Coach’s Message
10.26-10.31
Star’s Football Family-
Another week in and another week of great successes for our kids. Day in and in day out our young men and women continue to live our Iron Star virtues. I speak to many other head coaches throughout the week and I have to say the level of investment, accountability, and selflessness of our Stars is NOT common. Our kids love this game and their enthusiasm is infectious. I can honestly say I love them all like my son our daughters. Their experience is my top priority and I can only hope that they are enjoying this as much as I am. I keep telling our players that at some point we will be the only ones playing and every other state will be wishing they were us. To get to spend these last 20 days with our kids has been the highlight of what has been a difficult year.
Memories
This past week I had to say goodbye to one of my closest friends, possibly the closest. He was a neighborhood buddy who moved in down the block in 6th grade. Basically, from the moment I met him at the bus stop on the first day of school, we were inseparable. Throughout the years we shared in the good, bad, and indifferent of each other’s life. In high school, we would spend hours on the football field playing for a fairly poor team. Even though we didn’t win many the time we spent together and the memories we made are priceless. He had my back and I had his. To this day there is nobody I would rather have by my side when the chips are down. As the years went on, life took over. Between kids, jobs, and everything else it can be hard to stay in touch. While we didn’t see each other as much we still kept in touch. I always appreciated the opportunity to connect with somebody who knew me back then. He knew where I came from and understood the mindset because in our neighborhood you had to have it. It was never awkward, it was just picked up from wherever we left off. At his funeral, they had our old football helmet out on display. Seeing that helmet for the first time in 25 years hit my like a ton of bricks and made me realize that the reason I coach is to provide our kids with the same great memories that I have. I will never get to hear his laugh again and I feel with his passing a part of me has gone with him.
I write this is because it is a perfect example of the importance of this moment in time for our kids. There will be a time when the cleats are hung up and all that is left are memories and friendships. Years will pass and lives will change but in those precious moments when you see your old friends the memories you share will become the fabric of your lives. During this tough time when we have so many reasons to stop believing and throw in the towel, my sole motivation has been to continue to stay true to our program’s mission, vision, and purpose. It is my NORTHSTAR! It is my guiding light!
“PEOPLE over PLAYERS, EXPERIENCES over EVERYTHING”
Congratulations
Carmine Bastone
Committed to Cornell University
Parting Shots
We will get through this!
We will play football!
It will be awesome!
TOP PRIORITY
- PLATOON CHALLENGE #4 TRICK OR CLEATS
- GOODWILL CLEAT DONATION
- LIGHTLY USED CLEATS
- NO HOLES OR SEVERE DAMAGE
- TEAM WHO COLLECTS THE MOST CLEATS WINS
- Camp day location
- Monday
- Frosh : no practice
- Soph/Var 5-7pm on turf
- Tuesday 5-7pm
- All levels on turf
- Wednesday 3-5pm (yes 3-5pm!)
- Soph/Var on turf
- Frosh on far west field
- Last day for sophs/ frosh
- Saturday
- Varsity Only
- Platoon 7 on 7
- 8am-10am
- SCN 4TH PHASE