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Ivy growing on a host of former county football players

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006

In 2003, while helping the Georgetown Prep football team to an 8-1 record and an Interstate Athletic Conference championship, then-seniors Joe Fuccillo and Kirk Porter were attracting the attentions of several college football programs.

Fuccillo, a fullback who rushed for 449 yards on 64 carries and scored two touchdowns that year, was courted by a number of NCAA Division I-A and I-AA schools, including Georgetown, Princeton and Dartmouth. Porter, an offensive lineman who received All-IAC and All-Gazette first-team honors in 2003, was dealing with the same circumstances.

Fuccillo, 20, of Rockville, whose older brother Dominick spent his freshman year on the Princeton football team and just wrapped up his senior season with the Tigers’ men’s lacrosse team, was set on Yale almost from the start. He knew he wasn’t going to be pursuing a professional football career and was looking for a good balance between academics and athletics, with his studies the priority. With a little coaxing, he convinced his best friend, Porter, to give the famous Ivy League school a chance. The two, who’ll be roommates this upcoming year, are now getting set for their third season with the Bulldogs’ squad.

Playing football in the Ivy Leagues isn’t like playing football at some of the bigger, more sport-oriented schools, Fuccillo and Porter (19, of Silver Spring) agreed. There aren’t any scholarships. It is hectic. It is tiring. It is a balancing act. But it’s got great tradition and both concur it is well worth it. And that path to the football fields of the Ivy League football field is one many county players have traveled down in recent years.

In addition to Fuccillo and Porter: Wootton High’s Colin Fechter is entering his junior year as a defensive back at Princeton; Churchill’s Josh Rodman will be a sophomore offensive lineman at Princeton; Bullis’ Bryan Smith will be a freshman offensive lineman at Brown; Bethesda’s (by way of Gonzaga, D.C.) Colin Cloherty is a sophomore tight end at Brown; Whitman’s Carl Ehrlich is a sophomore defensive lineman at Harvard and plays in the same formation as Kennedy’s Matt Thomas, a senior linebacker at Harvard; Silver Spring’s Warren Pyles (a St. Albans, D.C. grad) is a sophomore defensive back at Penn; Watkins Mill’s Mike Rabil is a senior defensive lineman at Dartmouth; and Sherwood’s Javier Garza is a sophomore defensive lineman at Columbia.

While the emphasis in the Ivy League is obviously academics, athletics are also considered an important aspect of college life. Football players aren’t given preferential treatment in the classroom because of their time commitments on the football field. And that is part of what makes playing football in the league unique. Fuccillo (economics) and Porter (political science), in addition to their rigorous studies, devote approximately five hours (Practice, weight training, film study, etc ...) a day to football during the season. It can be overwhelming. And they sacrifice much of their free time, though both said balancing the two helps them work more efficiently and manage their time better.

‘‘We practice just as much as the other schools,” Fuccillo said. ‘‘You need to balance academics and athletics. We’re just as dedicated to academics as we are to athletics. You realize you’re there for academics. There aren’t any scholarships. As hard as you work on the field, you have to work two times as hard off. At the end, it is what you learn in the classroom and not on the field that is going to help your career. It gets in the way of your free time. But that is a sacrifice you have to make. And to be able to play, it is worth it. And there are definitely times during the season where you hit a wall, but you have 109 teammates going through the same thing. It’s like a support group.”

Porter added that whereas at some of the bigger college football schools athletes have tutors and are coddled through some of their classes in order to remain eligible to play, at Yale, in the Ivy Leagues, athletes are treated the same as every other student. They’re on their own trying to focus on their studies while competing on the field. And they’re not just competing on the field. These student-athletes are competing with their peers in the classrooms. Many of the Ivys, for example Princeton, have begun grade deflation efforts, limiting the number of As handed out in each class.

And while the time commitments hinder of the players’ social lives it also prevents them from getting involved in other aspects of campus life they perhaps otherwise might be interested in.

‘‘It is very difficult to balance any sport here, but football is one of the most demanding, I think, as far as time,” said Fechter, an economics major who was class president during all four of his years at Wootton. ‘‘I was involved with the class government in high school. I played lacrosse and had a lot of fun with that. Those two things were pretty big for me, a lot of fun. I did all sorts of things and I miss that aspect as well. Obviously you can’t do everything ... There’s also a new grade deflation policy, which makes it even harder. Only 30 percent of the class gets an A. So you’re competing with some of the brightest kids.”

But while these student-athletes are straining themselves to find that ever-important balance between good grades and success on the football field, they can enjoy the historical and traditional aspect of what the challenges they’ve taken on as well. Every school has its traditions. But the Ivy League has some of the most unique, historical traditions in the country. And that is what makes playing there even more special. For Fechter, it is playing in a program that played the first-ever intercollegiate football game (1869, vs. Rutgers – Princeton lost, 6-4). For Fuccillo and Porter, it is playing on the same campus where the first forward pass was thrown.

‘‘One of the greatest games I’ve ever played is the Yale-Harvard game,” Fuccillo said. ‘‘You get out of the tunnel and there are 55,000 fans cheering. It is a great experience. It feels like you’re playing at one of the big-time schools.”

‘‘There was a lot of tradition at Prep,” Porter added. ‘‘But it is nowhere close to Yale. You walk through the halls and you see pictures of guys from back in early 1900s. There are some Heisman trophies, a couple of NFLers. At first it is overwhelming. But it is really great.”

Fuccillo, Porter, Fechter and many of the other Ivy Leaguers sacrifice a lot to put their pads on. Many of them could’ve gone elsewhere, where the emphasis would have been more on football. But playing in the Ivy League, earning a degree from a prestigious university and being a part of a great tradition, well, they don’t think twice about their decision.

‘‘I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity,” Fuccillo said. ‘‘One, it is a privilege to play college football. And second, to go and play for a prestigious school like Yale. That is special.”