Just Back From Florida, I attended the Phenomenon Conference , Host by Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer. It was awesome, all business owners should check these guys out.

Merry Christmas-Happy Holidays & Happy New year

I want to wish all my family, friends and students a healthy and happy holiday's. This last year saw both my daughter's getting married. I also want to thank my students,that helped run the school, while I was going through some health problems. All of you are very much appreciated and loved.

High School Continued

That year I was named second team All City by the Daily News. The nomination to that team wasn't like it is today. Today they name a All City Team for each borough. It was just one team for the whole city. Being named the #2 receiver in the whole city was a great honor that I will always treasure. I looked forward to Senior year and possible getting a scholarship to college. In the 70's there wasn't much help in getting into college. Our coach , Howie Smith, was way beyond his prime and wasn't helpful to the guys that played in that year. We had some talented players that could of played on Div. II or III teams but in 74' there was no recruitment of any of our players. This was a big disappointment for all of us. We all felt that we were on our own. Our Senior football team was assembled in the summer of 73'. I always felt we had a good team, the juniors that we had coming up were talented, one guy Fred Devito, even had a shot at major league baseball. The season started and we struggled. Then one morning while waiting for the bell to ring to go to class, I had a tussle with the one person that shouldn't of, the starting QB. Previously we had a good relationship but this caused a riff in our association and it carried out to the football field. It was going to be tough to repeat my previous year's accomplishments without the QB throwing you the ball. As it turned out this was a disastrous year. No scholarships for anyone. Some of the guys were suspended for one game because the administration didn't find humor in the senior class declaring one day,during the football season, was going to be senior cut day. I didn't participate, one because I loved playing football and two if I did participate in senior cut day, my father would of cut off my head. Our starting QB, our starting TE, and other players that escape my mind , were not allowed to play. We started the game with one QB, his name was Steve Pasciotti. The game was tied at half 0-0. On the last play before the half, Steve broke his pinkie finger on his throwing hand. The coaching staff was scrambling, who was gong to play QB? We didn't have a back-up to the back-up , we were screwed. Instead of going into the locker room at the half, we headed for the baseball diamond. Howie Smith our head coach had something up his sleeve. There was a rumor that Howie had played for Notre Dame in the 30's. Football was a lot different back then, there wasn't much forward passing and most teams ran from a formation called the box formation. With this formation we really didn't need a QB. We had 15 minutes to learn the formation and the offense. We picked our flanker, Pete McGowan to call the plays or should I say play. We had one play we ran it right and we ran it left. We held them on defense but we couldn't score. The fourth quarter was winding down , still 0-0. Finally we got close enough to kick a field goal, it was going to be a long one. Our kicker George Girata was a good kicker, but could he kick a 30 yard field goal? This was going to be our last chance to pull this game out, George trotted out, all 5'0" of him, he looked nervous. The game rested on George's right foot. We lined up and the ball was snapped, the hold was good and George made his approached, boom the ball was headed to the goal posts. As I looked up from my position it looked like the ball was true and was going through the uprights. A cheer went up and I knew that the kick was good. On the day that we lost our starting QB and our backup we had somehow won the game. Their was a lesson to be learned from this but we were to young and stupid to realize what it was. It wasn't until years after that it occurred to me what that day really meant. Through a football game a lesson was learned that through adversity and difficult circumstances you could and will prevail. This would help me get through 20 years in the New York City Police Department, family turmoil, and personal hardships. One game, one event, one second in time would prove to be the a defining impression. We go through life not knowing why things happen but sometimes we find out.

