ve been since freshman year, I’m used to hitting and focusing on bullying the person in front of me, but now it’s a different type of bully ball. It’s me saying I’m faster than you instead of I’m stronger. So definitely a new and exciting experience, something to look forward to, at game time.”
In 7v7 games touchdowns are still worth six points but there will be no extra points and interception will end the play and will be worth 3 points. The first 7v7 game will take place on October 10th at home on Cy Donnelly field against longtime rival Chaminade. There will be no crowd at the game but anytime these two schools get together it’s always electrifying.
Jared Valluzzi is a Senior at St. Anthony’s; this is his fourth year writing for Friar news. He has earned his certificate from Hofstra’s program of Sports broadcasting and Journalism. He is the school’s first play by play broadcaster and he plays lacrosse for St. Anthony’s.
