“No alumni ever came back to campus to watch people take a math test.”
The importance of football to school spirit was never lost on legendary Alabama Head Coach Bear Bryant, and while his famous statement may cause university presidents and others in academia to cringe, no one denies that few things bring a college community together like a homecoming afternoon on the gridiron.
Homecoming and pigskin have always had a symbiotic relationship; the game transcends generations, uniting the peach-fuzzed freshman with the gray-bearded grandfather. Homecoming on the Hilltop is no different. This weekend, alumni will travel from the far reaches of the globe, packing the stands of the Multi-Sport Facility to reminisce and relive, reacquaint and remember, and cheer the Hoyas as they take on the Red Foxes of Marist.
Looking Back
No one knows the importance of homecoming weekend better than Georgetown Assistant Head Coach Rob Sgarlata (COL ’94), who has spent over half his life living and breathing Hoyas’ football.
“I can tell you that this week I have gotten a ton of e-mails and phone calls from guys that are going to be in town,” Sgarlata, who starred at running back for Georgetown from 1991-94, says. “This is a week where the whole community comes back to see how the team’s doing, how the kids are doing, check in and stay connected with the program.”
Sgarlata remembers his senior season with pristine clarity, recalling the scores of games and the players’ names as though he has just changed out of his pads. One particular memory that sticks with Sgarlata was his team’s trip to the Bermuda Bowl at the end of the season. Although he relished the opportunity to spend a week mixing football with sun, sand and surf on the beautiful beaches, Sgarlata has fonder memories of the Homecoming game a week before than the mock bowl game.
“It kind of took the place of homecoming that year,” Sgarlata, who ranks 10th on the Georgetown all-time rushing list, recalls. “We beat Washington and Lee 19-14, and to the people down there, it might as well have been Notre Dame-Michigan. But what I really remember about senior year was being on the Hilltop, with all those great people that were there.”
A Field of Royalty
Homecoming games have been good to this year’s class of seniors, who take pride in their undefeated homecoming record in front of illustrious alumni. “None of the seniors since I’ve been here have ever lost a homecoming game,” senior safety Brian Tandy says. “This is the worst season we’ve had so far, so we really need a win because I don’t want to be the only class to lose a homecoming.”
Tandy and several other members of the class of 2007 listed last season’s thrilling 24-21 come-from-behind win over Fordham as their favorite memory of their four years of football for Georgetown. The boys in Blue and Gray rallied from 18 down for a last-minute victory, the perfect ending for the sellout crowd comprised of Hoyas young and old.
“It was such an awesome game-it was the most thrilling of last season,” says junior quarterback Nick Cangelosi, who led the game-winning drive. “It was by far my favorite homecoming memory. It was great to get a win in front of all those alumni.”
The Hoyas’ unblemished homecoming record is no shock figuring this year’s squad is comprised of large number of former homecoming royalty. When the Georgetown defense takes the field against the Red Foxes on Saturday afternoon, they will be led by two defensive backs who once wore the crown of their respective high schools. In 2002, Tandy was Frank Cox High School’s homecoming king in Virginia Beach, Va. That same year, senior free safety Derek Franks held court over Reagan High School in Austin, Texas.
Four years later, the two find themselves reigning over the Hoyas’ defensive backfield. The offense has more of a princely feel. Junior Brent Craft, who was edged for king by a close friend in his high school’s court, will catch regal spirals from junior quarterback Matt Bassenuer, prince of Port Edwards High in Wisconsin. The homecoming snub still stings for Bassenuer.
“I was nominated for king, but I didn’t get it,” Bassenuer recalls. “I lost to some 300-pound guy.” The former prince has risen to prominence on the Hilltop, however, usurping the power of another former monarch, sophomore backup Ben Hostetler, who reigned supreme over River Hill High in nearby Elliot City, Md.
Craft’s twin brother Darren, a defensive back who led his brother’s campaign for king in high school, can’t help but notice the noble nuances of his current squad.
“We have a team full of princes,” says Craft.
Home for Homecoming
On Saturday the Hoyas will be happy to see the familiar faces of family and former players dot the crowded stands. For many of the current Hoyas, the return of teammates from past years is like a visit from an older brother.
“After you go through four years together, this is like a fraternity of football,” senior defensive lineman Roosevelt Donat says. “Whether we win or lose, all the struggling, all the bleeding and sweating, you definitely want to come back and support the Hoyas.”
Former players from all eras of Georgetown football and all reaches of the map will be in the District Saturday none more widely traveled than Will Skultety (MSB ’04) a former linebacker who currently plays for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes of the German Football League. The magnitude of Skultety’s cross-Atlantic homecoming voyage has encouraged many of the current Hoyas.
“He was a linebacker when I was a freshman and was a big impact player,” senior co-captain Liam Grubb says of Skultety, who had an interception the last time Georgetown defeated arist in 2002. “He is one of the guys that I have kept in contact with over the years.”
“Mama called.”
This was Bryant’s blunt reply when asked why he chose to leave a juggernaut Texas A&M team to resurrect the moribund football program at his alma mater, Alabama, in 1958.. Mama is calling her sons and daughters home to the Hilltop this weekend, and many will answer her summons with enthusiastic fervor. The special occasion has a different meaning for each member of the Georgetown community.
For Sgarlata, homecoming weekend also marks a time to strengthen the bonds formed from his playing days.
“It’s a time when people take time out of their schedule, no matter how busy they are with stuff in their lives, to check in and see the guys,” Sgarlata says. “I graduated with 16 guys that all played ball, and I can tell you where they are, what they’re doing, who their wives are, how their families are – it never changes – we always have quality individuals involved in this program.”
For newcomers such as freshman running back Charlie Houghton, it is a time to showcase the future of Georgetown football on the season’s biggest stage.
“This will be the biggest game I’ve had here, playing in front of all those people,” Houghton says. “I am really looking forward to it.”
For Grubb and the rest of the seniors, it is a chance to uphold their sterling homecoming record and go out as winners in the final home game of their college careers.
“It’s scary to think that I will be in [the former players] shoes next year, coming to watch the game instead of playing,” Grubb says, glancing back at the field before looking ahead to the future. “But no matter where I am, no matter what I am doing, I will always come home for homecoming.”