High Impact Times: Another MetalNed Exclusive, Upcoming NFP Events, Southington Names Rob Levesque Head Coach
A Guest Post From MetalNed, Upcoming NFP Events and Much More!
Another MetalNED Exclusive
George DeMaio begins his interview saying, “Here’s what I have to say — ‘No comment’.” DeMaio is joking, of course. That and he’s loquacious as he is affable and could easily carry a conversation with a Labrador. For over 30 years, DeMaio has been the voice of New Haven County high school athletics, providing play-by-play for sports such as hockey, basketball and softball on New Haven WELI-960 and WAVZ-1300.
It’s high school football that the man known as “The Coach” is most known and the first he began broadcasting on radio. He called his first game in 1992 and hasn’t stopped, calling hundreds of games across New Haven County, from Madison, Wallingford, Ansonia and all points in between.
DeMaio’s love for high school football and his dedication to the sport earned him the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by NFP Sports, which will be presented to him at the 16th annual Walter Camp Breakfast of Champions on March 16 at the Omni New Haven Hotel. “I was flabbergasted (when I got the call),” DeMaio said. “I said to my wife (Brenda) that it means only one thing when you start getting a lifetime achievement award. She said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘It means you’re getting old.’”
DeMaio, 75, took an odd route to calling high school sports on the radio. He attended Southern Connecticut State University (where he met Brenda) to be a teacher and taught fifth grade at Thompson School in West Haven. He later moved on to become the mail service supervisor at Southern New England Telephone. WKCI, one of the biggest radio stations in New Haven, was looking for someone to do sports updates for the then very popular Dr. Chris (Evans) and Hozay morning show in 1984. It was also when DeMaio’s radio life began, in addition to changing his life.
“My buddy who, to this day, I think I thank at every dinner I go to if I’m asked to speak, his name is Ralph Solli,” DeMaio said. “He was a custodian at the middle school in East Haven and he listened to Dr. Chris and Hozay every morning faithfully while he was in his office.”
“He called me one day and said, ‘George, they’re looking for a sportscaster at KC 101, so why don’t you apply?’. … because I had been doing some work on the East Haven (public) access station doing basketball games.” DeMaio recorded a sports update on a cassette tape and sent it into the station. He was one of five invited for an on-air tryout and, at his audition, got his moniker, “The Coach.” “I coached Biddy (youth) basketball, and our team won the championship,” DeMaio said. “Our sponsor (Grasso Associates) got us jackets. … Our colors were Carolina blue, and so I had my jacket on, and it said, “Coach George” (on it).
“When (station employees) saw me, (one of them) said, ‘Wow. If you get the job, we’ll call you ‘The Coach.’” DeMaio did a minute-and-a-half report without practicing or script. He wowed the staff and received a phone call that night offering him the job as a part-timer. He became a full-time regular on Evans’ show on April 16, 1985. “We were together about five years,” DeMaio. “It was the best five years of fun that I ever had in radio; the most fun I ever had.”
DeMaio began calling high school football games several years later and hasn’t stopped. He only broadcast regular-season games at the start before expanding to state playoff games. He added hockey, softball and basketball over time. The most memorable high school football game of DeMaio’s career wasn’t a state final, rather it was a regular season game in which Amity stunned Cheshire, 27-26, on Oct. 27, 1998. Cheshire won its state-record sixth straight CIAC championship the previous season and hadn’t lost to Amity since 1987.
Paul Cichocki threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Chris Narowski on the game’s final play to give the Spartans the win. “I’ve heard the McClary Complex boisterous (with) a lot of noise,” DeMaio said. “(That ending) basically stunned them. I’ve never seen a whole crowd just (go silent).”
“That is probably one of the biggest upsets I’ve ever had in a game.” DeMaio began a partnership with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference this past fall in which his radio broadcasts were simulcast with video live on nfhsnetwork.com, the website run by the National Federation of High Schools that broadcast games across the country. DeMaio, when asked why he’s kept calling games for over 30 years said, “I love seeing the kids. I was a teacher for 19 years and I love seeing them. There’s a lot of good kids out there. There really are. … and they love when I cover their games and they love it because they know, ‘Hey, I just won some hot dogs and hamburgers.’”
DeMaio gives out a player of the game honor on every broadcast with his longest running sponsor, Hummel Bros. of New Haven, giving that player three pounds each of hamburger and hot dogs. “That’s about 600 pounds of meat a year,” DeMaio chuckled.
NFP Welcomes Doug Knowe
The NFP Sports team is happy to welcome Doug Knowe to the organization. Doug, an East Longmeadow native who graduated from Sacred Heart University in 1998, comes aboard to provide assistance in the world of high school basketball. He has north of two decades of experience as a basketball coach, coaching both as the head coach of the Windsor Locks High School Girls’ team and as an assistant for the University of Bridgeport Women's team.
Doug’s focus will be on programming for boys’ and girls’ basketball in the state. This includes work on behalf of our individual teams, conferences and organizations. First up, the CHSCA Boys’ & Girls’ Player of the Week Program, sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings. Having Dougs experience on the NFP team will be a great asset and we look forward to him joining the family!
Southington Names Rob Levesque Their New Head Football Coach
The Southington Blue Knights have filled their head football coaching vacancy by promoting assistant Rob Levesque. Mike Drury stepped down this offseason and the Blue Knights found their new coach quickly.
NFP Sports sends it congratulations to Rob Levesque for being named head football at Southington High School. We look forward to working with Coach Levesque and Blue Knights Football moving forward!
CHSCA Basketball Players of the Week
We are proud to finally launch the Player of the Week Program for Boys’ & Girls Basketball. A Boys’ & Girls’ Player will be picked by each conference to be honored as Player of the Week for their respective Conference and be entered into the state-wide poll to determine the overall winners. The poll is set to go live this upcoming Tuesday.
