Oxford’s ‘Coach Tut’ found himself through football
OXFORD — Ryan Tuttle made a friendly wager with fellow Oxford assistant coach Tyler Torres before the NFL opener. If Ryan’s beloved Giants beat the Broncos, Torres would serve him chicken parmesan.
“Ryan loves chicken parm,” head coach Joe Stochmal said.
“Also, there is Peyton Manning and chicken parm,” said Tuttle, referring to the Nationwide commercial where the former Broncos quarterback famously sings, “Chicken parm you taste so good,” to the insurance company’s jingle.
Torres’ Broncos won. “So I had to say nice things to him for a week,” Tuttle said.
As we sat in his office Friday, Stochmal allows himself a good laugh. He knows there was a time when something like this never would have happened. He knows there was a time when Ryan sat alone in the high school cafeteria. A time when he would get up and run out of class. And now, a decade later? “Ryan is what Oxford football represents,” Stochmal said. “He is a young man who has overcome some obstacles in his life and has transformed into someone who people look up to and respect.”
“Oxford is my home,” Ryan said. “I will always be a Wolverine.”
This hasn’t been an easy start to the 2021 season for the Wolverines. After two opening losses, COVID-19 postponed their game this weekend against Derby. Much of the team had to remain away from practice and, barring some late schedule juggling, there is a bye next week.
Yet it only takes the mention of Tuttle’s name to bring a smile to senior cocaptain Joe Biondo’s face. You want to know about the power of sports? You want to know about the brotherhood of football? Ask one of the Oxford boys about Ryan.
“He’s a motivation to all of us,” Biondo said. “He
gives us all perspective on life. He makes us really thankful we can play the sport. He’s always here. He’s dedicated. He’s always coming over to us in practice and pushing us harder. We all love Coach Tut. He’s the best.”
It was CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini, then athletic director at Oxford, who approached Stochmal and asked if he would consider bringing on a student who was interested in football but couldn’t play.
“I said OK, what does he want to do?” Stochmal said. “Does he want to be a manager? Glenn said, ‘There’s more to it than that.’ ”
There was much more to it.
Ryan, who’ll be 27 in November, was born with a fatty acid oxidation disorder (LC-FAOD). The rare, genetic metabolic disorder stops the body from breaking down long-chain fatty acids into energy during metabolism. It is an inherited condition.
There is lethargy, muscle weakness that can cause coordination issues, foggy thinking that can make it difficult to communicate.
Ryan also had a learning disability and behavioral issues. He was having a really tough time adjusting to school.
Stochmal asked to meet Ryan’s parents, Craig and Maria. He was concerned about supervision.
“We wanted to see if we could come up with a plan that was safe for everyone,” Stochmal said.
They did. Craig would bring Ryan, then a sophomore, to the practices to watch. If Ryan wanted to leave, Dad could take him home. He didn’t go on the practice field. He’d stand outside the fence.
“I was observing,” Ryan said, “learning what to do.”
Near the end of that first year, Ryan wanted to get on the field with the team. He wanted to wear pads. This introduced a new set of concerns.
“Here was a young man who hadn’t wanted any social interaction, didn’t want to be touched, didn’t want anyone near him,” Stochmal said. “And now he wanted to get in full gear.”
The staff went about it patiently. Ryan was given a helmet to see how he would deal with it. He’d put it on. He’d take it off. He’d remain on the practice field, but it mostly was on the sidelines.
Gradually, the helmet stayed on and he donned shoulder pads. The last week of the season he wore full gear. Still, he was involved in no drills.
“But I’ll tell you, Ryan was always there,” Stochmal said. “He showed up for
every practice. He never missed one.”
By his junior year, he was brought along to where he was doing non-contact drills.
“I started small,” Ryan said.
“Footwork drills, things like that,” Stochmal said. “We made him a wide receiver. We made him a defensive back. He worked with those groups. He was more comfortable talking to the coaches, but he started talking to the players.”
Little things helped with a big breakthrough. The Giants were a good conversation piece to help Ryan to open up. Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Saquon Barkley of the Giants are his guys now, but he always loved Eli Manning.
“I just want what’s best for Eli,” Ryan said. “I heard all the talk behind his back. I’m going to defend Eli. He won two Super Bowls vs. the Patriots.”
Tuttle got through an entire junior season working out in full pads. There was some limited contact work with the sled or a bag, but nothing with another player.
“People said they wanted to see me play,” Ryan said. “I said that’s not up to me. That’s up to Coach Stox (Stochmal’s nickname). I wanted to do anything to contribute to the team winning. I wanted to be a leader.”
The kid who didn’t want to be around anyone two years earlier now wanted to be a leader.
In his senior year, Stochmal was able to get Ryan into four games.
“At the end when we were either up big or down big, he’d run a route as a wide receiver or backpedal out on defense,” Stochmal said. “That was great. His parents were ecstatic. Ryan was ecstatic. His self-esteem went through the roof.”
His ability to interact had improved so much that teachers in the school couldn’t help noticing.
“They were amazed,” Stochmal said. “It changed the young man. He was someone who was isolated and alone and became part of a program of 55 brothers. The players understood what was going on. They were remarkable. They changed his life.”
The players included him in Thursday night pregame pasta parties. They took him out to the movies. They brought him to the prom.
“He belonged to the group,” an emotional Craig Tuttle said. “He wasn’t an outcast anymore.”
Ryan had been made captain of the junior varsity in his senior year. He wanted to be involved in the game plan.
At a junior varsity game at Stratford, off a reverse handoff, Tuttle took the opening kickoff all the way for a touchdown.
“That was the thrill of a lifetime for him,” Stochmal said.
There was considerable joy.
“And very good blocking,” Ryan said.
After he graduated in 2013, his parents were concerned. He no longer had Oxford football in his daily life.
“I will always be a Wolverine,” Ryan said.
There would be another plan. He’d become Stochmal’s assistant in 2016. Tuttle is tight ends and defensive ends coach.
“He regularly sends text messages to our coaches and players through our team app messaging,” Stochmal said. “Motivational quotes, video clips. He does his homework. He’ll find clips of NFL and college tight ends and defensive ends on YouTube and post them to help them get better.”
It was during the COVID shutdown last year, when Ryan wrote an essay on his influential role models. He said he did it to make his mind feel good. His family and coaching staff have made him feel more and more confident. Barkley and Judge are role models.
“But the athlete who has given me the most confidence is WWE superstar Mike “The Miz” Mizanin,” Ryan said. “He has given me more confidence in myself and my coaching. His family is like my family, equally funny. Miz & Mrs. (the reality television series with his wife, Maryse, who also is a WWE star) helped me get through the rough times while we were in quarantine. He inspires me.”
Ryan Tuttle has plans. He wants to help Oxford win its first state football championship. It would be like winning the first Super Bowl, he said, and he’d bring the trophy to his house.
“But it’s really not about the trophy,” he said. “It’s about teaching the kids to be successful in school, outside the school in life, about overcoming things.
“With FAOD, I had a two-percent survival rate, but I overcame it. I won my battle overcoming my medical challenges, and my behavioral and learning challenges. Oxford is my home. I want to coach 30, 40 years here. I want balance in my life. I want to pass my driver’s test. I get anxious behind the wheel. I want to get a job and make money. I want to have my own family and have kids.”
You want to talk about the power of sport and the power of the brotherhood of football? Talk to Coach Tut.