CBA FACES SHEN WITH HEAVY HEARTS
Brothers mourn the death of assistant coach Joe Grasso
ALBANY » Friday’s date was circled on the calendar at Christian Brothers Academy for several reasons. First, it is homecoming. Second, CBA will face Empire Division rival Shenendehowa in a game that will help define the post-season seeds.
It will also be a night where the CBA community will remember coach Joe Grasso, who died unexpectedly over the weekend at 66.
It was a challenging week for the entire CBA staff, its players and Coach Joe Burke who is the nephew of Grasso.
Grasso coached Bishop Maginn during its entire program lifetime from 1977 through 2015 and was an assistant coach with this year’s CBA program.
Burke was at practice Thursday, but instead of his traditional baseball cap, whistle around his neck, and khakis, he was wore a white dress shirt, tie, slacks and dress shoes after attending Grasso’s funeral services in the morning.
“The unforeseen circumstances the bumps in the road, the stuff we’re dealing with this week is something that we’ll look back at the end of the week and see how we handled it,” Burke said. “To date I think our kids have been great ambassadors at the services, they’ve been strong for each other and our staff and they were emotional.
“But that’s the impact that coach (Grasso) had on those kids in a short time. I’m sure they’ll find a way to be ready to play at full strength.”
Part of that healing process will be focusing on facing rival Shenendehowa Friday night
on the Brother’s homecoming night.
“It’s certainly important for the kids in terms of the community because more and more people come out, alumni are out, more people are at the game,” Burke said. “The hope is that they find a little extra motivation to play in front of a big crowd and sometimes that gets the kids’ adrenaline pumping.”
CBA is also looking to make a statement and remain undefeated with a win against Shenendehowa, a potential first for Burke.
“Since I’ve been here in 2010 they’ve given us an awful lot of challenge,” Burke said. “It’s always a tough, tough football game. We’ve come up on the wrong end of the stick all six times. We’ve had three very close games and we’ve had three that weren’t so close. We have to get the monkey off our back if you will and that’s on the staff.”
The Brothers will again rely on a seasoned, stingy defense that has only given up only 32 points in their first four games.
“Our defense has played really well against them three or four years out of the six, but sometimes when you don’t move the ball you wear down a little bit,” Burke said. “Our goal is to be able to run the ball and we certainly have to throw it.
“That’s what it’ll take to keep their guys off the field, they are talented and skilled guys on offense and put them in a position to throw the ball, which I think feeds into our hands. I think we’ve got a pretty good defense and pretty good skilled guys in the back (secondary). If we can force them to do something that they, to date, have not done a lot of, we’ll be in a good spot.”
Shenendehowa is not resting on its 6-0 record against Burke and the Brothers the past six years. The Plainsmen need a victory on the road to create a knot atop the Empire Division standings after its week five game Friday.
“We’ve been watching a lot of our film versus them last year because it’s the same players, all of those kids played last year, they are just better than they were last year,” Shenendehowa Coach Brian Clawson said. “It’s good in a sense when you are able to watch that because you are preparing for a different team from us, the scheme is the same, they are obviously improved quite a bit since last year.”
The Plainsmen have been preparing for the CBA offense, but will have a new face at quarterback as junior Dom Meola is under center with senior starter Max Jones sidelined with a shoulder injury.
“It is next man up and we have all the confidence in the world in Dom and he’ll do a great job for us and he’ll have his moments of inexperience,” Burke said. “Like anyone else, it’s a big spot for a kid who is a backup. He did a fine job last week; we didn’t throw it a lot because it rained, but if it rains this week I can promise you we’re going to throw it.”
The Plainsmen will still have to contend with a healthy Nick DeNicola, Taurian Taylor and Brian Tucker out of the backfield. Each are strong runners with an ability to catch screen passes or run routes.
“The split back veer option offense is hard to prepare for in a week,” Clawson said. “Fundamentally they are extremely sound and very good at that offense and everything that they do.
“It’s one of those situations, like Ballston Spa when they ran the triple option, ‘Here is what it is, try to stop it, try to simulate it in practice for a week’. Then you put a different set of athletes on the field and it takes a little getting used do. We know what they do on defense, but they have great personnel, so it’s about execution and being able to go out and execute our plan.”