Let me just remind everyone exactly where we were at the start of the fourth quarter ...
 
St. John the Baptist had just scored to take the lead 27 - 14 after Xavier fumbled the ball away late in the third quarter.  SJB actually scored twice here as a running touchdown was called back by a penalty and was followed by a passing TD.  As the quarter ended, St. John the Baptist had just intercepted a pass, stopping another Xavier drive and nearly running it down the sidelines for a touchdown that would have put them ahead by three scores.  A collective groan was heard on Xavier's side of the stands as St. John's cheerleaders were jumping for joy and tossing themselves in the air.
 
What followed after this is one of the most remarkable examples of a comeback victory I have ever seen.  I was at the famous Monday Night Football game in which the NY Jets defeated the Miami Dolphins by scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter. They needed overtime to kick a fieldgoal to win.  See this for more
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monday_Night_Miracle_(American_football)
 
Well, Xavier scored 31 points in the fourth quarter, all of which began with only 7:20 left on the clock!!!
 
There are not enough words to describe how dramatic this game was for Xavier Fans, as the tension in the stands transformed into hope, after the first score, and then into joy & relief, as we scored to take the lead, and then into desperation as St. John's completed a ball down to the Xavier 3 yard line ready to retake the lead after Xavier had just gone ahead for the first time in the game 30-27 and then into outright astonishment & euphoria, as Xavier intercepted the ball in the endzone and then took full command of the game. This was a wonderful experience and I can only offer my heartfelt congratulations to Xavier's football team and coaching staff.
 
Mike Nilsen, Xavier Parent '07 & '10
 
P.S.  The restricted website shown below has the latest video I took:
 
http://s212034673.onlinehome.us/Xavier%20Football/Varsity/
 
(don't forget to right click on the file and "Save Target as" to download it to your PC first)
 
     
 

 
     
 

CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL LEAGUE of METROPOLITAN NEW YORK  

 

Player of the Week Nomination  

Nominee: James Kowalski                                      School: Xavier High School  

Position: Running Back & Corner Back                  Opponent: St. John the Baptist

Date of Game: 11/17/07  Ht. 5’8”  Wt. 155  Class: Sr.   Hometown: Manhattan , NYC

Details of nominees performance:
Xavier mounted an amazing 31 point comeback in the 4th quarter of the CHSFL A Division Final.  During the game Wingback, Jimmy Kowalski amassed 344 yards on 21 carries and 3 touchdowns.  He had touchdown runs for 35, 65 and 58 yards.  He also had a kickoff return for 47 yards.  This game put Jimmy over a 1000 yards rushing for the season.  Due to injuries, he also had to play cornerback on defense, no small tasks since we were playing man-to-man against a very tough passing team.  By the end of the game, Jimmy was playing through a lot pain due to cramping and yet he continued to go both ways and excel.  In the fourth quarter, Jimmy gained 128 yards on only 2 carries.

Class Honors:

League Honors:
Jimmy was the Most Valuable Player on the Xavier Junior Varsity Football Team when he was a Sophomore.  Last year, Jimmy won the Sean Lugano Scholarship which is a 9/11 Memorial Award to a Xavier Junior who plays Rugby and/or Football and who sets an example for those programs in leadership, work ethic and camaraderie.

Other Sports & Honors:
Jimmy is a starter on Xavier’s 2007 “B” Division National Championship Rugby Team.


 Please fax nomination form to Kevin A'Hearn at (516) 292 – 2557 or email to nychsfl@optonline.net

Nominations must be received by the Monday Night Meeting.

All winners will be announce on the league website on Tuesday after the Monday Night Meeting.

 

  
     
 

Chose from over 446 Photographs which may be purchased from team photographer Harisch Studios
www.harischstudios.com
Click Sessions
Session ID: Playoffs_event
718-821-2390

Actually, since there are so many pictures they have been broken down into two different sessions...
First Half_event & Second Half_event
The Session ID password is case sensitive so capital letters must be used where they appear.

  
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
   
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

Xavier Football 

The Knights vs. Saint John the Baptist

 CHSFL Division A Championship Game

Saturday Afternoon, November 17th (1:30 PM)
SUNY Maritime College
Throgs Neck, The Bronx         

Good afternoon, Kids. 

