The minute warmups were over the first words out of coach Pete Gambardella’s mouth were “first and 10” as he placed the ball down on the other side of the 50.
The New York City head coach ran his team through a large amount of scrimmage drills at C.W. Post on the first day practice with pads for the Outback Steakhouse Empire Challenge senior football all-star game. Gambardella is trying to build early cohesion and familiarity between some of the best players the five boroughs have to offer.
“I think that is the key in the all-star game,” he said. “How fast can we get these guys from 20 different schools to play together as one? They are all stars, they can do it.”
The city is looking to grab a win after a 31-14 defeat a year ago. Sure there are still plenty of kinks to work out before Tuesday night’s match against the Long Island stars at Hofstra, but there were a few things that were apparent on Day 1.
The combination of Big East running backs Jeremiah Kobena (Syracuse) and Lyle McCombs (UConn) can be silly good. Cardinal Hayes’ Kobena is great in the open field and broke a touchdown run up the right sideline at practice. McCombs, the St. Joseph by the Sea star, is great at grinding out yards, and is explosive when he gets into the secondary. He showed off his joystick juke moves a few times. They could give the city the guy to keep drives going and finish them off.
A quick aside: The sight of Kobena and athletic wide receiver teammates Bryant McAdoo and Gallo Henson was quite impressive to some of the team’s coaches. Brooklyn Tech head man Kyle McKenna asked my colleague Marc Raimondi if Cardinal Hayes won all its games this season. It came close. Hayes went 8-2 with a loss to Mount St. Michael in the CHSFL ‘AA’ final.
Back to team NYC.
There isn’t a ton of size up and down the roster or your pure pocket passer at quarterback, unlike a year ago. Susan Wagner’s Jordan Rodriguez impressed with his accuracy during drills. He hit McAdoo through a small window in between three defenders for one of the more impressive plays of the day. Fort Hamilton’s Frank Laino showed the ability to be mobile and elusive.
“A lot of versatility, a lot of speed,” Gambardella said of his team’s best attributes. “Our job is to capitalize on what we have.”
The list of two-way players during the season is a long one on the New York roster including Mount St. Michael’s Gary Aquah, St. Francis Prep’s Brian Caffrey, Poly Prep’s Devante Wheeler, Davon Collins of New Utrecht and Curtis’ James Timmons among many others.
“They got to hone in on one skill right now,” the coach said. “And do what’s best for the whole team.”
Notes: No replacement was named for Curtis star and Florida-bound Dominique Easley. The defensive lineman was on the original roster, but recently had to pull out of the game to head down to Gainesville. It was too late to fill the roster spot, according to Gambardella. … The team does not have a kicker listed on the roster. Caffrey and Fort Hamilton’s Nick Fiorito will handle those duties.
