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09/01/2017 12:00 AMFrom the moment he took the job as head coach of the East Haven football team in 2015, Melvin Wells has stressed that it’s his goal to put his players in a position to be successful. Wells has done exactly that after guiding the Yellowjackets to records of 7-3 and 5-5 records in his first two years, marking the first time they had consecutive non-losing seasons since the 2000 and 2001 campaigns. The Easties will kick off 2017 when they play at new SCC Tier 3 opponent Bassick at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9.
“We’re working as hard as we know how to continue to change the culture. It’s a long process, because that’s a habit that’s hard to break. Being in our third year, the only group that has known losing is our senior group, and those guys fought through it. They had a year with a difficult outing and then two where they’ve had success,” Coach Wells said. “We’re moving in the right direction in that regard. At the end of the day, we want to keep the expectation to be successful. If we do that, the culture will turn itself into one that expects to win every time they step on the field.”
East Haven lost several key pieces from last year’s team, but Coach Wells is excited about some younger players who’ve been with the program for a couple of years and are ready to step into a varsity role.
“We’re very optimistic. We feel we have a really good group of kids coming in this year. They worked extremely hard during the course of the summer,” Wells said. “When you lose some of the guys we lost, like McClay Marshall and Nate Lastomirsky, the spots are hard to fill. We have a nice crop of kids that figured out what we’re trying to do and accomplish. We’re moving along well and getting it done.”
Wells added that there has been plenty of healthy competition throughout the preseason with people vying for starting positions.
“This year has been all about position battles. Being that we’re changing our offense a bit, going from a spread as opposed to the Wing T, we’re giving kids ways to find their way on the field. What we’ve found out was our younger guys are extremely aggressive and really get after it to get on the field, which is a good thing,” Wells said. “Every day, we have competition as far as who is going to play. There’s nobody slotted and locked into any position, but what we found out was that competition is good. It creates a positive environment, and we’re looking to do some special things this year.”
The switch to a spread offense is brand new for everybody. Wells has run the Wing-T for years, but said that a new system was inevitable given his team’s personnel.
“I’m not bound and gagged to a particular offense. I try to do what is best for the team, and what we’re best suited for. At this point, we have a lot of kids we believe can receive the football and a kid that can get it to them, so we feel this is a great direction for us to go in right now,” Wells said. “Everyone has adapted to it very well. The spread offense is fun. It’s not a grind you out and beat you up type of offense. It’s finesse and get the ball around to give a lot of guys opportunities to make plays with the football, so the kids really like it.”
Coach Wells said that he expects sophomore Tanner DiVito to be the Yellowjackets’ quarterback this fall, with senior Paul Diaz and junior Michael Manning playing halfback. Junior Evan Damian, sophomores Michael Castellano and Michael Caruso, and freshman Dylan Rinaldi are battling it out at the wide receiver’s position.
“We’re rotating guys in, and we have a couple of newcomers who are really great surprises for us,” Wells said. “We’re excited to see what comes up [in a scrimmage against Fairfield Warde on Sept. 1] and see where we actually stand.”
The Yellowjackets’ senior captains for this year will be Andrew Luzzi and Justin Fonacier. Wells said that both athletes complement each other well with the way they lead the team.
“Andrew is a guy that’s always been a third-choice guy, a guy that had to fight for everything he’s gotten. At every opportunity, he’s proven himself successful. He’s our vocal leader and as mature a kid as they come. He keeps everyone glued together,” said Wells. “Justin is a phenomenal worker. His work ethic and demand for the entire team to work just as hard as they know how as set him apart from everyone else on the team. That combo right there, when you have leadership like that, it takes you a long way in being successful.”
With a lot of returning players in the trenches, Coach Wells feels that his team will see great success on the offensive and defensive lines. However, in the spread system, Wells knows that East Haven’s playmakers will need to do their job when they get open space in order for the team to have another successful season.
“We’re confident [that the linemen] will be a physical group of kids that will help us move the ball up and down the field. Defensively, we believe the same thing; people are going to have a tough time running the football on us,” Wells said. “We’re hopeful as we move forward the guys get our system down pat and we become a little bit more fluid at it. Until we get out there and do it in a game, we won’t know, but we feel confident in our preparation and with what we’ve done. They’ll be really successful and do some good things with the football.”
In addition to East Haven and Bassick, the other teams in SCC Tier 3 this season are Branford, Creed-Career-Whitney, Guilford, Harding, Law, Lyman Hall, and Sheehan.
2017 East Haven Yellowjackets Football Schedule
Saturday, Sept. 9: at Bassick at 1:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 15: at Bunnell at 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 22: vs. Lyman Hall at 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 29: at Xavier at 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6: vs. Guilford at 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 20: vs. Law at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 26: at Wilbur Cross at 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3: vs. Creed-Career-Whitney at 6 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10: vs. Sheehan at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 23: at Branford at 10:30 a.m.