Lil Ninja-Dragons10-6-08

Lil Ninja-Dragons10-6-08

Back To school

Needless to say Vegas was the highlight of the summer. When we told all our friends about it and they wanted to go so bad. But they would have to wait 3 years for that, more about that on a future blog. Junior year would pose a new challenge ,since I was competing for a starting position on the football team. Seniors usually have the first crack at starting and to my dismay I was going to compete with a guy that attended Mount in his sophomore year but moved to Texas in his Junior year. my luck he was moving back and was attending Mount in his senior year, his name was Anthony Spartos. This guy was fast and had real good hands, a good player and athlete. I busted my butt that summer. I remember buying a 30lb. weight jacket so that I could work on my speed. I ran the fields in Van Courtland park in the dead of the summer, 90 degree heat, and I had anyone with an arm throw a football to me during that summer. As summer practice started I was in fierce competition for a starting job, I know I wasn't going to beat out Tony but I wanted that other starting position at flanker real bad. I hated the idea that I was going to be on the bench. All summer I didn't miss a day of practice but Spartos was good real good and being two years older that me he had a distinct advantage. During practice I was getting kudos's from our offensive line coach, Frank Leahy, but I needed the approval of a legend in High School Football , Howie Smith. Howie came to Mount in the early 30's and had been the Mount coach to Vince Pormuto, 2 time all pro tackle who played for the Washington Redskins and Artie Donovan, who played defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts. So this was Howie's 42 year at Mount, unbelievable right? All I know is that he knew my name because he keep yelling at me for various reasons, dropped balls not running the right route, missing a block etc. etc. etc. But I was getting the attention of the offensive line coach since I weighted about 150lbs and I was taking on guys that weighed 50-60 lbs heavier that me. I remember doing a drill where I was opposite Bob Tunney, our offensive guard, and I just wasn't giving in to him. Coach Leahy grabbed me by the face mask and stared at the top of my helmet looking at the adhesive tape that indicated my name "Gione , Huh, good job". We played a few scrimmages but still no starting job. The coaches were mum on who was starting in the first game, I really worked hard but I still had no indication that I was going to start. We all gathered in the Mount Locker room for our first game. I had my father, brothers, and girlfriend, Donna, in the stands. I would of been so disappointed if I wasn't playing , but it was out of my hands. Howie, Leahy, Cargiulo, Tricario, and other JV Coaches came out of their locker room. We all gathered in front of the trainers room when Howie started to call out the offensive starting line-up, center Steve Salvo, guard George Cuesta co-captain and future graduate of West Point, guard Bob Cicalo, tackle Rich Credidio, tackle Kevin Whelan, RB Lou Mosca, the tight end was, I think, Joe Dowling, QB Frankie Micheli, Spilt end Tony Spartos, when I heard that name my heart went into my stomach, I started to doubt all the work I put in to get that position. It seem like an eternity before I heard the name of the other wide receiver, which at the time was called a flanker. All of a sudden Legend Coach Howie Smith called my name, as soon as I heard my name I probably grew 2 inches , adrenaline filled my body. I was going out there with all the seniors, I made the team as a starter. This was one of the greatest days of my life up to then. We were going to get the ball first. I lined up on the sidelines for the National Anthem. I don't think my feet were touching the floor. I ran out to my position in the huddle and the play was called. Me and Tony were to do a criss-cross pattern and he was the primary receiver on the play. We started down field and I went out towards the sideline and Tony went towards the middle of the field. He went up to make the catch and he was hit hard, his leg got sandwiched between two tacklers and I heard this sickening sound of something breaking. Tony hit the ground in a heap and was writhing in pain. I couldn't believe one of our best players was hurt bad. Turned out Tony broke his leg on the play. All the seniors in the huddle were in shock, especially our QB Frankie Micheli. They were saying stuff like what the heck are we going to do now, our best offensive player goes down. As soon as Tony went down I was moved to his postion which was the primary receiver position and Pete Mc Gowan came in to take the other spot. I was not going to let my team down. Frankie called a pass play "I right- 78-8- out on two READY BREAK!" As I broke the huddle I looked down field at the defensive back and I knew I could beat this guy. DOWN, SET, HUT HUT, I broke off the line and veered towards out sideline and then broke sharply to the post. The DB bit on the play fake, as soon as I saw him break I put my arm up, (this move should be credited to one of our DB's Billy Munch, who told me during practice that this move would get him beat every time) so what did I have to lose, as soon as I saw him slow down I broke my pattern towards our sideline, I was wide open. Frankie Micheli was about 6"4" and 220lbs., he was a easy person to spot behind our offensive line. Frankie saw I had the DB beat and threw hard towards our sidelines. I caught the ball for a long gain. This was the start of a season to remember, not that our team was real good but I gained my coaches, teammates, and friends confidence. It was another step in making my maturation to adulthood. It also helped keep my fantasy of one day playing for the NY Jets.

