Port’s varsity football team did the unexpected this season and made massive strides as a team when they made the playoffs. The team was built up to be one of the most athletic teams in their division with a 5-3 record, a positive change from their performance in earlier seasons, and even made it to the playoffs for the first time in years. It was surprising for everyone to see the Schreiber team go as far as they did, but Port unequivocally earned every won game and every expectation knocked aside. 

Through the season, the boys not only learned how to work together as a team, but also learned the amount of hard work and effort that needed to be put into the season to make it as far as they did. 

 “The strength this year [was] our overall athletic ability. We were very successful offensively in the second halves of games because of our condition,” said junior captain Michael Cichon.  “Most teams couldn’t keep up. We [kept] the games at our speed.” 

The outcome of the 2019 season is a perfect example of the benefits of hard work and talented players.  The hard work put into conditioning “translated into games.”  Additionally, the team had a strong run game and were able to rush for over 100 yards in multiple, which greatly increased the success of their playmaking.  

Port was able to out hustle their opponents with their endurance and conditioning along with all of their extra hard work they spent conditioning and preparing for the season, which showed in their final record. 

The team’s success couldn’t be attributed to one player, in other words; every player’s hard work was required to get where they went, and they all really wanted to see their team succeed.  When a team is closer, and its members’ desires and goals are aligned with each other, it shows on the field and in the record.  The closeness of the team and their reliance on each other to succeed was a definite reason for their success as a whole. 

“I believe that the we have great talent in the junior grade.  They worked hard the whole season to get the team where it was,” said senior Ryan Czarkowski.

He’s not worried about the state of the team after he and his fellow seniors graduate, and says that there’s at least one more promising season in the football team’s future. This is due to the great leadership and athleticism of players who have at least a year on the team.

Although the season just ended, the team is already thinking about what next year will look like and how they could learn from this season, where they lost their quarterfinal game to Oceanside.  

“Our coaches are determined to get us to the playoffs again.  We need to come together more. We were not really communicating as we should but we put our best effort out there,” said junior Daron Proctor.  “We as a team will come together as a family to become better.”  

The best way for the boys to learn to work together this season was to get along with each other and create relationships where they could trust one another.  By building a relationship with one another off the field, they were able to transfer their teamwork onto the field.  And by already beginning to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses in this season, the team will know what to focus on to make it farther in future seasons.