New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)

Fairfield Prep’s story proves state’s football talent level

- JEFF JACOBS

Nick Morris was a junior linebacker on the 2019 Fairfield Prep football team that finished 6-4.

Connor Robertson was a sophomore offensive lineman.

Robert “Champ” Long was a freshman quarterbac­k who stepped into the starting role.

None were on the field for the Jesuits in 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the sport in Connecticu­t.

None will be on the field when Daniel Hand-Madison visits Fairfield Prep in the first GameTimeCT Game of the Week on Friday night.

Morris already is playing at Duke.

Robertson, who like Morris excelled on WestlakeAu­stin, the Texas 6-A champion last year, has committed to Texas.

Long has thrown for 363 yards and four touchdowns for St. Peter’s Prep of Elizabeth, ranked No. 2 in North Jersey after 61-0 and 49-8 routs of Paramus Catholic and West Orange. Long has committed as a junior to Maryland.

This is brought up not to harp on what Fairfield Prep has lost the past few years nor how good the Jesuits could have been in 2021 with Robertson and Long. This is brought up to emphasize the kind of talent Fairfield Prep and Connecticu­t can produce. Look at New Haven’s Tyler Booker — all of 6-foot-6, 335 pounds of him — who is playing high school at IMG in Florida and headed to Alabama as one of the nation’s most highly recruited players.

“I still have a great relationsh­ip with Nick and Connor,” Fairfield Prep coach Keith Hellstern said. “They are wonderful people. They come from wonderful families. We were robbed of a season. An opportunit­y for them to be able to extend their career in a way that ultimately paid off magnificen­tly for them occurred. I love them both.

“One of the best benefits of what they went on to do not only for themselves but also in some ways we can take some pride in, is they went from little ol’ Connect

icut down to the Mecca of high school football and played pivotal roles in their school becoming a state champion and a nationally ranked team (ninth in final USA Today poll). I’m proud that we did the right things to help them develop.”

Would Robertson and Morris, whose families were in position to move to Austin during the pandemic, gotten scholarshi­ps to Texas and Duke if they stayed in Connecticu­t? One thing is for sure: playing at Westlake and getting all that attention at a school that has produced Super Bowl MVPs like Drew Brees and Nick Foles, certainly didn’t hurt.

“I’m originally from Northern New Jersey,” Hellstern said. “It’s a hotbed for football. I can tell you honestly, from playing at college, recruiting as a college coach and coming here to Prep, Connecticu­t has a proud tradition and deserved legacy. We should be proud of it.”

Hey, when you start your all-time team and Steve Young is your quarterbac­k, Floyd Little is your running back and Dwight Freeney is your pass rusher, we ain’t chopped liver.

“When Champ left, it was a decision they made consciousl­y to move on because they thought they had an opportunit­y down in New Jersey that would benefit him,” Hellstern said. “Hopefully that is the case. He has a FBS offer he accepted. He’s a very talented athlete. He’s a good kid.

“You win some, you lose some as far as matriculat­ion and attrition. No hard feelings. Whatever we asked of him he did. We move forward. We have to play what we have here and are very fortunate to have the young men we do.”

So now we look at these names. Running back/ linebacker Dan Barnick. Wide receivers Tim Pearson, Jack Reiling, Tymaine Smith and James Iaropoli. Tight end/defensive lineman Jack Mullen. Linebacker Ryan O’Connell. Running back Rob Young. Quarterbac­k Connor Smith, who replaces Long.

What can they do? What will their story be?

There is much tradition at Fairfield Prep. The Jesuits won state titles in 1977, 1982 and 1988 and were state finalists in 1976 under Earl Lavery. Lavery went 23053-8 as head coach from 1965 to 1992, and the tradition stretches back before that. Bob Skoronski went on from Prep to Indiana and became an 11-year NFL offensive lineman and Vince Lombardi’s captain on the legendary Green Bay Packers teams.

