Cooperstown Crier - Your Source for Hometown News - Cooperstown, Baseball Hall of Fame

Local Sports

Related Photos

  • FRESHMAN MEMBER OF THE Cooperstown varsity football team Michael Perrino, No. 61, breaks through in pursuit of a quarterback sack during The All American Bowl held in December. He was selected to represent the North East on the bowl that was sponsored by Offense-Defense sports. Contributed

    Untitled.jpg

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time will be sporadic.
comments powered by Disqus
January 19, 2012

Boy one step closer to seeing football dreams come true

BY GREG KLEIN

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Since Cowboy Stadium in Dallas opened in 2010, football fans have  marveled at the massive, modernstadium. Over the holidays, Cooperstown Central School freshman Michael Perrino got to play two games in it himself.

“It’s incredible,” said the 14-year old, who played varsity football as a freshman last fall for the Redskins. “The best part of the trip was stepping out on the field. It is amazing.”

Perrino won the honor last summer at the Offense-Defense Football Camp at the St. John’s University campus in Queens. Only one participant per age group was given the opportunity, which is a result of winning the camp’s “Heart, Muscle, Soul” award. The award and trip were sponsored by Gatorade, and the payoff was a five-day football camp and two games in Dallas during the winter break.

“We were doing running back drills, and I was going up against seniors and knocking them back on their heels,” said Perrino. “My coach was like ‘wow!’ I think that’s where I won the award.”

Perrino is the son of Cooperstown Youth Football President Mike Perrino II, who played college football at C.W. Post University. Mike went on the trip with his son.

“I had to go,” Mike said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience with my son, something I didn’t want to miss. I think it was as exciting for me as it was for him.” Both Perrinos said they were amazed with the stadium and its massive scoreboard.

“I think it is as big as the entire gym in Cooperstown,” Mike said. “It is the most amazing stadium I’ve ever seen. The camp was right before the Cotton Bowl, so they played with the Cotton Bowl logo on the field.”

They said they were also impressed with the people they met, including former NFL players Mel Blount and Tony Dorsett.

“There were kids from all over the country,” Mike said. “He made a lot of friends. We caught the senior game. The older kids were incredible. Most of them have already committed to colleges. I wanted to video tape their games. I feel like we will be hearing about some of them for years to come. A lot of them will end up in the NFL someday.”

Michael also plays basketball and baseball in school, and likes to golf, but like his father, he said football is his favorite sport. He said his dream is to play in college at Ohio State, or attend West Point and play for Army.

Although he also plays running back, Michael participated in defensive drills at the camp. He has been playing football for seven years, and has played line backer, defensive end and nose tackle. He is 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds. At the camp, he led his team in sacks and tackles with two and six respectively.

Already, Michael said he is looking forward to next year’s football season at Cooperstown. The camp helped him get over the letdown of this year’s season ending, he said. It also gave father and son a random thing to bond over: jersey numbers.

“They auto-generate jersey numbers,” Mike said, “because you can’t have all those kids asking for specific numbers. So they assigned him No. 61. And that was my jersey number in college. Isn’t that amazing?” For both father and son, the trip to Dallas is one they said they will never forget.

Text Only
Local Sports

New Today!