Four years ago, Chris Stevens '83 returned to the Xavier head coaching and took over a football program in ruins.  He promised then that he would return Xavier Football to respectability.  He has fulfilled that promise.  

This weekend, the 8-1 Knights will play in a CHSFL championship game for the first time since 1999— back during Chris's first tour of duty as head coach. 

If you've been fortunate enough to see these kids play this fall, you know that they're an exciting bunch of ballplayers.  They're tough and they're confident and they already know what it's like to be champions.  Most of them played on the team that steamrolled the hometown favorites in Salt Lake City last May to win the National High School Rugby Championship.

And they're well coached.  Thanks to Coach Stevens's Amazing, Fantastic Gridiron Way Back Machine, a.k.a. the Single Wing Offense, Xavier leads the entire 22-team CHSFL in every nonpassing offensive statistical category there is.  By a lot.  Xavier's defense ranks near the top of the league as well.  In the course of a game, many Knights see action on both sides of the ball.  Four of them have won CHSFL Player of the Week honors this season.  And by the way, for the second year in a row, Division A Xavier has beaten the billy bejeezus out of one of the teams playing for the CHSFL Division AA Championship. 

These kids have endured the same hardships and overcome the same obstacles you did when you wore the Maroon and Blue:  the long practices on distant fields (or, in the case of this year's team, distant lots), "home" games on the road, the long commutes, falling asleep over their books late at night.  And they've done some things many of you haven't— like lifting weights for Coach Stevens early in the morning before class all spring so that they could free up their afternoons to practice and play rugby for Xavier (on distant fields before heading home to reheated dinners and late nights cracking the books).

As headmaster Mike LiVigni said at the Rugby-Tennis-Golf Dinner last May about the difficulty of playing sports at an urban high school with nary a blade of grass nor square inch of bare earth to its name:  "Athletics at Xavier is nothing less than a miracle."  Every Xavier athlete, past and present, knows exactly what he means— none more so than the Xavier football player.

The kids and their coaches have been busting their behinds since last January for this moment.  They've restored pride to Xavier Football.  They've earned your support.  Please come out this Saturday afternoon and let today's Knights know that the Knights and Bruins and Kaydets of generations past have their backs as they go for Xavier's first football championship of the 21st century.

Stand by...
Tom O'Hara '69

  
     
 

 

NY GIANTS NAME XAVIER'S CHRIS STEVENS COACH OF THE WEEK FOR WEEK 10
By Jen Conley , NY Giants

November 19, 2007

EAST RUTHERFORD , N.J. – The New York Giants have selected Mr. Chris Stevens of Xavier High School ( New York , NY ) as “The Lou Rettino High School Football Coach of the Week” for the week of November 19, 2007. Xavier (9-1) won the CHSFL Class A Championship over St. John’s with a 45-33 victory, and became the highest scoring team in Xavier history scoring 390 points on the season.

In recognition of Coach Stevens’ success and commitment, he will receive a certificate of recognition signed by the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Director of Football Operations Gene Washington, and the Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin. A $1,000 check will be granted to the Xavier High School football program. Coach Stevens will be acknowledged by a stadium announcement when the Giants host the Minnesota Vikings on November 25th. An announcement will also be posted on the Giants web site, www.giants.com.

The Lou Rettino High School Football Coach of the Week Award, started in 1996, is part of the Giants’ continuing effort to promote youth football. The Giants elected to name the award in memory of former Union High School (NJ) coach, Lou Rettino, for his fine commitment to the game of football, his community and the betterment of his athletes’ lives.

Each week during the 2007 high school football season, the Giants will select one area high school head coach as the Coach of the Week winner. The selection is based on the coach’s continuing commitment towards promoting youth football, developing motivated student-athletes and his overall community involvement. At the conclusion of the 2007 season, the Giants will choose a Coach of the Year. That coach will receive $2,000 for their school’s football program.

Coach Stevens is in his 6th season as Head Football Coach, and his 20th overall at Xavier High School , his alma mater. He previously served as an assistant for the varsity team for seven years, and head coach of the JV team for three winning seasons.

