Viera Dones finally gets on field
NS senior uses senior project to play football
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Aldrec Viera Dones had given up on his dream of playing football.
The North Smithfield senior had been asked by friends every year for nearly 10 years to play for the North Smithfield Xpress or for the Northmen, but the answer from his parents every time was an emphatic, ‘No.’
Everything changed on a Friday afternoon in early September when Viera Dones sat down with NS Senior Project Coordinator Lindsay Aromin. Viera Dones already had his senior project set up, he was going to do a creative writing project with Rhode Island College professor Karen Boren serving as his mentor.
“I didn’t want to have any regrets and my high school career is coming to an end and I wanted to help my friends who are seniors because they’ve put in so much hard work these past few years,” Viera Dones said last week. “Mrs. Aromin said on that day to really do some soul searching if this is what you want your senior project to be because you’re going to be stuck with this project all year.
“I was thinking about it and I was like, ‘Man, I really want to play football.’ That weekend, I sat down with parents and I talked to them about how this could help me in the future and be fruitful past high school.”
“I was thinking about it and I was like, ‘Man, I really want to play football.’ That weekend, I sat down with parents and I talked to them about how this could help me in the future and be fruitful past high school.”
— North Smithfield’s Aldrec Viera Dones
Viera Dones’ father, who was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and his mother, a Massachusetts native, never doubted the 6-foot-5 inch basketball and volleyball player would be successful on the gridiron, but their concerns were twofold.
First, the inherent injury risk of playing on the offensive and defensive line. Second, Viera Dones already played two sports, so the first three months of the school year were the only months he could solely focus on school work.
“My parents have been cautious of my getting hurt and getting concussions and stuff like that,” Viera Dones. “They always drilled into me that academics come first and then sports. My parents knew I would be good at it if I did start playing.”
With plenty of hesitation, Viera Dones’ parents signed the senior project papers paving the way for Viera Dones to join his friends on the football team after a decade. That Sunday night, Viera Dones texted North Smithfield football coach Wes Pennington to let him know for the first time in his years at the school, he was going to be a senior project mentor.
“When I got the text I thought ‘God is truly with us,’” Pennington said last week. “To be honest with you, ever since I’ve been here we’ve had a kid come out who didn’t play the year before make a difference. I was thinking this year was going to be different, and then I got the text from Al. I think his plan was brilliant because I know he’s been trying to get out here for years. This is a great opportunity for him to learn to play football and take care of his senior project.”
Pennington’s message back to Viera Dones was to show up to Monday’s film session because the undefeated Northmen-Mounties were getting ready for a showdown with Tiverton, the team that handed NSMSC its only loss in last season’s Division IV Super Bowl.
Because Viera Dones was only going to play on the defensive line, he didn’t need to learn about blocking schemes or plays. His job was simply to beat the player in front of him and tackle whoever has the ball.
“In his case, he just had to understand the physicality of the game,” Pennington said. “He’s a center in basketball, so he’s physical there, but this was a different type of physical. For him, he had to get the idea of what that is. Al is super athletic, so as long as he could handle the pressure of being physical out there, we knew Al could do it.”
No one on the Tiverton sideline likely knew that the player wearing number 64 and dominating their offensive line was playing in his first organized game. After he watched
Tiverton All-State quarterback Matt Gacioch run for a touchdown on the opening play of the game, Viera Dones helped the Northmen hold the Tigers to just one touchdown over the final 47 minutes in a 30-12 win. The senior had a sack in the win.
The rest of the regular season was pretty predictable with the Northmen-Mounties dominating opponents on the way to their second straight undefeated regular season. After overcoming Ponaganset in the semifinals, NSMSC earned another shot at the Tigers in the Division IV Super Bowl.
This was the game Viera Dones joined the football team to play because he remembered sitting in the stands at Cranston Stadium watching NSMSC’s dreams of winning a first title turn into a nightmare.
“I was at the Super Bowl and I sad for them when they didn’t win was so it,” Viera Dones. “Now that I’m with my boys and giving them another chance makes me feel great because they deserve it. Like coach says, they’ve had to replay every snap, every possession and every play and now they get to play.”
Thanks to a two-point conversion stop late in the fourth quarter, Viera Dones and the Northmen-Mounties claimed the Division IV title with a 21-20 victory. Even though they aren’t fans of their youngest son playing football, Viera Dones’ parents trekked to Cranston to support their son.
“My parents have been to a few games and I think they’ve lost some of their nervousness that I would get hurt,” Viera Dones said. “They’ve seen my tackles and they’ve told me, ‘Oh, you’re doing really well.’”
Viera Dones’ senior project will come to an end Thursday morning when NSMSC travel to Scituate to take on the Spartans in their annual Thanksgiving Day clash. Throughout the season Viera Dones has logged every practice session, film study and game for his senior project. At the end of the season, his mentor, Pennington, will sign off on the work Viera Dones did to help bring the first Super Bowl to North Smithfield.
“This has been what I expected it to be because I’m a big kid and I knew I would be bigger than most of the kids we’d be playing against,” said Viera Dones, who carries a 3.8 GPA. “There are some athletes who are my size, who made it tough. I expected it to be physically demanding and I knew it was going to take a lot of my time.”