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12/18/2019 11:00 PMThe East Haven football team recently completed its second-straight 7-3 season, and senior captain Tanner DiVito was one of the biggest reasons behind the Yellowjackets’ recent success. Tanner, a quarterback, overcame plenty of obstacles along his journey to becoming East Haven’s starter under center.
Tanner wanted to be a quarterback from the day that he began playing tackle football. Tanner got an opportunity to suit up at QB in middle school and worked as hard as he could to remain in that role. Although the Yellowjackets struggled during Tanner’s sophomore season, they eventually started to turn the corner.
“My sophomore year was terrible. We went 1-9, and I made a lot of mistakes. So in that offseason, I’d be in the weight room two times a day with [teammate] Jack Izzo,” says Tanner. “We’d go hard, because I wanted to get as strong as possible to compete with the other athletes on the field.”
The hard work paid dividends for Tanner, who turned in a fine junior campaign for East Haven. It was Scott Benoit’s first year as the team’s head coach, and his offensive scheme agreed with Tanner’s skillset.
“We ran the triple option my junior year, so I was primarily running the ball, and then we’d pass now and again. I had to get the mental toughness for it, because it’s hard to pull the ball, run, and then take a hit. After a while, you get used to it,” Tanner says. “Then you get greedy with the ball, but I say it’s better to be greedy and take a hit rather than try to force a pitch, which could lead to a mistake and a fumble. Being an athlete gives you a better mindset.”
Tanner’s mental toughness proved one of his best assets on the football field. At 5-foot-7, Tanner is on the small side for a quarterback, but he embraced the challenge of taking on defenders who were bigger than him.
“When you’re warming up, some of the guys are huge. I wanted to be in that position. I liked being an underdog,” says Tanner, who also competes for the East Haven wrestling team. “When you make a big play, it makes it that much better.”
Unfortunately, Tanner was dealt a tough blow when he was forced to miss most of his senior year due to an injury. In East Haven’s first game of the year, Tanner came down awkwardly while running the ball and suffered a dislocated thumb. The injury prevented Tanner from playing quarterback for the rest of the season.
“I put my hand down, and my thumb just rolled all the way back. When I got up, it was popping in and out. It looked bad. On the sidelines, I couldn’t even grab the football,” Tanner says. “When I went to the doctor, I found out it was completely dislocated. He had to put a pin where the bone was to try to put it back in place. It was a three-month recovery, but I was able to play with a cast to get in on special teams.”
It difficult for Tanner to miss so much time, especially since he was a senior captain. After putting in a lot of preparation during the offseason, watching from the sidelines was a tough pill to swallow.
“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve dealt with. The amount of work I put in, I had so many aspirations to have a really good season. In the preseason, I was doing well and playing very confident,” says Tanner. “Having to watch and not be dressed with my team was really bad. It’s hard. The feeling is so hard to explain. I just felt awful. Knowing what I could’ve done hurt the most.”
Coach Benoit felt bad for Tanner. However, while he missed having Tanner on the field, Benoit was happy that his senior leader remained a key part of the team throughout the season.
“Tanner was poised to have a great senior year. He had an unbelievable spring practice, summer, and fall camp. He was playing as well as any quarterback I’ve ever had up until he got injured. To see him get injured was heartbreaking, because he did such a good job,” Benoit says. “It’s a shame how things work out, but to Tanner’s credit, he ended up coming back and playing the last three games, where other kids would’ve packed it in. It shows the type of kid he is. He’s a very team-oriented guy.”
It was important for Tanner to be a team-first guy while he was sidelined. Still, Tanner loved putting on the pads and getting back on the gridiron to finish out his high school career.
“I always liked to lead by example, so I try to do a little more than everyone else. Since I got hurt, I couldn’t be on the field, so I stood by [quarterback] Trey [Garea] and helped him. I was there to be as supportive for him as I could so the team could be successful,” says Tanner. “It felt really good to get back out there. I was happy to be out there. Just the feeling of running on to the field with my friends felt really good. It meant a lot to me.”
Tanner will always remember how East Haven’s senior class helped turn the program around. Together, they led the Yellowjackets to their best two-year stretch in several decades.
“We’re going to have this memory forever. We’re going to be talking about our class for years to come,” Tanner says. “All those 1-9 and 0-10 teams, now you know something is starting. It’s good we started it, and I could be a part of it and at the helm for one year.”