Gael Winds of Change
Shelton enters the 2016 campaign as the Southern Connecticut Conference’s winningest football program over the past decade. The trouble is that the Gaels have not won a state title during this time. The last Shelton CIAC championship game in 2003. They are 0-3 in title games since then, including excruciating losses in the Class LL final the past two seasons. Shelton was bit by the injury bug as three players suffered broken legs before a 39-7 loss to Darien in the 2015 title game.
“Staying healthy is definitely number 1,” exclaimed Shelton head coach Jeff Roy. “We have got to have our players on the field, and then just continue to get better every week.”
Zack Tuskowski’s broken collarbone proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the 2015 Gaels when it went down in the first quarter versus Darien. The silver lining to that miserable injurious stretch… 2016 starter David Wells was able to play some championship game minutes. He completed 11 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown, but did toss three interceptions against a vaunted Darien D.
“He can move in the pocket and he can make plays happen after the pocket breaks down,” declared running back Jonathan Sobotka. “He has an arm. He can throw the ball down the field.”
The Gaels chose not to idle and let this injury problem get the best of them. Shelton can push some serious weight around and in the offseason, the Gaels captured the 2016 Nutmeg High School Football Weight Lifting Competition (12,655 pounds). We have heard arch-rival Sean Marinan, Xavier-Middletown head coach, discuss the importance of preventing injuries by lifting weights already on this tour. The Gaels are taking the same tact in the lead-up to the 2016 campaign.
“We think about that every day,” stated center Robert Valeri. “When we are finishing a rep, doing agility drills or running, we think about those games. We think about how we don’t want to have that end during the season. We want to have that ring and finish off on a high note.”
Valeri is a hulking 6’2”, 255 pounds and can bench press the most out of any Shelton player: 315! The three-year starting center will be one of three captains on a 2016 team that returns 28 seniors.
Many of these guys received playing time last season due to that very injury problem, including Jonathan Sobotka, the newly-minted starting tailback. He picked up five of his 11 2015 carries in the time following Peter Hoff’s season-ending broken leg injury in last year’s quarterfinals.
Sobotka is a beastly 6’1”, 210-pound machine that was the top weightlifter in his 200-pound class during the 2016 Nutmeg State Games. He represents the returning crop well, a hungry, senior-captain who has experienced the trauma of recent championship defeat.
“Coming short two years in a row really hurts in your heart,” lamented Sobotka. “We are coming back strong and we are coming back to take it all this year.”
-Frankie Graziano, CPTV Sports
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