CHSCA Boys’ Soccer All State Banquet
The NFP Sports event team was on hand at the CHSCA/CSCA Boys’ Soccer All-State Banquet to take photos of the All-State teams. Click on THIS LINK to view the gallery and purchase your copies of the All-State Teams. From there, you’ll be able to purchase a copy of the Class S, Class M, Class L or Class LL All-State teams, which will be sized to the way in which you’d like. These photos are great to purchase in order to remember your student athletes great accomplishments.
CHSCA Ice Hockey Players of the Week
One of the best traditions in Connecticut high school sports is the weekly CHSCA Ice Hockey Player of the Week program sponsored by Cheshire Sport & Hamden Sports Shop. This week, we have two extremely talented student athletes taking home the award.
This weeks Boys’ Ice Hockey Player of the Week is Rocky Hill Co-op forward, Kyle Eames. Eames takes home the award after an impressive stretch of games for the Terriers. Congratulations Kyle!
This weeks Girls’ Ice Hockey Player of the Week is Hamden Co-op forward, Jozie Becker. Becker tallied an excellent stretch of games for the Dragons. Congratulations Jozie!
ECC Athlete of the Week Winners
We’re back for another week of recognizing the best athletes from the ECC for the ECC Athlete of the Week program sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings.
This weeks ECC Boys’ Athlete of the Week is Bacon Academy fencing athlete, Bennett Holloway. Holloway performed at an extremely high level for Bacon Academy and his hard work paid off as he won this weeks ECC Boys’ Athlete of the Week. Congratulations Bennett!
This weeks ECC Girls’ Athlete of the Week is St. Bernard indoor track and field athlete Helena Coury. Coury had an impressive week on the track for St. Bernard this past week which earned her the award of ECC Girls’ Athlete of the Week. Congratulations Helena.
NFP Sports Merchant Spotlight
NFP Sports discount partner, Square Peg Pizzeria, which opened its flagship location in Glastonbury in 2019, continues to expand. Back in the spring of 2023, it opened its second full-service location in Vernon after a 23 month wait. See more here: Vernon Version Of Square Peg Pizzeria Opens After 23-Month Wait | Vernon, CT Patch
It didn’t waste any time with its third, opening its Storrs Center location in October of last year. According to an article by CT Insider on October 9, 2023, they also have satellite locations throughout the state. “Square Peg also has outposts with slimmed-down menus at ax-throwing bars Montana Nights in Newington and Orange, and Odin's Keep Axe House in Enfield. The restaurant has a pizza oven at both locations of the Truck Bar in Berlin and Higganum, a "backyard bar and beer-cade" entertainment venue with arcade games, cornhole, pool, air hockey and foosball.” You can read the full article here: https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/square-peg-pizzeria-storrs-ct-18415338.php
We are excited to see the expansion and look forward to partnering with them on behalf of our teams, schools and organizations throughout the state.
Newington Weightlifting Club set to Kick Off David’s Cookie Dough Campaign
If you’re interested in purchasing cookies and supporting a good cause, you should look to support the Newington High School football team. From Triple Chocolate cookies with Hershey Kisses to White Chunk Macadamia Nut, you can purchase a box of delicious cookies while also helping out the Newington Football team.
All you need to do is scan the QR code below, pick out which cookies you would like to purchases and then checkout. In the checkout process, you’ll be able to pick which athlete on the team you would like to support so they can get credit for your purchase!
Upcoming Events
Nike Coach of the Year Clinic Set For Their Annual New England Clinic!
It’s that time of the year! The Nike Coach of the Year Clinic has set their New England date for February 29th to March 2nd at the clinics usual location, the Windsor Marriott hotel. Some of this years great guest speakers are Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck, UConn head coach Jim Mora, Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun and UMass head coach Don Brown.
If you’re looking for more information regarding the clinic and how to register, you can go to: 2024 Nike Coach of the Year Clinics by NIKE Coach of the Year Clinics, Inc. The NFP team hopes to see you in attendance for the always great event.
Glazier Clinics Will Be Back in Connecticut in March!
Glazier Clinics, which is the only provider of nationwide in-person football clinics, is coming to Greenwich from March 8th to 10th with up to 150 sessions by some of the top coaches around. Some of the coaches who will be working are: Brad Idzik - WR Coach for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, John Marinelli - Pass Game Coordinator at UConn, Aaron Whitecotton - D-Line Coach for New York Jets, Pete Lembo - Special Teams Coordinator at South Carolina, Brandon Napoleon - Safeties Coach at Jacksonville State.
With a Glazier Unlimited Season Pass you get unlimited access for unlimited coaches to: All Glazier’s 26 Clinics, and Leadership Summits, Coordinator Schools, Head Coach Academies, Athletic Performance Clinics, Option Clinics, and 8-Man Clinics. Glazier Drive, a digital football coaching platform with more than 40 coaching systems and 2,000 videos with more being added each week.
Go to Glazier Clinics to register! Checkout THIS LINK to register!
Thank You To Our Sponsors!
Connecticut High School Coaches Association
Aqua Turf Club
Buffalo Wild Wings
Glazier Clinics
Stadium Systems
Town Fair Tire
Cheshire Sport & Hamden Sports Shop
Eastern Connecticut Conference
Brian Dagle Foundation
Buffalo Wild Wings
Dodd Stadium
Domino's of Southeastern Connecticut
Game On
JayPro Sports
Kelley's Pace
Metro Team Sports
University Orthopedics
Valenti Auto Group
Vocatura's Bakery
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If you’re interested in fundraising with NFP or looking to work with us on the sports marketing front, you can send an email to james@nfpbrands.com.