Tony DeMatteo has won several awards as a football coach, in a career spanning more than 50 years. This year he received an award which means more to him than all the rest — a reward for making an impact on his athletes.
By Adam Reed
Somers High School (New York) head coach Tony DeMatteo, this year’s recipient of the American Football Coaches Foundation Power of Influence Award, believes coaches have a great responsibility to impact society.
DeMatteo thinks winning is important. He’s won over 300 games as a high school coach, and is the winningest coach in New York state Division I football history.
But for DeMatteo, his influence on his players is not a means to help him win. Rather, winning is a means to help him influence his players.
“I think you have to be successful,” DeMatteo said. “If you’re not successful you’re going to be out there coaching by yourself. But winning at all costs? Never.”
DeMatteo began coaching as a graduate assistant for Bridgeport University (New York) in 1964, and went on to coach Roosevelt High School (New York) for 30 years. He moved to Somers in 2000, and is still coaching there today.
DeMatteo, his philosophies and the game itself have all changed over his 47 years as a head coach. He credits this wealth of experience in helping him to identify what is truly valuable.
“I know that I can influence kids to do the right thing and become a good person. So if I’m affecting 50 people, and they affect 100, and those 100 affect another 100, then I have really affected society and that’s the way I think about coaching.”
One of the ways in which he influences players is through his mentoring program. DeMatteo started the program in 1993 after losing a top prospect due to hazing.
After the program was up and running, the young man returned to the football field. His name was Jimmy Kennedy, and he remains the only NFL player DeMatteo has ever coached.
There were over 1.1 million young people playing football in the United States in 2015 according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations. That’s 1.1 million opportunities for football coaches to make an impact.
Not only is football a great way of reaching a large number of young people because of the sheer number of participants, it’s also effective because coaches “teach them what they like” as DeMatteo puts it.
“Kids like sports which means coaches are going to connect with their players,” DeMatteo says. “I take it on as a tremendous responsibility. It’s necessary that I win to get my message to them.”
Winning is important. DeMatteo will be the first to tell you how it must be stressed if you want to be successful. However, in order to have the best chance to have the biggest impact on society, he believes it cannot and should not be at the top of a coach’s priority list.