New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Flanagan set to make his name in Hand history
MADISON — He’ll be behind center when Hand takes its first football snap of 2021 on Friday in Fairfield, and at whatever level, that’s where Patch Flanagan has been pretty much for the past eight football seasons.
But he doesn’t have to be. “He’s the type of kid, he could ultimately play any position on the field,” said Tigers senior receiver Seth Sweitzer, Flanagan’s longtime friend. “He could play outside linebacker. Safety. Quarterback. Running back. Wideout. In my opinion, he’s the most athletic kid on the team.
“Which is kind of helpful that he plays quarterback.”
Even back a decade or so ago when he was tossing a ball around with his pals at the Surf Club, not even watching the big boys play until the crowd roared as players celebrated a touch
down, Flanagan has been preparing for this moment as he grew to 6-foot-2, 190 pounds.
Hand, No. 3 in the GameTimeCT preseason Top 10 Poll, visits Fairfield Prep on Friday at 6 p.m. to open Flanagan’s senior year.
The last guy behind center for Hand in 2019 was Phoenix Billings, an allstate quarterback and one of the greatest in program history, chosen to the school’s 50th-anniversary team.
“Kenny Sweitzer, Dave Thompson, Phoenix Billings: That’s rare air,” said Erik Becker, the Tigers’ first-year head coach but a former Hand player and assistant coach. “Patch is right there.
“He’s that good. Obviously we haven’t seen him because we lost last year (to the COVID-19 pandemic), and Phoenix is incredible. Patch is right there. There’s not going to be a step down.”
That is indeed some storied company, and even before he takes a snap, he has helped make some program history. He’s the third of three brothers to captain the Tigers. Jack did it in 2019. Will was a captain last year.
Only the Simmons family (Mike, Dennis and Kevin in the late 1970s and 1980s) and the Andersons (Mike, Dan and Christian in the ‘90s and early 2000s) have had three brothers serve as Hand captain, Becker said.
“It’s definitely a special community here in Madison,” said Flanagan, whose father, Kevin, was part of coach Steve Filippone’s first championship team in 1989, and whose aunt is a longtime friend of Becker’s.
“You grow up idolizing Hand football players. They’re in the NFL. They’re making millions of dollars.
“You go to games on Friday nights and you’re barely paying attention, you don’t really know who everyone is. You grow up, get older and realize you have a shot at the same thing.”
Becker says Flanagan keeps an even keel under pressure and exudes confidence, he stresses, without cockiness.
“He’s great with his legs. We haven’t really done any of that with him yet, but he can run the ball really well,” Becker said. “He knows football inside and out. He would probably be among our best defensive players if we played him on defense,
but I made that call, we’re not doing that.”
Jack and Will set the example for him, particularly in work ethic, Patch said.
And Billings, now playing baseball at UConn, was a great mentor, both in football skills and as a field general, as Flanagan watched him lead the Tigers to two Class L championships and reach the final in 2019.
Then came the pandemic, and the CIAC declined to sanction a full-contact season; 7-on-7 at least got the quarterback and his receivers some chemistry. Becker thinks Flanagan could’ve been an all-state quarterback as a junior in a normal year. Sweitzer, himself part of a legendary multigeneration Hand family, said Flanagan would’ve made a name for himself.
“I’ve known him for so long. He’s been my best friend for so long,” Sweitzer said. “He pushes me to do everything in life. Whether it’s a grade on a math test, a Madden game, we just push each other 24/7, which is great, because he’s always yelling at me in practice. ‘You should have caught that!’ All that.
“It makes me a lot better and makes him a lot better.”
Flanagan and Sweitzer helped Hand’s boys lacrosse team to the Class M final in the spring. Flanagan scored to put Hand ahead with 2:45 to go, but Weston tied it in the final seconds and won in overtime.
“That was my real first varsity experience,” Flanagan said. “It was great to get my foot in the water, see what it’s like to play a varsity game at Hand, having a crowd, all the reaction, getting interviewed. It was definitely a good jump start.
“But the lacrosse community is nothing like the football community in Madison. I’ve still got a lot to learn.”
Flanagan plans to play football in college and study something in the field of business. Among other schools of the type, he mentions Union, where Jack plays.
“He’ll be a huge asset to any school that gets him just as a culture kid,” said Becker, who added he thinks Flanagan would’ve gotten looks from Ivy and Patriot League schools if he’d had a junior year.
“Whether he’s playing offense, defense, whether he’s an athlete, he’s just a fantastic young man. I couldn’t think of a better quarterback or captain.”