Carrozza captains show bond, commitment
Matty Carrozza is in season. As one of the top 126-pound wrestlers in the state, the Brookfield senior keeps one eye on the scale.
His other eye will be on the delicious array of food to be served on Christmas Eve at the home of his grandparents in Katonah, N.Y.
“I try my best to stay away from eating too much, but as everybody is always saying in Italian, ‘Mangia! Mangia!’ ” Matty said. “My Nanny always goes, ‘Eat today. Cut weight tomorrow.’ ”
Nanny is Jean (Bueti) Carrozza. Nonno is Pasquale Carrozza, who was born in Solano Reggio di Calabria at the tip of the Italian boot, immigrated to America at 17 and built a life for himself and his family as an accomplished carpenter and entrepreneur. When he died at age 91 on Aug. 1, the family had grown from six sons to 16 grandchildren.
Three of those first cousins are senior captains of their sports this year. In addition to Matty, there is Julia, captain of Ridgefield’s field hockey and lacrosse teams, and Angela, captain of the New Fairfield soccer team.
Matty is the son of Joseph and Lisa. Julia, whose older sister Bella plays field hockey at Providence College, is the daughter of John and Elizabeth. Angela is the daughter of Pasquale and Deneane. And this is the Christmas Eve story of three 17-year-old captains, one Italian sports family, Seven Fishes and 16 stockings.
Angela and Matty arrived three weeks apart. Julia arrived three months later.
“We’ve basically grown up together,” Julia said. “Ange is the sweetest. She always makes me laugh. She and Matty are two of the kindest people I know. They’re the kind of people that when you talk to them, you always leave feeling better about yourself.”
“We’re very close,” Angela said.
“And competitive,” Matty said.
Holidays, various celebrations, the Carrozza family have long gathered at the home of Nanny and Nonno. There is a pool for the summer. And when there are 16 grandchildren, Julia pointed out, there is no shortage
of birthday parties. The older cousins usually were together. The younger group is filled with boys.
“The three of us are kind of the middle group, looking out for the younger ones and learning from the older ones,” Angela said. “I couldn’t ask for better cousins. They’re so funny, energetic and …”
Angela spilled the beans on the family. Competitive turns out to be an understatement.
“So, so competitive,” she said.
Board games. Wii games. Often when there are teams the three cousins will be teammates.
This goes all the way to a height competition. Growing up, they’d go head to head. They took pictures to compare through the years.
“I grew fastest first,” Julia said. “It was, ‘Oh, Julia’s going to be so tall.’ Well, then Ange grew taller. Then Matty had a growth spurt and went past both of us.”
“I was always the smallest,” said Matty, 5-6. “Now I’m the tallest.”
“I think the competition has pretty much stopped,” Julia said.
Hey, there’s always Pictionary. And always the home in Katonah.
Angela, named after her great grandmother, has played soccer since she was 5.
“My mom always wanted me to play field hockey,” Angela said. “She played through college. I tried like five other sports, but every time I just went back to soccer. I didn’t like anything else. I was so stubborn.”
Basketball, dance. Nothing else stuck.
“Playing soccer makes me so happy,” Angela said. “It is my happy place and always has been.”
Angela has twin 14-yearold brothers, Joseph and Nicholas.
“Fun fact, they were born 3 years and 1 day after I was,” Angela said. “When I was little, I asked for a brother for my birthday. I got two.”
Spending three years with her family in London, Julia played soccer. She said field hockey was more of a boys sport there. When she returned to the States, she attended different clinics. She and Bella fell in love with field hockey.
Bella was two-time AllState second-team and two-time all-FCIAC first team. Julia, who will play at Holy Cross, was recently named all-FCIAC and firstteam All-State. She had the benefit of going along for Bella’s recruiting events.
“Holy Cross had been one of her choices and I went to a clinic there in eighth grade,” Julia said. “I loved the campus, school, the faith-based community and coach. I knew it was what I wanted in a school.”
Julia committed October junior year.
“I’ve been with my sister so much of my life,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to kind of make my own path. We do play against each other next year, which is exciting.”
