Pop Warner alumni welcomed into coaching ranks

L-R: Coaches Rodman, Bonica, Winchell, Cerruti and McCabe

L-R: Coaches Jordan Rodman, Greg Bonica, Calvin Winchell, Logan Cerruti and Joe McCabe

What happens when you bring in a group of college-age millennials with limited to no coaching experience and hand them the keys to their own youth football team?

For the leaders of Canton’s Pop Warner program, that was precisely the question they were asking themselves in September after entrusting 22-year-old Calvin Winchell and four of his former CHS classmates to helm the sixth grade C team.

The five of them — Winchell, Greg Bonica, Logan Cerruti, Jordan Rodman and Joe McCabe — had all volunteered for the gig without any prompting and with no direct connection to any of the current players.

Not sure whether it would work, Pop Warner ultimately decided that it would be worth the gamble. And whatever doubts they had going into the season — about the coaches’ commitment level, about their ability to command the players’ respect — had all but vanished by the end of the first practice.

Now eight weeks, seven victories, and countless highlights later, it is clear that this experiment has been a rousing success.

“Basically, these guys voluntarily stepped up and took on the responsibility of coaching the C team without any coaching experience,” said Vice President Terry Thomas, whose son John is the quarterback on the team. “And they’ve really done a great job. They’re so committed. They attend every practice and they all have that relatable skill. And the kids all love them.”

Looking back, Thomas said they were fortunate to even have a C team this year, as they had to “scrape and claw” to reach the minimum roster size of 17. They ended up with 19 players in all, but that still left them incredibly thin in the event of injuries or other absences.

So it was a testament to the coaching staff, he said, that they somehow managed to make it work. And the kids not only showed up but they bought in, which translated to immediate results on the football field.

“I was just happy that they had a team this year,” admitted Thomas. “The reality is if they had won two games I would have thought that was a success, but they went out and went 7-1 and made the playoffs.”

The Bulldogs, in fact, were scheduled to travel to King Philip last night for their playoff opener, and a confident Coach Winchell said they were going to have the players ready to go.

“We’re definitely going to put our team in the best position to succeed, and we can stick with any of these teams if we play to our capability,” he said.

At the same time, Winchell said the story of this year’s team would not hinge on that one result, and if the season were to end abruptly against KP or another playoff opponent, it would not take away from any of the group’s collective accomplishments.

“It’s been an awesome experience,” he said, while noting that the five coaches have gotten as much out of it as the players have.

What they tried to do from day one, he said, was “recognize the strengths of the kids on the team and put them in the best position to be successful,” and the result was a versatile, “all-around team” that was solid offensively and an “animal” on defense.

As for what drew him and his friends to coaching a youth team, he said it’s actually quite simple: they love football, they enjoy working with kids, and they thought it would be fun.

The timing was also fortuitous as both he and Bonica, the first two to volunteer, had already planned to take the fall semester off from school. Both are close to finishing their degrees — Winchell at the University of Rochester and Bonica at Auburn University.

The two would soon round out their staff with Cerruti, Rodman and McCabe, all recent college graduates and fellow members of the CHS Class of 2012. All five of them had played together in Pop Warner, and everyone but McCabe — who switched his focus to basketball and went on to play at Framingham State — continued their playing careers right up through senior year in high school.

Despite their young ages, the five of them brought an extraordinary amount of collective football knowledge to this year’s squad and they also had the leadership skills to match. Winchell said they enjoyed all facets of the job, from trying out new and exotic plays to “getting the kids fired up” for the games.

Players and coaches from the Pop Warner C team pose for a photo with Devin McCourty of the New England Patriots.

They also went the extra mile on numerous occasions — on one Saturday morning Winchell invited them all to his parents’ house for a team breakfast, where they enjoyed donuts and bagels and watched “Remember the Titans.” They even had Patriots Pro-Bowl safety Devin McCourty come and speak to the team, thanks to a generous parent who had traded in his raffle prize so that the players could have a memorable experience with a football hero.

And perhaps the surest indication that the coaching staff had reached the team was the fact that they made it through an entire season with only 19 players without ever having to forfeit a game or call off a practice.

“For the entire year it’s been everybody coming to everything,” said Winchell. “People are tight on this team.”

Overall, Winchell said the coaching staff could not have asked for a better group of players, and Thomas said the feeling is most certainly mutual.

“The kids love to have them and the parents have had a great experience,” he said. “And I think if nothing else we would like to recognize them for the sacrifice they all made this year.”

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