Finalist: “My Path” by Evan Faiella
Evan Faiella of The St. Thomas More School (CT) pictures with Head Football Coach, Coach Anderson
My path started off at a young age when I fell in love with football and the game in its entirety. When I got to high school I was determined to play as soon as possible. I went into high school at 5’7” 130 pounds, and played JV my freshman year. But I wanted more than that, so during the summer in-between freshman year and sophomore year I put on 35-40 pounds, and started as a cornerback my sophomore year at 6’0” 170 pounds, I learned a lot about competing that year, and even earned time at wide receiver that year to which was split with a senior who was ahead of me. After that year I continued to grind in the weight room and on the field, my Junior year I was a two way starter at 6’3” 195, I was an all state wide receiver and an all conference safety. After that season, in the middle of the night during finals, my three year head coach left. This was devastating. I made sure to keep my vision tunneled towards playing college football. Before my senior year started I had a ton of D3 and D2 offers in which to choose from, but couldn’t get anything bigger due to covid canceling our season.
I was 6’3” 225 wide receiver and was ready to earn all state accolades on both sides of the ball.
After the 7v7 season was over I had earned various offers and decided to commit to Assumption University, but right before signing day they changed the money on me. I was lost and didn’t know where to turn because my dream was seemingly cut to an end. I felt like my football career was going to be over, and all my hard work was going to be for nothing. During this time it was the middle of May when I found St Thomas More School through Coach Manson. I remember taking my tour and being very uncertain of my future, and whether or not this would help me achieve my dreams. I eventually decided to come to STM. During camp week I was told I would be playing tight end, which I had never played before in my life. This was something that I had to push through and I did. I personally think that I had a great camp at STM which was a huge factor in me earning playing time with a TE that had already been there for a year already. During the season I was being recruited by a handful of schools, one of which was Brown University. They wanted to see a lot of things out of me to ensure I would be able to play TE at the next level, all of which I provided them through my game film. They eventually told me in late December that there were 6-8 people who were in front of me.
Now I could’ve taken this as a slap to the face or a cancellation of my dreams, but I didn’t let it. I kept pushing forward and still got after it in the weight room, and on the field at the indoor facility. One day during the indoor, I got pulled aside by Coach Anderson and got that call that I was desperately waiting to get, the TE coach from Brown. He let me know that I would be getting a very good call from the Head Coach, in which to bring me on campus and offer me. While on campus I accepted this offer and officially committed to Brown University. During this road I could’ve stopped, I could’ve quit, I could’ve been sad or depressed about my situation, but I kept working because I knew that my hard work would pay off one day and someone would recognize it. It did. If there’s one thing that I learned from this journey it’s that always stay true to yourself, and when times get tough, bet on yourself.