Coach Anthony Proudly Remembers His Little Vikings

Eight years ago, Anthony Mancuso, then a youth football coach, led a group of 8-year-olds through their first season playing with the pigskin. Now, as the the current Parsippany Board of Education member said he can't help but think back to the players' early days learning the sport.

"Oh, they were a great group of boys," Mancuso told Patch. "This was pony level football, the first year in the league—the first year you play tackle football—for many of them."

Thirteen players on the present Vikings squad were part of the Little Vikings pony level team in 2003.

"That was the last year I coached," Mancuso said, noting that he spent about two decades total coaching little league football, first on New York's Long Island and then in Parsippany. "The first and the second group of boys that Coach Dave Albano took to the state championships were the first group I had when I started coaching with the Little Vikings. My last group is now going to the championships. It's nice to see so many of the boys go through the system, stay with it and learn a love for the game."

Mancuso said that the boys he worked with in 2003 were an exceptional bunch.

"Honestly, I can say that this group of young men at an early age were the most coachable group. If you said step right, every one of them stepped right, as a team. We're talking about 8-year-olds here," he said with a laugh. "With most teams, kids step right, left, forward... I've had many players where... well, they're little kids and act like it, but this group exhibited a maturity, a coachability that I had never seen. You only had to explain something once and you never had to explain it again."

This maturity, he said, resulted in a winning season for the young players in 2003.

"The defense that year didn't give up a single point until the very last game of the season. That team went undefeated, 8-0. I thought, for pee-wee football, that was a remarkable statistic," the erstwhile coach and defensive coordinator recalled. "Broken plays and kick returns go wrong regularly for most [young] teams, but that group made very few mistakes. They did exactly what you told them what to do, so they were always in the right place. They listened and learned everything that you shared with them."

When Mancuso watches the Vikings play today as young men, he can't help but remember the little boys of yore.

"You see the boys who get the press today, the standouts: C.J. Joyce, Tyler Simms, Mike Pietrowicz, Michael Comerford. They deserve every accolade they get," he said. "But there are plenty of unsung heroes like Andrew Cupo, Carmine Verducci, Pauly Walek, Shawn Pound, Tommy Heinz. Those , practicing, making their teammates better. They're the cogs in the wheel that make the whole thing go."

Some could credit Mancuso and his fellow little league coaches for giving the boys a foundation that helped prepare them for the state championships eight short years later. Mancuso, however, points to the current coaches.

"[Dave] Albano does a wonderful job with them," he said, adding praise for the tean's other coaches, Brian Francis, Ross Tarlowe, Mark Gibson  and Keith Koellhoffer. "I'm very impressed with the handling of this group of boys by the varsity coaching staff. You can have a group of boys that are outstanding football players and still not win with them. What this coaching staff has been able to do is continue that 'never quit' attitude with these boys.

"," he continued. "They never stopped believing that they were good enough to come back and win. And when you saw the adjustments that the coaching staff made in the second half to allow these boys to play to their potential... The minute they allowed the boys to play to their potential, they did. The results speak for themselves."

More importantly, Mancuso said, his boys have grown into fine young men who still keep in touch with Coach Anthony to share reminiscences and joke about nicknames he gave them back in the day.

"I'm extremely proud to be associated with this team in this small way, and I'm proud that they remember me as a positive  figure in their football lives," he said.

Asked if he has a message for his former charges, Mancuso was happy to share.

"Whether it's on the football field or on the field of life, always believe in yourself. Always have confidence in yourself and remember that winners never quit," he declared.

And will he be in the stands at Kean University on Saturday to root for the Parsippany Hills Vikings?

"Oh yes, absolutely," Mancuso said definitively. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."