The goals may be lofty for the Mamaroneck football team, but with a talented senior class that has certainly been tested over the last few years, the general sentiment is that these Tigers are up for the challenge.
Coming off a stellar 2021 campaign that saw them finish with a 6-3 record, the Tigers are back this fall with 24 returning seniors on the roster and their eyes fixed on a deep postseason run. Noting the unusual number of upperclassmen on the roster, Tigers head coach Anthony Vitti believes that his squad is coming into the season with a lot of energy.
We have a lot seniors and a lot of those kids have gotten two to three years of experience,” said head coach Anthony Vitti. “So they’re really excited for what lies ahead and there are a lot of expectations and they understand that.”
The Tigers’ depth is perhaps most evident in the skill positions, as a returning crew of playmakers—led by all-state quarterback Jason Cox, running back Damari Hamilton, Nico Obregon and jack Ramsay—something that Vitti believes will cause matchup problems for opposing teams, especially considering the unselfish nature of his offensive standouts.
“We have multiple people at different positions that have the opportunity to get fed and make plays,” said Vitti. “The biggest thing about these guys is that they’re unselfish and nobody really cares who gets the credit or the touches; it’s just about the team success with them.”
Vitti explained that the experience of this group has allowed the Mamaroneck coaching staff to truly challenge the players in the early days of the preseason, confident in their ability to grasp complex schemes of overarching ideas.
“With a seasoned group, you can really test their football IQ,” said the head coach. “So we’re putting a lot on their plate and they’re responding.”
The Tigers will open up on September 9 with a home game against Ossining, having opted to eschew a “Week Zero” game that would have allowed them to play their first regular season game this week. Area coaches have approached the possibility of early starts differently this year, and Vitti explained that, for his group, the added instructional time seemed more important than rushing to ready the team for a Sept. 2 contest.
“We looked at when school started this year and we looked at the amount of practices that you would be losing in terms of double-sessions and game prep in that second week,” said Vitti. “We just through that it was a little bit of a leap, we wanted to spend some time to work on us and figure out a few things.”
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