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03/09/2019 11:00 PMTragedy struck the Connecticut football community on March 2, when former East Haven High School football Head Coach Melvin Wells suddenly passed away at the age of 55. Wells died after his vehicle was hit head-on by a wrong-way driver near Exit 90 on Interstate-95 in Stonington. The wrong-way driver was also killed in the crash, which involved four cars and eight people.
“The news was devastating, something that was completely unexpected, and no one was able to process the loss of Coach Wells,” East Haven Athletic Director Anthony Verderame said. “He just meant so much to so many people, and his reach spread across countless communities and generations.”
The accident occurred when Wells, who lived in Hamden, was driving home from a visit with his son Melvin Wells III at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. When the news broke, it came with overwhelming shock to Wells’s family, friends, and fellow coaches, as well as the athletes who played for him throughout the years. Chris Cuomo, an assistant coach with the East Haven football team, was one of the first people who heard that Wells had died. Cuomo said that he still can’t believe it.
“When I saw that, my heart stopped. I know people say that, but I literally gasped,” said Cuomo. “You question all kinds of things. Why him? Why now? What if he stayed five more minutes with little Mel at school?”
Andrew Luzzi, a 2018 East Haven graduate, played for the football team in all three of Wells’s seasons as head coach, captaining the Yellowjackets during Wells’s last year in 2017. Luzzi’s friend and former teammate Seth Proto gave him the bad news.
“When he told me, I dropped my phone. I was shocked. I thought it couldn’t be true, so I looked everything up,” Luzzi said. “It was a bombshell hit. He was such a great person and mentor for me. He basically taught me everything I should do as a young man, on and off the football field. He taught me how to respect other players and the refs. All the stuff he taught me was right there in that moment. I’m at a loss for words. It was bad.”
Leading the Easties
Melvin Wells was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he played football at Thomas Jefferson High School. Wells guided his team to a city championship and then continued his career at Southern Connecticut State University. He went on to coach high school football at Bloomfield, West Haven, Hyde, East Haven, and Hillhouse. Wells was an assistant coach at Hillhouse at the time of his passing.
In 2009, Wells led Hyde to the Class S state title as the team’s head coach. In his first campaign at East Haven, he piloted the Yellowjackets to a record of 7-3, marking their first winning season in 15 years.
Cuomo served as Wells’s offensive coordinator at Hyde from 2007 through 2014 and held that the same position at East Haven in 2015 and 2016. Cuomo appreciated that Wells entrusted him to run Wells’s signature Wing-T offense.
“Mel gave me the keys to the Cadillac and free reign of game-planning on offense,” Cuomo said. “He was a mentor. He set you up to be successful.”
Noah Parlato, who graduated from East Haven in 2015, was a senior during Wells’s first year at the helm. Parlato felt thankful to be a part of the program’s seven-win season. Parlato said Wells immediately set a positive tone that everyone on the team responded to.
“The second he came in, he had that we’ve-got-to-get-to-work mentality, and got all us seniors together,” Parlato said. “He said we have to lead by example if we want people to buy into the system.”
Cuomo noted that Wells always got the best effort out of his athletes. He said that Wells’s players fed off the constant energy that he brought to his squads.
“The kids were ready to run through a wall for him,” Cuomo said. “He brought it all the time. He was always positive, always energetic, and always brought it with him.”
In addition to his passion for the game, Wells had a knack for mentoring his players to help them develop into upstanding young men. As a result, Wells was a beloved member of every coaching staff that he served on.
“He taught me leadership. I’m playing lacrosse at [Albertus Magnus] and, as a freshman, my teammates tell me I have great leadership, and I owe that to him,” said Luzzi. “He taught me to never give up and work as hard as you can. There’s no point in giving 90 percent when you can give 100 percent.”
Verderame said that Wells developed a solid foundation for the East Haven football team. He added that Wells did exactly that at every place he coached football.
“He came here when our program was in a well and, just by being himself, he showed kids how to care,” said Verderame. “He showed kids how to work together, he showed kids how to build a team, and build a program. He’ll be remembered as one of our best coaches. We were blessed to have him.
