By Jim Stout
MaxPreps.com
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NEW MILFORD, Conn. - As with most college preparatory schools in New England, the Canterbury School requires that its students participate in three interscholastic sports per academic year. It's a fun rule and it keeps everyone busy and interactive and social despite his or her athletic abilities, but there are limitations to its application.
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At Canterbury, which will play in its third Prep Bowl football championship game in four seasons on Saturday, those limits apply in part to the program of coach Tom Taylor, who in a short time has elevated the Saints to heights previously unmatched at his academically elite institution.
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"I kind of tell guys, `look!'" said Taylor. "If you're (coming out for football) to fulfill your three-sport requirement, maybe you should try another sport. We don't fill our roster with guys who want to play football. We fill it with football players."
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In a region where hockey is generally the most competitive and lucrative sport on the prep school circuit, football is slowly emerging from the shadows to take center stage, at least in the fall.
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No one has been more influential in that trend than Taylor, who was a highly successful public school football coach at neighboring Brookfield and New Milford Highs before taking over at Canterbury in 2003. The Saints won a NEPSAC Prep Bowl title during Taylor's first season, then lost in the 2004 final before failing to qualify in 2005.
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Canterbury completed its first undefeated regular season (8-0) in 26 years last Saturday by wearing down a diligent Gunnery team, 30-14, thus landing in Saturday's Prep Bowl game at Williston Northampton (Mass.) against Independent School League runner-up Buckingham, Browne and Nichols (7-1).
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Taylor has at least one player - injured running back Rory Foley - headed for a Division I football career, probably in the Atlantic 10 Conference. There are at least a half dozen others among Taylor's 21 seniors who will likely be playing Division II college football in 2007.
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Undefeated ISL champion Belmont Hill, which plays Brunswick in another Prep Bowl game on Saturday, is arguably the leader among New England prep blue chip holders, touting wide receiver Corey Williams and linebacker Dan Williams, both of whom will attend Boston College.
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"I don't know what it was, but about three or four years ago, the competition in New England prep school football suddenly started getting better," Taylor said. "The coaching started getting better and more sophisticated. One thing fed of another. Everyone seemed to start recruiting a little harder and the number of quality of players continued to grow, to where it is today."
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Though the Canterbury campus sits upon an isolated and idyllic country hilltop overlooking this western Connecticut town, Taylor has been able to recruit a scattering of city-raised players to complement his team and fuel its success.
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In fact three of players, Foley (eight rushing touchdowns in three games before the injury), Johnny Ray Barnes and Kenniel Velez come from the heart of ISL territory. Foley played previously at Boston Latin while Barnes and Velez come from the venerable Eastern Massachusetts program at Brockton High.
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Taylor's first big-time recruit out of Brockton, post-graduate student Richard Johnson, never played a down of regular-season football at Canterbury after injuring his knee. Still, Johnson wound up graduating with his class before moving onto Merrimack College and resuming his football career.
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Another one of Canterbury's top players on its 2006 roster, running back Mike Okunfolami, joined the Saints via LaSalle Academy in Providence. Okunfolami has rushed for 1,266 yards and scored 102 points this season.
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One of the Saints top underclass prospects is a local product, 6-foot-5, 287-pound junior tackle Gilbert Parson of New Milford, Conn.
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"There are a number of good prep school football teams out there these days and we'll be seeing one of them on Saturday in BB&N,'' said Taylor.
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"I think there were always some pretty good players in these private leagues, just not the number that we're seeing today. Teams would be incomplete because you had non-football kids in some cases playing in between the career football guys. It was tough on the better players because they didn't have the support they needed. Today they do. The teams are more complete as a result, and the schools are doing a great job in marketing that aspect."
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BB&N, which is coached by John Papas, lost only to Belmont Hill in going 7-1 this season. The Knights compiled their glossy record despite losing quarterback Adam Farkas (now at the University of Maine) to graduation.
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"I think the rest of the league is surprised by our success," said Papas. "We only had three seniors returning, but this is the hardest-working football team I've ever been around in all my years of coaching."
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BB&N has a marquee player of its own in Mike Paladino, a football-basketball standout and running back. Paladino is leaning toward a football career in the Patriot League, but may opt for an elite New England Division III private college so he can play basketball as well in 2007-08.
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Belmont Hill Set for Brunswick Rematch
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Belmont Hill, champions of the ISL, will get a second shot at Brunswick standout quarterback Kevin Decker on Saturday, when the two teams meet at Loomis Chaffee (Conn.) in one of the five NEPSAC Bowl games to be played throughout New England.
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A year ago in the final, the 6-foot-3 Decker completed 31 of 55 passes and threw for five touchdowns in leading his Greenwich, Conn., team to a 46-36 win over Belmont.
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"I was excited to get them (Brunswick) again and scared to get them," Fleming told the Boston Globe. "They haven't lost in 37 games. (Decker) is the best QB I've ever faced."
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Belmont clinched the ISL title in its regular-season finale last Saturday with a win over Governor's Academy.
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"We have to retool and face the Peyton Manning of high school football," Fleming said.
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Elsewhere in the NEPSAC
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In other prep bowl games on Saturday, Phillips Andover (7-0) will play Salisbury (8-0) at Trinity College; Proctor (8-0) plays Noble (7-1) at Phillips Exeter; and Hebron (7-1) faces Hopkins (7-1) at Cushing Academy.
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Jim Stout is the MaxPreps.com master photographer for the Massachusetts/Rhode Island region and a Massachusetts state columnist. He may be reached at j.stout@jmstout.org
