School: Neshaminy
Football
Favorite athlete: Jason Witten
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning a lot!”
Funniest/most embarrassing thing that happened while competing in sports: “During a basketball game, I threw a crosscourt pass that went out of bounds and hit a fan in the head.”
Music on iPod: T.I., Lil Wayne, Jay-Z
Future plans: “I plan on attending and playing college football at Rutgers University and earning a degree so I can get a job.”
Words to live by: “The climb to the top may be the hardest, but the view from the top is always the best.”
One goal before turning 30: “Be happy and have a family.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I’m very superstitious.”
Mark Schmidt certainly knows a football player when he sees one.
The Neshaminy coach pegged Paul Carrezola as a player from the day he spotted him at a youth football camp when the Redskin senior was 12 years old.
“He went up to my mom and said something like ‘If I get a hold of him, he’s going to be a Division One football player,” Carrezola said.
Schmidt’s comments turned out to be prophetic.
Carrezola has accepted a scholarship to play football at Rutgers University.
“He is a heck of an athlete and just a terrific kid,” Schmidt said. “It’ been fun to watch him grow and do his thing.
“He really works hard at trying to be the best that he can be. He made a commitment this year to really get himself stronger so he could be more physical in the game. He actually gave up a year of basketball to spend a year in the weight room and spend more time on his agility, and it really paid off.”
Speaking of payoffs, few moves have had a bigger payoff than the decision to move Carrezola from outside linebacker to defensive end four weeks into the season.
“We just needed to get that extra guy in there to provide stability on the D-line,” Schmidt said. “When we made that move, we sat him down, and he said, ‘Coach, whatever we have to do to win,’ and he stepped in there.
“It was probably the best move we made all year. It really made our defense a notch better than it was. We were able to hold up against the bigger teams. He uses his hands so well and provides that stability and allows us to do some things with (Jay) Colbert on the other side. It really was one of those missing pieces to the puzzle. We really didn’t have that much of a presence until we made that move.”
Carrezola - an intimidating presence at 6-3, 255 - admits he feels at home on the line.
“I understood the move, and I would have done anything to help the team,” he said. “I kind of felt out in the middle of nowhere playing linebacker. I was capable of doing all the things linebackers are supposed to do, but I feel better and it’s much easier for me to read things down on the line. And I love working with all the guys on the defensive line.”
In addition to providing a physical presence, Carrezola provided crucial leadership to an inexperienced defense.
“Paul was new to the defense this year and at times early on was very uncomfortable,” co-defensive coordinator Neil French said. “His willingness to accept coaching and constructive feedback set a great example for the other nine new starters we had in August. In my mind, this was one of his leading accomplishments as our captain this season.”
The Redskins’ standout is projected to play tight end at the collegiate level. It’s a position he’s been playing since he began playing the sport competitively for the first time in seventh grade.
“I always kind of figured I was going to end up playing football,” Carrezola said. “It’s been in my family for a very long time. I also knew I was a lot bigger than everybody else, so I figured I was going to play.”
One of Carrezola’s uncles played for Army, another for Colgate.
“Ever since I was little I dream about playing in college,” he said. “I thought about it all the time. I would watch it on TV and say, ‘That’s what I want to do when I get older.’”
The recruiting war began early for Carrezola, who actually played quarterback in eighth and ninth grades before returning to tight end in 10th grade.
“In ninth grade, I was hearing a lot from North Carolina,” he said of a Tar Heel squad that was then coached by Butch Davis. “That’s when I first thought, ‘Alright, maybe this really can happen.’ After that, I started hearing from a lot of people.”
By the end of his junior year, more than 20 Division One programs had offers on the table for the Redskins’ gifted tight end. The list of schools vying for Carrezola’s talents was in an impressive one and included Boston College, Iowa, Pitt, Akron, Syracuse, Buffalo and Michigan State.
In the end, it came down to Rutgers, Iowa, North Carolina State, Pitt and Boston College. For Carrezola, the connection to Rutgers began when he attended his first football game there as a sophomore.
“I really liked the atmosphere and everything,” he said. “It’s not far away, and I connected with the coaches really well. I like the way they use their tight end position. I thought I might be able to play.”
An excellent student, Carrezola, who boasts a GPA in the neighborhood of 3.7, plans to major in business management/marketing.
“Academically, he’s a gifted student,” Schmidt said. “There’s not a whole lot of deficiencies involved.
“They want him at tight end, and the biggest thing Paul’s really gotten good at is he’s understanding the schemes.”
Carrezola hasn’t caught a ton of passes this season, but he’s had some big ones. In the Redskins’ 21-14 win over previously undefeated Garnet Valley in last Friday’s semifinal, the senior tight end hauled in a touchdown as well as another pass for a first down that led to a touchdown.
“He’s come through for us every time we’ve called his number,” Schmidt said. “He’s been great.”
Carrezola and the Redskins will be playing for a District One AAAA title on Friday night when they face North Penn. It’s a spot few picked them to be in after they fell to Souderton 14-13 in their season opener.
Talk to Carrezola, and the turnaround began on the bus ride home from that game.
“Thinking about it on the senior bus – we didn’t want that to happen ever again,” he said. “The next Saturday in the weight room I think we all decided that couldn’t happen anymore. We needed to turn everything around.
“It’s been great. Just being around everybody on the team for this long is even better. These are the things you don’t forget.”
As for his scholarship – Carrezola wanted it for his family as much as he wanted it for himself.
“I know college is a lot of money,” he said. “I know it really, really helped my parents. If I could go to school for free, it would help my sisters and my brothers.
“That was part of the (motivation), and I just had a dream of playing college football.”
It’s a dream that will come true next fall for an athlete who is the standard bearer for his position.