“He passed the love of the game off to everyone he came in contact with. Whether it was East Haven, West Haven, New Haven, Bloomfield—everywhere he went, he left it better than he found it,” Verderame continued. “Every place Melvin Wells went to coach, teach, mentor, he left it better than he found it. He made a tremendous impact on our entire community. Our alumni, coaching staff, our kids, are absolutely heartbroken by the loss.”
Beyond the High School Gridiron
Wells was also a central figure in the Southern Connecticut Pop Warner Youth Football program. He started out by coaching in Hamden and later became coach of the New Haven Steelers. Rich Photos, the president of Southern Connecticut Pop Warner, said that Wells donated hours upon hours to his organization on a volunteer basis.
“High school jobs, those are paid positions. When somebody comes back and gives back when he doesn’t have a kid in the league and still gives countless hours to an unpaid job for the love of the job and the love of the kids, that’s where he excels,” said Photos. “He was in charge of all the paperwork, fundraising, coaching, concessions. He did it all. He was always there to make sure everything was up to speed and the kids had a good experience.”
Kelly Russell is a senior board member for the New Haven Steelers who went to high school with Wells. Russell said that Wells endeared himself to everyone affiliated with the Steelers by always putting the kids first.
“When he took over the New Haven Steelers, he slowly grabbed each one of us piece by piece,” said Russell. “Wells was the voice. He was the person who everybody loved. If we needed somebody in town to talk about reducing a charge, Mel would go, because it was for the kids. If a kid needed anything or needed him to be somewhere, he was there. It was all about the kids. That was his motto.”
Wells was a true football guy. He routinely traveled the state to watch a game. Wells especially enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving Day matchup between Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse, because it gave him a chance to watch some of the players he’d coached in the Pop Warner ranks.
“When we coached at Hyde, driving an hour to a game was not uncommon. We’d spend a lot of time together, and that’s really where we bonded. You learn he’s always up for catching some type of game,” Cuomo said. “If we weren’t in the playoffs, we’d catch a playoff game. If we played Thanksgiving Eve, he’d go see Hillhouse and Cross the next day to see the kids he mentored in Pop Warner.”
One of Coach Wells’s trademark sayings on the football field was, ‘You’ve got to keep it moving.’ The expression became a staple for Wells at East Haven following the Yellowjackets’ 34-31 quadruple-overtime victory versus Hamden in 2015. He also brought that same philosophy to the Steelers.
Russell knows that the 2019 season will be difficult without Coach Wells around. However, he said that everyone affiliated with the Steelers will keep it moving as a way to pay tribute.
“I’m still in shock. All of us are still at a loss right now, because we can’t believe we’re not going to see that big old smile or hear that laugh. You’re not going to see that anymore. That’s going to be the real tough part,” Russell said. “When the season starts and he’s not there, when signups come and you don’t hear that voice saying, ‘Keep it moving,’ it’ll be hard, but that’s what we have to do. We have to keep it moving, and that’s when it’s going to really hit home.”
Lasting Legacy
One of the biggest things that stood out to Wells’s colleagues and players was his positive personality. This is one of the reasons why he made such a huge impact on so many people, whether it was on the gridiron or in their everyday lives.
“It’s wasn’t just a coach-player relationship. He was your friend. There are a lot of great coaches out there, but not every great coach can connect with his players on a personal level like he did. He could really connect with you, talk with you, and motivate you to do anything that was best for the team,” Parlato said. “You’ll never forget him. He’s a very captivating, charismatic person. You could feel his presence every time he walked into a room. He really is an unbelievable person.”
Melvin Wells will be remembered in every community that he’s been a part of. His family is establishing a memorial scholarship in his honor, and Verderame said the Yellowjackets family is committed to ensuring that Coach Wells’s legacy lives on in East Haven forever.
“The football team and alumni are going to get together for a yearly fundraiser for Coach Wells. His family is going to set up a memorial scholarship fund, where they’re going to recognize football players from the community, and we’re going to support that,” said Verderame. “Every year, we’re going to get together and support that in his honor and his name and his memory.”