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New Tiger FB coach is going to 'celebrate the good' in the classroom
Thursday, June 30, 2022
New Caruthersville High School football coach Dom Guglielmo speaks to his team prior to a 7-on-7 scrimmage against Halls (Tenn.) High School recently at Caruthersville.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
CARUTHERSVILLE – For over a decade, recently-hired Caruthersville High School football coach Dom Guglielmo was surrounded by some of the brightest minds in collegiate athletics.
He played for one NCAA Division III institution (Brockport University in New York) and coached at two others (Heidelberg University in Ohio and Keystone College in Pennsylvania), so no one understands the importance of academics – as it relates to athletic success – more so than a guy who had to have a strong background in the classroom to even gain admittance to the college that he competed for.
“When you are at Division III,” Guglielmo explained, “there is no athletic money involved, so for those guys, staying eligible was their financial aid.
“Those guys are here to go to school.”
That emphasis on studies has been brought to the Caruthersville locker room, and Guglielmo is adamant that the Tigers can achieve both on AND off the field.
“I walk through the halls (at Caruthersville High),” Guglielmo said, “and I think it is unrealistic for any adult to think ‘These kids all need to have As.’ I have a bunch of A students in that locker room. I have a bunch of B students in that locker room, and I have a few C students in that locker room.
“The way to approach academics is that we have a wide range of kids from a wide range of backgrounds, especially in the Bootheel. As long as they are working their hardest, that needs to be celebrated.”
Just as Guglielmo doesn’t expect to go unbeaten every year, he isn’t going to demand that every Tiger student-athlete be perfect in the classroom, with the exception being in their effort.
“I think what some coaches do wrong,” Guglielmo explained, “is that they punish bad grades, and that is their focus. Why not celebrate the good?”
Guglielmo singled out Caruthersville student-athlete Isaiah Rogers, who is the Tigers’ starting “X” wide receiver right now.
“Isaiah worked his tail off in government (this spring),” Guglielmo said. “He has improved his GPA and his grade in government significantly, and I’m proud of that.”
Being an Eastern Seaboard guy, Guglielmo referenced another highly successful football coach, this one being from New Jersey.
“Vince Lombardi said, ‘If you chase perfection, then you’ll catch excellence,’” Gugliemo said. “Not everybody is perfect. I’m not perfect and neither are (the Tiger players). But I am going to celebrate the excellence. I’m going to celebrate the excellence, even if on paper, someone has a C. Do you know how hard he worked for that C? Do you know how hard that kid worked for that B? Do you know how hard that kid worked for that A?
“That (effort) is what you need to celebrate. If you celebrate the good and motivate the bad, there is nothing negative when it comes to that part of academics.”
Guglielmo referenced his background and some of the student-athletes that he has dealt with through the years and sees how those experiences can relate to the teenagers in Caruthersville.
“I’ve coached teachers, doctors, lawyers, a chiropractor,” Guglielmo said, “and they all struggled. But you know what we did? We celebrated the good, and if you give them something positive, they’ll chase something positive.”