By LORENZO RECUPERO
Everett football’s newest head coach is looking to continue rolling out the winning recipe behind the Crimson Tide’s storied championship history and plans to do so by bringing to the table one main ingredient: Trust.
(photo courtesy of EHS)
“My motivation [as coach] is to earn trust and build relationships with players,” said Everett’s newest graduate turned head coach, Robert DiLoreto, who met with players for the first time this season via Zoom last week. “I want the team to learn from my actions and see I care about their well-being as student-athletes first,” said DiLoreto, a graduate of Everett High School’s 1984 class.
“My main motivation is to support students. Championships are great, but building relationships is most important. I want to get them to believe in themselves more than X’s and O’s,” said DiLoreto, a major advocate of sports and learning life lessons going hand-in-hand.
In our increasingly peculiar society strapped down by the Coronavirus pandemic, DiLoreto’s first duty as head coach was not performed on the gridiron but instead from his living room.
“I was my first time leading a Zoom meeting, and it’s like on the job training,” said Diloreto, who met via Zoom with players twice so far as part of voluntary strength and conditioning sessions offered prior to the official February 22 season start date.
“I’m right now coaching from my office or living room, but the kids are engaging and it’s going very well,” said DiLoreto, who said the team will continue the voluntary remote workouts until the players are cleared for in-person practices, which he hopes will begin in March sometime.
And although DiLoreto’s only seen his players through a screen, he’s already pleased with how things have kicked off.
“Participation and energy level is high. The kids are doing great,” he said, noting Zoom has become a norm for students this day and age, helping to ease the burden of coaching online instead of the sidelines. “These workouts are similar to a remote learning physical education class, and so they seem to be responding well and enjoying it,” said DiLoreto. The Zoom training does not include weight lifting, but instead are being used to get bodies moving (through calisthenics) while helping to bring the team together to think of football, DiLoreto said.
As the freshest face on the Everett head coaching scene, DiLoreto took a moment to size himself up to his peers.
“Do I have what it takes [to keep up with the other head coaches]? I don’t know. But I do believe in my ability to lead and I love the City of Everett said DiLoreto. “I hope my caliber of coaching can be similar to the coaches that have come here. My goal personally is to improve and share my love with the City of Everett. If I do that, I’ll be successful. I’m surrounded by some legendary coaches here, and I’m just honored to be one of them,” said DiLoreto.
As part of building “relationships” and “trust” with his new team, DiLoreto plans to soon have a slogan for 2021 Crimson Tide football.
“By our first practice, our team as a football family will pick a slogan to live by. We will put our stamp on it. We will pick it together, something we all agree upon. By the time we stack our hands at the end of practice, we will have one because saying it together is powerful,” said DiLoreto.