The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
ND-WH’s Callahan lives Rudy moment
Matt Callahan was happy just to get the chance to wear the Notre Dame-West Haven uniform Friday night as a member of the team, to be a part of the pre-game layup line.
Callahan has been a team manager for the Green Knights since he was a freshman. Before the start of this season, head coach Jason Shea promised Callahan he would get to suit up on Senior Night.
“I put him on the CIAC roster on Day 1,” Shea said.
Notre Dame was well on its way to its 18th straight win versus no losses Friday night when the chants from the crowd came to put Callahan in against Career. Shea did so with 4 minutes left.
“I was only expecting to play for about 15-20 seconds,” Callahan said. “I’ve never put a (basketball) jersey on in my life. I played Little League Baseball, but other than that, this was the first time.”
Then came the moment that has made the rounds on social media. Let’s let Callahan tell the story.
“Once I got past half court, I saw the open corner,” Callahan said. “I ran over there. Justin Covington passed to Ben Carroll, then Ben dished to me and I shot it. I saw it for a couple of seconds right when I released. It looked good.”
Many of the fans at Tonelli Court and the entire Notre Dame bench stood in celebration. “I think it was sort of icing on the cake. Getting in the game meant the world to me to. To make that shot was incredible,” Callahan said.
Callahan did take another shot, but missed. So he ends up shooting 50 percent for his career.
“To watch him knock down that shot was maybe the best moment in my life in a basketball gym,” said Shea, who played for Notre Dame and Connectiut College. “He is the most selfless person I have been around, so for him to get that moment, it was completely gratifying in every way.”
Shea said Callahan was cut from the team as a freshman, but then offered the opportunity to be the team manager. He’s missed just one practice in four seasons.
Many Sundays, Callahan beats the head coach to the gym.
“He usually gets 500700 shots up before practice starts,” Shea said.
Right down to the way his fellow teammates and students lifted Callahan up on to their shoulders after the game, it’s not hard to make the correlation to a famous walk-on football player at a certain college university by the same name that had his moment in the sun turned into a movie.
“I love that movie (Rudy),” Callahan said. “When I sat down in the locker room, I thought, ‘This is really what Rudy was about, like the tackle (sack) Rudy made and how they all lifted me up after the game.’”
Callahan is looking at Providence as a possible destination for college. He plans to major in marketing.
“I’d love to be a team manager at the college level,” Callahan said.
NEUTRAL SITES
Last season, Division I state tournament secondround games were scheduled to be at home. But two of them moved to neutral sites because the home venues were too small and others were also considered to move.
This year, there will be no debates: the CIAC mandated all secondround games will now be held at neutral sites. So the top 12 teams in the division will not get to play a home game because all will receive first-round byes.
“The committee felt that it was unfair that some schools were allowed to play a secondround game in their own gym while others were forced to play in a neutral gym,” CIAC associate executive director Gregg Simon said. “You could have the No. 1 seed playing in a neutral gym with no home-court advantage while the No. 4 seed gets to play at home simply because they have a larger gym.”
The CIAC also has the right to move any state tournament game in any of the five divisions “to a neutral larger site for safety reasons and to allow all spectators to see the game,” according to the CIAC boys basketball packet.
TIME OFF
Jon Carroll said it’s not ideal to have 10 days in between games 19 and 20 to complete the regular season schedule for the state’s No. 1 team, but maybe Sacred Heart could use some time to rest.
A NVL game against Naugatuck was originally schedule to be played this week, but the game was moved to Dec. 16 as part of the GHPA Spirit of Doc tournament held at Trinity College. So that left the Hearts with a big gap after last Friday’s win over Holy Cross and the finale Feb. 19 against Tor- rington.
“The only large gap I remember was between an early NVL tournament exit and the start of a state tournament one year,” Carroll said. “I told the guys we’d be doing boot camp, going back to basics. We may look around for a scrimmage just to get up and down against someone else. It will be a good time to try and put a couple of new things in.”
Carroll gave the Hearts this past weekend off and they won’t practice Saturday. The NVL tournament begins Feb. 23 and concludes Feb. 27. Then the Hearts will have a week off before their second-round game in the Division I tournament.