Vindication for Mella
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Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 3:43pm
With recent allegations surrounding Southington head football coach Bill Mella and the resignation of three of his assistants in early June, his life in the public eye in weeks prior has been much like the weather – stormy, rainy, cold and unpredictable.
Maybe that is why the coach, following his team’s 31-13 Governor’s Cup victory, displayed some extra emotion after receiving the trophy.
Then, after being asked what it meant to be at the helm and winning alongside three of his former players, Mella had to take more than a few seconds to gather himself and fight through some tears.
“Those guys, (Ryan) Gemmell (25), (Matt) Roncaioli (14) and (Kenny) Holsten (18), are just special kids,” Mella said emotionally. “It’s so great to see them succeed and to have them standout like that and have them be from our school; it just warms the heart.”
After an article came out in the Record-Journal only hours before the game discussing Mella being reprimanded and an on-going investigation into possible misused funds, the football game was a way for Mella to escape, and seemed at the same time, to be some vindication.
“It’s very, very special to me,” Mella said.
Now, with his future as the Blue Knights head coach still somewhat in limbo, a fact that Mella chose to not comment on, the Blue Knights football leader simply wanted to recognize the players that he coached Saturday night and for the past four years.
“These guys (Gemmell, Roncaioli, and Holsten) are really kind of my first senior class and they’re really special kids in my heart; we’ve gone through a lot of adversity and a lot of growing pains,” Mella said, further expressing what it meant for him to win this game.
“This just means the world to me, that they can have this kind of success on this field, leave their high school career with a positive image and memory and I’m just thankful that I could be a part of it.”
Throughout the post game interview, Mella continued to express a great deal of emotion and it seemed clear that there was more going on than just “the joy of victory.”
Still, whatever the future holds for Mella and his relationship with Southington, the win last Saturday meant a lot more to him than just beating Rhode Island and while his image may be slowly getting tarnished, the impact he had is more than obvious.
“He’s been one of the biggest people I could look up to in my life,” Gemmell said. “He’s helped me through high school, through my entire football career and helped me to get into college and into a good college and he’s going to be one of the main parts to me being successful in my life.”