Matty’s dad used to wrestle in high school. His uncles wrestled. When he was 5, it was introduced as something he might want to pursue in the winter.
“I immediately fell in love with the sport,” said Matty, whose younger brother Danny is the starting 113pounder for Brookfield. “It really started clicking in middle school.”
Wrestling has become an all-year passion. He has competed in national tournaments, against top wrestlers. He is committed to wrestle at Trinity.
Matty took third at 113 pounds in Class M as a sophomore. He finished sixth in New England at 113 last year.
“I’m hungry” said Carrozza, who won the championship at the CJ McCormack Tournament last weekend in Berlin by pin in 17 seconds. “I want a state title and New England title.”
Maybe it’s the genes, the nurturing or hard work. Maybe all three. They are smart, cheerful, competitive and inclusive. Captain material.
“At every practice, I lead warm-ups, stretches, encouraging the team,” Matty said. “After every practice, I’ll give a little speech. We have a small team this year and it’s important to bring everyone together as a family.”
Since they play different sports, Julia said she enjoys talking about various competitions and approaches with her cousins. Since they live nearby, there is the opportunity to watch each other compete.
“We have to go through a leadership course (at Ridgefield),” said Julia, a two-year captain in field hockey. “I learned about making an inclusive environment and learned from my sister who was a captain. The main thing for me is being approachable for all your teammates and open to helping them. Also finding a balance on being lighthearted and knowing when it’s time to focus.”
Angela, who has not decided where she will attend college but is sure she’ll play club or intramural soccer, was thrilled to be named one of four New Fairfield captains. It was one thing to love the sport. It was another to help others love it.
Gabriella Arterberry and Erin Stroh, she said, were the vocal ones. Jamie Martin led mostly by example.
“Our coach (Adam Cannale) called me the team mom,” Angela said. “If someone had a bad game, I’d help them. I was there to guide the younger girls especially. I’d always been in position to look up to people. It’s so much different to be the person to look up to. It was such an honor.”
Although some COVID quarantining will cut into the numbers, Lisa Carrozza said the family will be at least 25 strong on Christmas Eve in Katonah.
There is the Italian tradition of the Feast of Seven Fishes. Baccala, calamari and on and on.
“It’s not just your typical turkey and ham,” Julia said. “It’s an array of all these dishes that you get to try. It’s a special, important part of it.”
“A big tree, Secret Santa, platters of food everywhere,” Matty said. “Cannoli. Zeppole.”
“Some years, with extended family, we’ve had 50 people packed in,” said Angela, who bakes cookies for dessert.
A special memory, Julia said, is making the Zeppole of fried dough and powdered sugar beforehand with Nanny. Pictures of the grandchildren sit above the fireplace. Nanny has hung 16 stockings with all their names. Gina, Alissa, Michael, Isabella, Angela, Matthew, Julia, John P., Daniel, Joseph, Nicholas, John. L. Natalie, Victoria, Alex and Andrew. The stockings lined up, the three captain cousins agree, is a glorious sight.
This Christmas will be different, of course, without Nonno, without Pasquale Carrozza.
“I talked to my Nanny the other day,” Julia said. “It’s definitely going to be very tough. It will help having so much family there, but they were the parents of all the family. They kept everything together. We didn’t put as many decorations up. There’s going to be a huge, huge hole there, but I think with all the people and all the love we will all help each other get through it.”
“We all realize how important family is,” Matty said. “I think this makes us cherish this Christmas all the more.”
While in Europe, Julia, then 9, was able to visit the houses Nanny and Nonno had grown up in in Calabria. She was able to go into the home Pasquale’s family had built, before he would come to America and build a family that would become 16 stockings. She said she was amazed to have that connection and to see their life before the one she only saw in America.
“When we lost him, it was very hard for us,” Angela said. “But the day before he died, most of the cousins went over to the house and were all there together praying for him. It brought us together in a way that we were never brought together before. It made everything we’ve done mean so much more to us. He wants us all to be together. That was his only wish. We’re carrying on that wish.”
“We’ve basically grown up together. Ange is the sweetest. She always makes me laugh. She and Matty are two of the kindest people I know.” —Julia Carrozza