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CATHOLIC
Player of the Week Nomination
Nominee:
Seamus Kelly
School:
Position: Running Back & Inside LB Opponent: Cardinal Spellman
Date
of Game: 09/20/08
Ht. 5’11”
Wt. 190 Class: Sr.
Hometown: Breezy Point,
Details
of nominees performance:
Xavier defeated Cardinal Spellman 40-13 to go 2-0 in the CHSFL AA-A
Division. Senior Seamus Kelly
was Xavier’s main offensive producer with 14 carries for 159 yards (an
11.3 yards per carry average) and 4 touchdowns including a 33 yard pass
reception for a touchdown. He
also contributed 2 2-point conversions to score 28 of Xavier’s 40
points. Playing inside LB
going both ways, Seamus also contributed on Defense with 3 solo tackles
and 5 Assists.
Class
Honors:
Seamus has a 90+ average at Xavier and has achieved honor grades in 9 of
12 marking periods (7x 2nd Honors and 2x 1st Honors).
League
Honors:
Other
Sports & Honors:
Seamus
was the Xavier High School Athlete of the Year in both his Freshman and
Junior Years. Last
year, he was named to the All-Bronx/Manhattan Team by the New York
Daily News. He was also named to the 2nd Team All-State Team by the
Sports Writers of New York. A
starter as a Sophomore on Xavier’s 2007 “B” Division National
Championship Rugby Team, he went on in his Junior year to make the United
States National Rugby Team's Under 17 Squad and toured Europe playing
against the national teams of England, Portugal and Romania, where the
Junior Eagles finished with a 2-1 record.
Please fax nomination form to Kevin A'Hearn at (516) 292 – 2557 or email
to nychsfl@optonline.net
All
winners will be announce on the league website on Tuesday after the Monday
Night Meeting.
Stand by....
Good morning.
I hope I've reached the right place.
I'm trying to contact Paul Zimmerman at regarding something he wrote in his current Sports Illustrated column on NFL power rankings, specifically:
"They ran a direct snap to Ronnie Brown, with Chad Pennington out on the wing, six times, with spectacular results. This has caused journalists with a poor knowledge of football history to hail the return of the single wing, "a formation 100 years old," according to the AP. First of all, 100 years ago the basic formation was the T. Different, of course, than the open T-formation of today, but a tight alignment with the QB right behind the center. And the single-wing? Oh my, what a beautiful thing -- that few people today have ever seen. The run-pass tailback, and the spinning fullback, and the short, evil looking blocking back, designated QB in those days, cruising behind the line, delivering those devastating trap blocks. Dear departed past. Will I ever see it again?"
I wanted to let Paul know that the single-wing is alive and well not far from Time, Inc.'s New York headquarters. The football team at Xavier High School (www.xavierhs.org), located on West 16th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues has been running the single wing for the past three seasons, and with stunning results.
Xavier, a Jesuit high school for young men founded in 1847, has fielded a football team for 125 years, since 1883. Xavier has no campus in the accepted sense of the word— no game field, no practice field, not a blade of grass or a square inch of bare earth. The team— whose players come from all five boroughs and beyond— practices across the East River in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and plays its games at Aviator Field, across Jamaica Bay from JFK International Airport.
Nevertheless, the kids have won 13 of their last 14 games, going back to Thanksgiving Day, 2006. Xavier, which plays in the New York Catholic High School Football League (www.nychsfl.org), went 10-1 last season, winning their division championship and compiling obscene offensive stats along the way. They are 2-0 so far this season and have scored 91 points already.
Over 90% of the football team plays rugby for Xavier in the spring (while also participating in the football team's mandatory weight conditioning program. They lift in the mornings before class and play rugby in the afternoons.). The rugby team has won three national championships, most recently in 2007, along with the last six Northeast U.S. regional championships (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008). Xavier won the first rugby national championship game ever played, in 1985 against Highland of Salt Lake City— the rugby team portrayed in Forever Strong, a movie opening nationwide this week.
Many Xavier ruggers have played for the United States over the years, including two members of the current Xavier football team, running back "Famous Seamus" Kelly and linebacker Mike Jusczak. Seamus and Mike were selected to the U.S. U-19 national team that played in England last spring.
Xavier High School is the greatest story in high school football today, Paul— and it's just waiting to be told to the country a noted gridiron scholar and historian like yourself!
Tom O'Hara
Xavier Class of 1969