Hilton Football

I don't know why this is bothering me as much as it is, but it really is.

I was on my way to class last night and as I pulled out of the driveway I turned to Hot Talk 1280 WHTK to listen to John DiTuillio's Show. It took me a minute to comprehend what it was I was hearing.

What I heard was a caller named "Kevin" from Hilton, who was blasting the Hilton football coaching staff and saying things such as "They get the least out of the best players". John, the host, then went on to ask "Kevin" if he played football at Hilton. To which the caller replied "Yes, quarterback, flanker and defensive back".

Now, it does not take a genius to connect the dots here.

The caller was one Kevin Nichols, class of 2000. Most notable for the numerous back breaking interceptions thrown with mind-numbing regularity.

The irony here is this: you would be hard pressed to find a player to ever put on a Hilton Football Uniform, who did less with the talent that they had.

To then turn around and almost 10 years later accuse the Hilton coaches of ineptitude is almost beyond response.

In my years of playing at Hilton, and in subsequent years watching, there have absolutely been moments when I have questioned some of the decisions. The coaches have at times been slow to respond to the way the game has changed.

It is however, unquestionable that I am a better person for having played for them. And they absolutely got every ounce of atheletic talent out of me.

There is something to be said for doing things the right way.

If the Hilton football coaches made any misuse of player ability when it came to Kevin Nichols it was that his ass should have been playing reciever while Mike Mikolaichik, whose father appearantly had less pull, started at quarterback for two years.

I will remind the reader that Mike Mikolaichik went on to play four years of college football (something that cannot be said for Mr. Nichols, who was always "trying out for so and so, or getting a full ride to such and such") and multiple years with the Rochester Raiders.

Once again, I do not know why this has upset me as much as it has. Perhaps it is because I hold those years of my life in such high regard, and those men who coached me in an equally high regard.

I promptly emailed John DiTuillio to correct the record. Someone emailed the show as I was pulling into Brockport and stated that "That caller must have had an axe to grind". Although true, the irony of that statement is that anyone who played with Kevin Nichols most likely has an axe to grind.

As I have grown up and become a (young) adult, some of the luster that coated my memories of my football coaches, from Vince Lombardi through college, has worn off. I have come to realize that they are people, like all of us, who have the same flaws as anyone else. Having said that, the men who coached an helped shape this writer, while we were on the field, were among the best in the world.

Be careful what you say when you call into a radio station, you never know who might be listening.