Vegas

This was the fist time I was ever on a plane. Back in those days the planes were big , really big. I remember our seats facing each other, sort of the way it's pictured when you see the inside of Air Force 1. Landing in Vegas was surreal, the strip ,the hotels, all in the middle of a desert. Who could of envisioned that. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, which at the time was one of the best hotels on the strip, who cared where we stayed, we were in Vegas baby!!! My brother, Sammy and me were in one room, and my father and mom stayed in another, as things turned out that was a good thing. Two 16 year old maniacs and my 12 year old brother, who was constantly being thrown out of the casino for paying the slot machines. Sammy and I were smart enough to have a lookout while the other one pulled the one arm bandit. We didn't get thrown out of the casino, but I think after 4 days the security guards got wise to our plans and by the last day they were on us. One night as we were going into our room we noticed a lot of noise coming from one of the room at the end of the hallway, we looked down and one of the people in the room was calling us to come down. So Sammy and I looked at each other and said "PARTY" LET'S GO!!!. As we entered the room we noticed this room was a lot different that our room. First it had a living room with couches, other rooms inside this room, a bar and many, many pretty girls all over these guys. Sammy and I grew up in the Bronx and were pretty street smart, we put two and two together real fast and came to the conclusion everyone reading this would......say no more. All the guys in the room looked like business types and one of them even showed me a check written to him for 200,000 dollars. Remember this is 1971, 200,000 dollars was like a million today. It was more zero's that I ever saw on a check. The guys offered us what ever we wanted. We stayed awhile thanked the guys for their hospitably and when to our room to discuss what just happened. At age 16 you could imagine what was going through our minds. That same night my father had tickets to the see Bobby Darin, a well known Vegas entertainer, his famous song was "Mac the Knife", but before the show we had to eat. My father told us we were going to the Bacchanal Room in Ceasers Palace. Ok.??...we didn't know the difference between the Bacchanal Room or any other room at this point in our lives. We got in the cab and drove to Ceasers Palace. As we entered the gates it was as if we were transported back in time to the Roman ages. Ornate fountains, Roman Guards, and women dressed in "I Dream of Jeannie" costumes....man this is going to be good!!! We we entered the restaurant, I thought we made a wrong turn because the restaurant had a summing pool in the middle of it with more "I Dream of Jeannie" girls serving the customers. At 16 years of age, I thought I died and went to heaven, to this day I still look at pictures of this place. Sammy kept telling me this is unbelievable, they served us a seven course meal which include wine and beer. I guess my father thought this night would be my growing up night, my entrance to adulthood, my experience into adulthood. So he let me and Sammy partake in the beverages that were on the table. This was great food, wine, beer and women dressed like Barbara Eden,( one of my all time favorites). What could get better than this. I stuffed myself and drank to a point of feeling no pain. That's when it all turned bad. During the cab ride over to the Bobby Darin show I developed a headache that I thought was going to split my head open. We entered the theater and my father must of greased the head waiter and got the best seat for the show, dead center 3 rows back. By this time my head was hurting so bad that I just wanted to lay down and die, so I put my head on the table to try to alleviate the pain. What I didn't know was that Bobby Darin had an opening act. A it turned out the opening act was a Chinese Drum Troop with about 1,000 drummers banging drums like maniacs. My head was splitting before this, you could imaging how it felt when they started to bang the drums. This was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt up to this point in my life. I had to get out of there, but NO!!! My father made sure I was going to me a man and if a man drinks to much, it is his responsibility to deal with it, and he made sure I dealt with it. I felt that I was trapped in that booth for 100 hours. My mother and Father went to see Bobby Darin and they were going to stay until the last song. This became torture after the first hour. He kept asking me if I needed anymore to drink and the more he asked the more nauseous I got. It was a miracle I didn't throw up that night...or did I? We went back to the Hotel about 2:00AM and I couldn't wait to get into the bed. I woke up about 4:00AM and as I entered the bathroom, I felt something very slimy under my feet. Somebody puked and I couldn't remember if it was me or not, then it dawned on me that Sammy was drinking too. He puked all over the bathroom. Even the maids were cursing at him. We packed our bags and headed home. My life's education continued.........

As sophomore season began we had a coaching change, Mike Dorney replaced John Houlihan, which was a good thing because Mike Dorney was also the gym teacher and he was fond of his football players and gave us preferential treatment( if there was such a thing at The Mount.) My mentor Hugh Glassey was still our other coach and that gave me the edge at wide receiver. As the football season began we stared to win some games and I think we won our first 3 games. We had championship dreams. The QB Kevin and I were clicking on all cylinders we were scoring at will and our defense was holding teams down. Sophomore year was also a tough year, we had to take Geometry (who in the heck was going to use this), Spanish (it was a good thing our kicker George Girata was in that class that year or we all would of failed Spanish. We developed this code when we had to take a test. I am not going to reveal the code because it probably is still in use at The Mount. We were always on edge when George would be absent, we prayed that Brother wouldn't throw a pop quiz at us or we would all be screwed. This was he same year, Sammy DePaolo's, (my best friend to this day), step-brother Stevie was caught in the library by Brother (No one knew his real name so we just called him Brother Library) copying phony draft cards, he got thrown out of school. That also put a crimp in the cash flow of my friend so we had to find alternate avenues of revenue. We always had this entrepreneurial side to us in high school. Money was hard to come by so sometimes we had to improvise to stay ahead. I had to survive on two dollars a day. That was my allowance. That would buy you two hot dogs, french fries, something to drink and a snack. During this time of our lives and with this type of diet you could imagine how many pimples we had on our faces. Stridex, Clearsil, Alcohol could not hold back the onslaught of acne. Our only saving grace was that there were no girls in or school or this would of been a fate worse that death. As the football season wore on we lost a few games and and won a few more , I think we wound up at 5-3, not the championship we envisioned but better that last year. As the school year continued we started to prepare for finals. Right after the year ended my family was going to take a trip to Vegas and I invited Sammy to come, but there was one hitch, Sammy needed at least 65 on the Math regents. If he didn't get that mark or better he was headed to summer school and no Vegas for Sammy. I remember taking that final in The Mount's Gym. It was about 100 degrees in that place and we had a lot riding on this test. If Sammy didn't pass I would of got stuck going with my parents and little brother, that would be no fun. The test ended and we meet outside and I asked Sammy how he did, he told me it didn't look good....no Elvis. no Follies Berger, no jackpots. We were only 15 at the time but we had visions of gambling, girls, and money in our heads. We had to wait a week before Mr. Ciola would mark the test. To make matters worse, Sammy wasn't Mr. Ciolo's favorite student, if you get my drift. That was the longest week of our lives . Finally Sammy was notified that he got a 64 and 1/2. What the heck did that mean ? By the rules Ciola had to give him a 65......Viva Las Vegas......Viva Las Vegas......Viva, Viva, Las Vegas!!!!!!!.