Santino Vitelli

Sports Writer

Q What inspired you and got your starting in coaching?

A I played football at the University of Michigan from 1970-73. I played for Bo (Schembechler). I got a degree in special education. When I came to Lenawee County I was teaching emotionally impaired student on the campus of Adrian College. So, I had the opportunity to meet the then head football coach Tom Hacker. He invited me, knowing my background, to be an assistant coach. I started there back in 1974 coaching the defensive line. I stayed as a part time coach at Adrian for 15 years, coaching primarily all of the defensive positions. I became the defensive coordinator in 1989. Then the head coach in 1990. I wasn’t really planning on being a coach. I was going to be a teacher and work with special Olympic athletes, but I just kind of fell into it.

Q What coach/coaching style would you compare yourself to and why?

A Well I’m not Bo (laughing). There’s only one Bo. My position coach was a guy by the name of Frank Maloney. Frank went on and coached the team at Syracuse. He was my position coach when I played defensive line at Michigan. We’re very similar. 3d vr glasses He was a very personal man and he treated me very well. He and Gary Moeller who was also the head coach at Michigan, he was the defensive coordinator while I was there. He taught you that you didn’t have to be a great star on the field to be a major part to the football team, and if you couldn’t be a great athlete, you could at least be a great teammate. So, I would compare myself to those two men.

Q How would you say the team’s chemistry is? What do you do to try and keep it up?

A The team’s chemistry is fabulous. A lot of it has to do with the type of men that we have recruited. We primarily targeted team captains. We brought in about 98 of them. So they have had some experience of leadership and dealing with different situations on teams. One of the things that we really stress, because it’s true, is that we’re in this together. This isn’t my team, it’s our team. It’s such a unique experience because everything we do builds tradition, or tears it down. So, the players on the team have really bought into it, because they do know that we cannot escape what we do. So, if we practice well, we’re going to continue getting better. And we have, our kids have played extremely hard.

Q Where do you see this program in four to five years?

A Because of the league that we’re in, we’re in the best NAIA league in the nation, annually we will be playing top ranked teams.  This year it happened to be numbers 1, 3, 7, and 9. If we continue to recruit quality student athletes, I think we could be challenging for a championship at the league. If you do that you really put yourself in the position to challenge for a national championship.

Q What do you look for most when you are recruiting a player?

A Well you have to have talent. But when we interview the coaches, we kind of turn the tables on them. We say if you are in our position and you were just starting a program and you could take one or two people off your team who would they be? So you might not get their best player, but you’re going to get their best people. But you really do have to find that combination. In the NAIA and especially here at Siena Heights, we award you for academic performance, as well as athletic performance. So it behooves us to recruit intelligent men that are serious about football.

Q What would you say are the strengths and weaknesses of the team this year?

A The strength is the team’s willingness to prepare. We invite you, or any other person on the campus to watch us come practice. We practice at a very high level from the minute practice begins to when it ends. There is a lot of energy and a great deal of concentration and focus. Obviously the weaknesses are that we’re freshman and sophomores. Take yourself for example. You could be a great athlete, but you as a freshman and you as a senior, there’s a big difference, physically and mentally. We tell the team all the time, “The mental is to physical, as four is to one.” And once you start to anticipate what other teams are doing because of preparation, it makes you quicker and a better player.

Q There have been some hard fought games against some very good teams this year. How do you feel about the season thus far?

A I’m very proud of the way that we compete. I’m disappointed because we could be 5-1 right now, but the ball always takes some strange bounces. Anytime you lose in triple overtime, obviously you’re doing some things right, and you’re doing at least one thing wrong (laughing). But, I am pleased with the effort, I really am. You have to be able to look beyond what you’re doing and think about what you’re building.

Q What are the expectations for the rest of the season?

A Improvement. We don’t shy away from hard coaching. We want kinds to understand what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. It’s important to this staff that we’re very honest. But, we also encourage kids and make sure that they don’t have broken spirits. So, I feel that we’re going to continue to get better. I really feel like we are going to knock off one of those top teams. I just have that feeling. This team just works too hard and has too much talent not to come out on top in one of those games.