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05/27/2016 12:00 AMThe North Haven football program’s 12th annual Spring Brawl fundraiser is taking place at Vanacore Field at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 9. Each year, the event is organized by the Indians’ football players who will be entering their senior seasons. All the proceeds from this year’s brawl will go toward a fundraising effort to help build a new playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Haven that will be accessible to all children.
“I think it’s a nice thing for our guys to get involved by giving back to the school system because the whole idea behind doing this event—and this is what I’ve always told our seniors—is that for whatever length of your career has been at North Haven High School, people have donated their time and money or both so you can play football and the town is certainly supportive of North Haven football. So it’s kind of neat, especially for the ones who went to Green Acres, to take up this cause and benefit future students,” Indians’ football Head Coach Anthony Sagnella said. “The thing about football is that it’s a community game that involves the influence of so many people in the community and I think it’s awesome to see our guys have an opportunity, in a small way, to try and give back to a community that’s been so good to them.”
This year will be the sixth time that the Spring Brawl is serving as a fundraiser. Through the past five years, the brawl has raised generated approximately $36,000 to support Special Olympics Connecticut, The Benhaven Group for Autism, the late Matthew Jacques, Anthony Longley, and Hunter Pageau. The cost to attend the Spring Brawl is $5 and people may also make donations by making a check payable to the North Haven Athletic Department and mailing it to: North Haven High School, c/o Anthony Sagnella, 221 Elm Street, North Haven CT, 06473.
Every year at the Spring Brawl, North Haven’s athletes who will be sophomores, juniors, and seniors next year play an intra-squad scrimmage against one another under the team names of Team Maroon and Team White. The squads are coached by this year’s graduating senior players, who also select who players for each team.
Teams Maroon and White and also have their own celebrity coaches at the Spring Brawl every year. This year, those coaches will be two people with deep roots in North Haven sports in Carolyn Vanacore and Kevin Gilbride. Vanacore is a longtime supporter of Indians’ athletics who was married to the late Mike Vanacore, who coached football at North Haven and for whom its field is named after. Gilbride played football at the high school before embarking on successful coaching careers at the collegiate and pro levels. Gilbride played football at Southern Connecticut State University and then coached there from 1980-’84. In the NFL, among other jobs, he was head coach of the San Diego Chargers in 1997 and 1998 and later the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants when they defeated the New England Patriots to win Super Bowls 42 and 46. Gilbride, who was in attendance for North Haven’s Class L State Playoffs semifinal win versus Wethersfield last fall, retired from coaching in 2014.
“It’s really neat to reach back into the roots of our program and have Carolyn Vanacore, who goes back to the beginning of North Haven football, and Kevin Gilbride, who’s our first celebrity coach who was actually a coach,” said Sagnella. “It’s great to have two people who have distinguished themselves so much in their lives.”
North Haven’s Class of 2017 seniors who are at the forefront of helping the 12th edition of Spring Brawl take shape are captains Jack Steinman, Kyle Melillo, Tom Dodge, and Max Sullivan, along with Carson Tebbetts, Bryan Searles, Vinny Anastasio, Paul Murray, Matt Rademacher, Caleb Crosby, Jake Tantorski, and Dustin Byrnes.
“I’m amazed at how big it’s gotten,” Sagnella said. “It’s a culmination of the effort of many people in the community and I’m proud to work together with these different groups and to include our program in something as positive as a charity drive that’s based on football, but isn’t centered around playing football.”