A Day in the Life: North Branford High School Football Captains

North Branford Patch caught up with T-Birds' football captains Anthony Franco, Damoy Hunter, Cory Onofrio and Christian Perrotti after practice on Monday as they prepare for the at 5 p.m.  

The quartet has a solid amount of experience as Onofrio and Perrotti began playing in 3rd grade, Franco started around age eight and Hunter picked up the sport as a freshman.

North Branford Patch: What do you love most about football?

Franco: I love the competition, that's always fun.

Hunter: I like getting to hit somebody [laughs], I'm the first one always getting hit. 

Onofrio: I like the passion of the game and the brotherhood, everyone's real close.

Perrotti: I like the adrenaline you get out on the field when you play. 

North Branford Patch: What makes the different from the other teams at NBHS?

Franco: How we're so close–the brotherhood we have, inside the locker room we all share stuff.

Hunter: We have lots of team bonding and we're always hanging out with each other

Onofrio: There's not much more to elaborate beyond that–we all do things we each other, everything's a team thing. 

North Branford Patch: Describe a day in the life of a captain. What are your responsibilities?

Perrotti: It's kind of different for all of us. We really all play different roles. Like for me right now I can't play, I'm more of a voal role. I watch, I pay attention, I try to help others if they need anything.

Onofrio: I'd say Ant [Perrotti] is more a leader by example. He shows what type of play is the minimum and what we should be playing at. 

Hunter: As captain you have to be like the toughest one out there. Even when you're hurt, you've got to go hard–110 percent. 

North Branford Patch: What kind of leader do you try to be for your teammates?

Franco: We just try to be there for them, try to motivate them and mostly lead by example, show them what they should be doing. 

Onofrio: You've got to show them you have to be tough when you have to be, other times you have to be sensitive, you can't be totally insensitive to certain situations. But football is looking beyond those things. We've got to show them that nothing beyond football can affect what's going at practice or during the games. 

Perrotti: Sometimes you've got to be hard-nosed on them, sometimes you've got to take it easy and sometimes you've just got to act like a real team player. You've got to be a sport about it, you can't be mean, you've got to be encouraging. It all really varies per situation. 

North Branford Patch: What is the most challenging part of being a captain?

Franco: Disciplining them when they need to be disciplined–I just don't feel like I can do that, like making them run or something.

Onofrio: ...like if they're doing anything to make the team look bad, you might not be the most popular person.

Hunter: If they're doing something, you have to be the one to go to them and be like, 'Stop, you're not supposed to be doing that. You've got to cut this out so we don't get in trouble.' You've got to lead by example.

North Branford Patch: What are your goals for this season?

Franco: I'm going to try to be All-State and for the team, I want to try to win state championship.

North Branford Patch: Where does the rivalry with Hyde stem from?

Perrotti: Hyde always seems to play their best game when we play them. We always have to play our best too. 

Hunter: And it's always the last game of the [regular] season so you want to make it something to remember. 

North Branford Patch: What you do on your own outside of practice to make sure you're always ready for the fight?

Hunter: Try to eat right, try to get enough sleep, while managing school at the same time. 

Onofrio: A big thing is getting yourself mentally ready, too. Whether it's listening to a certain type of music, whatever gets you going, whatever gets you focused on the goal. 

North Branford Patch: What is the key to the team's overall success?

Franco: Our team bond. We're able to rely on one another in certain situations. 

Perrotti: We work together as one, basically. We're one big unit, everyone's doing their job, working with each other, and with that we have success. 

Onofrio: And if one person falls off, there's always three or more people to pick him up and do their job to get the fire going. 

North Branford Patch: What are your plans after you graduate from NBHS?

Franco: I plan on trying to play in college, either Western New England or UNH in New Haven.

Hunter: I plan on trying to play some college ball, too–either UNH or...I'm not sure yet. 

Onofrio: I'm not looking to play in college. I look at high school football and I want to remember by high school football as my high school career because nothing is like high school football and nothing is like the bond that we have. We don't go out and recruit, it's all our best guys against their best guys. So I'm not looking to play in college, I'm just looking to focus on my career in criminal justice.

Perrotti: I do want to play in college, I miss it the majority of my year, I love football. I'll probably go for education somewhere up near Framingham State, Worcester State.