FIGHTING IRISH KICK OFF 2018 SEMI-PRO CAMPAIGN
TROY, N.Y. » Troy is looking to add another football title to it’s resume before the high school season fully kicks into gear as the Troy Fighting Irish adult amateur football team kicks off its 2018 campaign 7 p.m. tonight at Lansingburgh.
Team founder and head coach Ryan Job has led the Fighting Irish have national titles to their credit in 2016 (AAA title) and a Sunshine Bowl title in 2011. After finishing as a runner-up last year in the Northeastern Football Alliance, the Fighting Irish are looking to get back on top and the roster is filled with Section II talent from past and present.
Troy High graduate Anthony Paone knew he would wear the blue and gold of the Fighting Irish.
I’ve been playing football since I was five-years- old and the Troy Fighting Irish is me, it’s everything I love,” Anthony Paone said. “I played flag football for a few years with a couple of guys on the team and just joined the family.”
Local flag football has been a conduit for players to the full-contact adult amateur football program that plays its home games at Lansingburgh High School.
“I played high school in Mechanicville, played college ball at Hudson Valley before I transferred to Marist,” linebacker Pauly Zurlo said. “I tried out for the Arena (Football League) team back in the day. I strayed away from football for a little bit, I was playing flag (football) actually with some of the guys on the
team and found out about the Irish and as soon as I found out it was a full contact team I had to come back and play again.”
Anthony Martiniano knows the Lansingburgh turf, playing both soccer and football for the Knights in high school before playing soccer for the University of Maine, but still had to sell himself to the coaching staff.
“I have a couple of buddies on the teamthat played on the Irish, I reached out to a couple of them, went to a game, talked to Ryan (Job) and he said ‘Show me what you can do.’” Anthony Martiniano said. “I went out there, hit a couple 45-, 50-yard field goals and he said ‘OK, you can definitely kick for this team.’ I was a second-team all- star last year in the conference, so it’s always been a natural calling.”
Averill Park grad Tim Vermilyn was another re-
cruit to help out the Fighting Irish new offensive air attack.
“I originally was going to go away and play, but home is where I like to be,” Tim Vermilyn said. “The Fighting Irish found me at one of my jobs, I was working with a couple of the players and they actually saw my highlight film from high school and actually asked me to come and play on the team.”
The majority of the Fighting Irish have fulltime jobs, families and often children, Greenwich defensive lineman Matt Roberts is truly a fresh face.
“I was with my dad here in Troy and I heard that there was a football game at Lansingburgh High School, I went and checked it, I just wanted to play with them as soon as I saw it,” high school senior Matt Roberts said. “It’s a really big jump from playing with Greenwich and playing teams like Warrensburg, stuff like that to playing kids that, not really kids any more, kids that played for good colleges, D2 colleges. It’s
a big jump, but I’m ready for it.”
Just as any athlete moves up levels they have to make adjustments.
“It’s a lot faster pace than in high school, I’ll tell you that. You have adjust, you either got it or you don’t,” Paone said. “In high school I went from playing linebacker and now I’m playing defensive line. It’s a different ball game.”
A newly revamped defense and offense has challenged the Fighting Irish during the pre-season, providing its own set of challenges along with bigger, faster and stiffer competition.
“We both originally started off as a running offense so the transition was a little easier, the speed was a lot different, switching from high school straight into semi-pro was a little bit of a transition I had to get used to,” Vermilyn said. “My first year was a little interesting to say the least.”
The Fighting Irish kick off against the Carthage Revolution at 7 p.m. Saturday night looking to get
back to the NFA title game and advance to the AFNT title games in Miami and even with age, game time brings back familiar feelings.
“You still get jitters, it’s everything you want,” Paone said. “You have to live the dream while you can.”