A 1983 graduate of Xavier, Stevens played football during Xavier’s longest stretch of winning seasons (5) in their 125 year history, and also played rugby with current Xavier national rugby championship coach, Mike Tolkien. Following his graduation from Xavier, Stevens played one year of football and three years of rugby at Slippery Rock University , and also received his master’s degree in History from Fordham University . A native of Gerritsen Beach , NY , he and his wife, Carolyn, are the proud parents of three daughters.

Join the Team

  
     
 
"We are the champions!"
 
Xavier Knights          45
St. John the Baptist   33
 
                                               "This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. 
                                                        He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 
                                                        Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 
                                                        And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 
                                                        He that shall live this day, and see old age, 
                                                        Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 
                                                        And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' 
                                                        Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 
                                                        And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' 
                                                        Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, 
                                                        But he'll remember, with advantages, 
                                                        What feats he did that day...
 
                                                        This story shall the good man teach his son; 
                                                        And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 
                                                        From this day to the ending of the world, 
                                                        But we in it shall be remembered- 
                                                        We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 
                                                        For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 
                                                        Shall be my brother....
                                                        And gentlemen in England now-a-bed 
                                                        Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 
                                                        And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 
                                                        That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
 
                                                        —King Henry V addressing his troops
                                                            before the Battle of Agincourt (1415)
                                             (from Shakespeare's HENRY V) 
 
And anyone who was not present at SUNY Maritime College Saturday afternoon shall also "think themselves accurs'd" they were not there to witness what will surely be remembered as one of the epic football games in Xavier history.
 
Trailing Saint John the Baptist 27-14 with just 7:20 to play, The Team Formerly Known as the Kaydets... and then the Bruins... went on a rampage, scoring 31 points to stun the Cougars 45-33 and capture Xavier's first CHSFL title in 11 years.
 
Details will be forthcoming.  (Gotta earn a living!)   In the meantime, congratulations to the 2007 Xavier Knights!  And congratulations— and heartfelt thanks— to the most dedicated, selfless and hardest-working coaches anywhere, Chris Stevens '83, Bill Paszke, Brian McMahon and Jon Chiacchere '98, and to athletic director Rod Walker and his consigliere, assistant A.D. Tony Paolozzi.  
 
Last but not least, a very special thank-you to Francis X. Comerford '73 and the folks at WNBC for the terrific coverage they afforded the Knights' famous victory this weekend.
 
WNBC had cameramen and sports anchor Bruce Beck himself at the field Saturday afternoon to tape the highlights and conduct post-game interviews with head coach Chris Stevens, headmaster Mike LiVigni and captains Jimmy Kowalski and Danny Tomai.
 
Check out Mr. Beck's bio at www.wnbc.com and you'll read that he's covered all the major pro and collegiate athletic events over the years. Nevertheless, he and his assistant (producer?), whose name I failed to get (My apologies!), couldn't have been more thorough or professional— or personable— while they hustled up and down the sideline taking copious notes, asking questions and lining up interviews as if they were at the Super Bowl instead of a high school football game.  Hours after the game, Mr. Beck tracked Coach Stevens down by phone to follow up on several points.  A class act all the way.
 
The report on Xavier during WNBC's News Channel 4 at 6 Saturday evening was good.  The follow-up report during News Channel 4 at 11 Saturday night, after Mr. Beck and his producers had some time to expand and refine the segment, was great:  clips from the game and post-game— including the team singing Sons of Xavier and administering the ceremonial Gatorade shower to Coach Stevens, post-game interviews, and graphics that even included a map tracing the team's arduous daily route from 16th Street to practice in Red Hook.
 
WNBC could not have done a better job of telling Xavier's story:  dedication, commitment and perseverance in overcoming the odds— to not only play football, but to win.   
 
WNBC, which has given Xavier lots of great coverage through the years— including annual clips from the Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving and spotlighting Xavier during its annual St. Paddy's Day telecast— really came through on this memorable day in Xavier sports history.  It was great publicity for Xavier Football and Xavier itself, and it provided the kids and their families with a video souvenir they will keep and treasure for the rest of their lives.
 
Please visit wnbc.com and let Frank Comerford and Bruce Beck know that you appreciate their efforts (at sports@wnbc.com and Bruce.Beck@nbcuni.com).  And please keep WNBC in mind when making your future TV (and Internet!) viewing choices!