Sachem North football’s slogan has been “break the rock” since January 2020. It’s a metaphor for not just climbing a mountain, but shattering it, for persevering through three years of program building, and culture defining coaching and management that has gotten the program back to its plateau of respect in Suffolk County football.
Saturday’s game was not a championship, but it felt like it. As Cam Lee and Vin Giordano ran to grab the Chief Sachem Trophy it felt like the Sachem of old. That moment took 36 months of work, and not just practices and off-season training, but monumental strides in recruiting younger players, marketing the program to prospective student-athletes and community members, and setting an overall feeling of belief every day, every practice and every opportunity Sachem coach Dave Caputo had.
“I was hoping that everything would come together by my senior year,” said Lee. “Coach Caputo got everyone in the right place, doing the right thing. He’s done a great job, all the coaches have, and this is where we need to be to win championships now.”
Players like Lee, Giordano and Mike Fasano are just three of 23 seniors who have bought in for three seasons and played as sophomores when Sachem was at the bottom of the barrel in Suffolk’s Division I.
Eighteen. That’s how many players were on the varsity three years ago. Imagine that? A district with roughly 4,000 kids in two high schools, but just 18 in one varsity football program. That number today? Fifty. Fully staffed with a feeder system on the JV and middle school levels that continue to grow weekly.
“That didn’t happen overnight,” said Caputo. “That’s hard work. That’s this team believing. It’s 23 senior leaders. This was a process, and they believed in us and this program.”
You probably read or hear references about “the program” often and unless you associate with an organization bigger than yourself, it may be difficult to grasp what that means. In Sachem football’s case, the program has embraced its laurels for 60 years. It’s not living in the past. It’s allowing the past to inspire the future, because the past was rich in spirit and pride and the past is rich with award winners, scholarship players and championships. What better example to use than yourself? Sachem football has never emulated the competition, they set trends. Not with Fred Fusaro at the helm. Not with Dave Caputo.
“Four years of hard, dedicated work all led to this moment that we executed perfectly, and I couldn’t ask for anything else,” said Giordano. “I wouldn’t want to be part of any other program on Long Island.”
Players like Lee and Giordano get “it,” meaning the Sachem factor of caring about community and defining their experience by playing for the name on the front of their uniform. That’s not a generic statement either. Every week different players were interviewed after the game and the constant theme was that they played for each other, they love their coaches and they respect this program. Each quote was more mature than the next. I was amazed with the passion and dedication that poured out of their hearts. They’re 16, 17, 18 year old young men, but they know they are part of something different, and uniquely helped make it that way.
“These are special kids,” said Caputo. “They believe in something bigger than themselves. They helped build this. Every one of them.”
It was Chris Kelly giving praise to Lee. It was Michael Heffernan being so happy to catch passes from Kelly.
“I love you, bro, thank you,” he exclaimed after catching two touchdowns in a win over Carey.
It was John Hall talking about playing the Sachem way. It was Tyler Hall talking about grit and passion for Sachem after Commack was warming up on the arrowhead. It was Giordano crying with his teammates after injuring his ankle and feeling their support as they played for one another.
Is this the greatest Sachem team ever? Absolutely not. Could it stack up against the 1977, 1986, 1995 or 2013 teams? Probably not. But this was the exact group of kids and games needed for right now. It was the best outcome under the circumstances and still amounted to a 5-1 finish and the most exciting set of games since 2013, almost a decade. That 5-1 record shows Sachem had one of the highest winning percentages on Long Island this year too. This is the 18th time Sachem has started a season 5-1 but the first time in 10 years.
This group won seven of their last eight football games and had it not been for a shortened season likely would have dome some damage in Suffolk Division I. But like anything, the season played out the way it did for a reason. Six games, not seven. A rivalry win, not a county title. The overall result?
“We’re a winning football program,” said Caputo. “We’re back. We broke the rock.”