Yet when Hellstern arrived in 2010, Tom Shea had just taken over as head coach.

“The program had hit rock bottom, 0-10 the year prior,” Hellstern said. “I was looking to transition out of college coaching to the second school level. We made a connection with a way that doesn’t normally happen anymore.”

It was a cold cover letter and resume from the Glen Ridge, N.J. native who played at Wesleyan. On that

resume included experience coaching at Amherst, Columbia and Wesleyan.

There was an opening in the social studies program and Shea made him his defensive coordinato­r.

“I guess I passed the checkpoint­s,” Hellstern said. “Our program needed to revive its culture and the culture based on the mission of the school. I tell our families this every year: I see football as an extension of that mission, I think of football as co-curricular and it shapes the boys positively in an all boys Jesuit high school.”

Prep went to the state finals in 2013. With Shea, a Prep alum, satisfied the program had been restored, Hellstern took over in 2015 and has gone 35-18.

In a day and age when high schools most everywhere are scrapping to get boys out, Prep attracted 146 players to its freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams. Hellstern said 80 percent of them play two sports. Yes, Prep does have students from 15-20 towns, yet its enrollment of 743 boys, according to CIAC data, is 24th of 34th Class LL schools. It is scarcely a football factory. Developmen­t comes in all shapes and sizes.

“If I can make one point,” Hellstern said, “one of the biggest drawing points of the school that people who are affiliated with it and have sent multiple kids here is to try to develop them as complete people, part of something bigger than themselves. I didn’t have that background before I came to Prep. It’s something I’ve come to love.”

With logicians, judges, former director of the United Negro College fund, rapper Felly, Little League hero (among other things) Chris Drury and TV executive Sean McManus, Prep has an eclectic group of alumni. And a most vocal student section known as the Bomb Squad, which, after a year without football,

figures to be primed for the opener.

Champ or no Champ, Hellstern has no problem opening against a state powerhouse.

“I’m absolutely fine with it,” Hellstern said. “We scheduled well with our scrimmages. We saw some good teams to see where we’re at. We’ll play anybody, anywhere, anytime. We’ll never shy away.

“The eagerness to be back is clear. Everyone around the state, players, families, media. There is something about football in the fall that is both ritual, a rite of passage, and it’s beautiful. It brings people together. A lot of great things happen because of the game.”

Hellstern went from romantic to realist in a heartbeat. He puts into words what every high school coach in Connecticu­t is wondering most about before this weekend.

“With a year off, you may have seniors, but they’re juniors as far as field experience, let alone emotional game experience,” he said. “Guys are growing as young men, but the game makes certain demands on you that you only get through game experience. Everyone is a little behind or a lot behind on the learning curve.

“Football is chess. It’s not checkers. There’s a lot more strategy in this. A lot of individual developmen­t to create a team dynamic working in a coordinate­d fashion. Individual responsibi­lity to be a piece of the puzzle. That’s one of the most wonderful parts of the sport and one of the greatest challenges.”

What will that puzzle look like? NFA-Xavier, Maloney-Southingto­n, HandFairfi­eld Prep and throughout Connecticu­t we’re going to find out.

 ?? Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticu­t Media ?? Fairfield Prep quarterbac­k Connor Smith throws to a receiver during The Grip It and Rip It 7-on-7 tournament in July in New Canaan.
Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticu­t Media Fairfield Prep quarterbac­k Connor Smith throws to a receiver during The Grip It and Rip It 7-on-7 tournament in July in New Canaan.
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 ?? Dave Stewart / Hearst Connecticu­t Media ?? Fairfied Prep receiver James Iaropoli runs for a few yards after a catch during the Grip It and Rip It football tournament in New Canaan in July.
Dave Stewart / Hearst Connecticu­t Media Fairfied Prep receiver James Iaropoli runs for a few yards after a catch during the Grip It and Rip It football tournament in New Canaan in July.

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