By Anthony Bosco
I had grown up a football junkie in northeast Queens and before I ever attended high school I knew about the St. Francis Prep football team, which seemed to win championships every year. I even wanted to play for them, a wish unfulfilled, I might add.
When I first took over as the sports editor of this newspaper – back when the elder Bush held the presidency – St. Francis Prep was in the tail end of its championship reign. The team had won the city championship in 1988 and was set to win the 'AAA' or elite title twice more before the run was through.
I was as green as reporters get in 1989. I knew Prep was good and almost expected its dominance over the rest of the league to always be the case, which it was, at least for a while.
In my first trip to the CHSFL title game in 1989, St. Francis Prep defeated St. Anthony's to win the crown in a nailbiter of a game. Prep won its third consecutive title the following year, besting the Chaminade Flyers.
I've got to tell you, this kind of dominance is a special thing in high school sports where, as Holy Cross' Paul Gilvary likes to say, there are no long-term contracts. For a coach to keep his or her team playing at the highest level in a league year in and year out is a credit to the coach and the history of the school.
St. Francis Prep's Vince O'Connor is such a coach, a man who has been a part of more high school football history than probably just about anyone in the nation, let alone New York City.
O'Connor, 70, is the winningest high school football coach in the history of New York state, claiming 17 CHSFL titles along the way for St. Francis Prep, as well as producing a host of collegiate and pro football players – including the Cincinnati Bengals' Marco Battaglia – and coaches galore, like New York Jets' offensive coordinator Dan Henning.
O'Connor has coached at St. Francis Prep for 47 years, a school that also produced another Vince, last name Lombardi. But that was when the school was still located in Brooklyn, so we won't talk about that guy.
O'Connor is famous for his teams' running attack, the “belly series” as it is called. His team mentality seldom changes from year to year and even though he has been running a lot of the same plays for years, teams still have a tough time beating him.
Perhaps the most telling characteristic of any Prep team is that it always gets better as the season goes on. What may enter league play as a collection of inexperienced and young players usually is competing for some sort of title at year's end.
St. Francis has also had the benefit of a very large student body and no area boundaries from which to pull players, be it Astoria, Bayside, Belle Harbor, Brooklyn or Long Island. And all these players must pass high entrance exam criteria and maintain a 75 academic average.
Smarts on a football field never hurt.
But in recent years, St. Francis' tradition of league dominance has taken a hit. After losing back-to-back 'AAA' title games in 1992 and 1993 – to Monsignor Farrell and Mount St. Michael, respectively – the Terriers were ousted in the quarterfinals in 1993 by Chaminade and again by the Flyers in the semifinals in 1994.
The Terriers made their last 'AAA' title appearance in 1995, losing a heartbreaker to St. Anthony's at Hofstra. The team lost in the semis in 1996 and in the quarters in 1997.
The following year Prep won a title, but the 'AA' variety, beating Cardinal Spellman. The 'AA' championship is contested by what I call “the best of the rest,” which is to say the best seven teams that did not make the 'AAA' playoffs. It's still a sweet win, however, and a meaningful victory for the players and their coach.
Last year St. Francis lost in the 'AA' quarters, an early exit for O'Connor and Co. But the disappointment of last year can be tempered somewhat by this season, as the Terriers head into this weekend again vying for the 'AA' title.
The Terriers will take on Iona Prep at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. John's University. The Gaels are coached by yet another O'Connor disciple, Jeff Napolitano, a former fullback for the Fresh Meadows school.
But no matter what the outcome this weekend, O'Connor plans on coming back to the school next year and for as many years as he continues to have a good time doing the job he has held for nearly half a century.
“I enjoy what I'm doing,” he said.
In recent years the CHSFL has become dominated by Long Island's St. Anthony's and Chaminade and Staten Island's Monsignor Farrell. Queens has had success as well, but largely from Holy Cross High School and Christ the King. St. Francis, while always capable of an upset, has not been the powerhouse it once was.
But sometime, probably not in the too distant future, the Terriers will reclaim their position atop New York City football. With O'Connor at the helm, it would be hard to think any other way.
