Nofri leads SHU to best season

0
100

Naugatuck's Mark Nofri has led the Sacred Heart University football team to back-to-back NEC titles and, for the first time, a place in the final top 25 polls. Nofri has been head coach of the Pioneers for three seasons. –CONTRIBUTED
Naugatuck’s Mark Nofri has led the Sacred Heart University football team to back-to-back NEC titles and, for the first time, a place in the final top 25 polls. Nofri has been head coach of the Pioneers for three seasons. –CONTRIBUTED

FAIRFIELD — The college football season is over. For one Connecticut school, and a man from Naugatuck, it was the best season, ever.

Sacred Heart University finished in the top 25 in two football polls that released 2014 rankings last week. In the final coaches poll for the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, the Pioneers were in the No. 23 spot. And in the Sports Network FCS poll, SHU ended up at No. 24.

“This was huge,” said head coach Mark Nofri last week as he chatted on the telephone and supervised delivery of new furniture to the football office. It was ordered last fall and finally delivered four months later.

Well, people pay attention when a team is in the top 25.

An equally important fact is that these Pioneers have captured back-to-back Northeast Conference championships. Nofri, 45, has SHU football moving in a remarkable direction.

He has been on the Pioneers’ staff for 21 seasons. Three years ago, he took over the head coaching job on an interim basis. The team went 2-9.

The last two seasons, Nofri has been the permanent head man. The Pioneers are 19-6 for 2013 and 2014, champions in both seasons, and now in the polls. In 2013, Nofri was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS coach of the year.

What would one expect from a Union City Little League man anyway?

The Whitesboro, N.Y., native played his football at Dean College, finished his degree at Keene State, coached one season at Hamilton College as a graduate assistant, got his masters at SHU, and has been a Connecticut resident ever since. For the last 16 years he has lived in Naugatuck.

He learned one immutable fact about the borough: “They will keep you on your toes.”

Nofri is on the board of directors and is the current vice president at UCLL. He manages two teams, and also coaches a competition Sandy Koufax baseball team.

He also cuts the grass and maintains the fields at the Joe Joy Complex.

“The only time I get to see my kids play is in the spring and summer,” Nofri said of sons Mark and Matthew. “In that time I do as much as I can to be with them.”

Nofri feels the same about his 117 other kids, the ones that make up the football program at Sacred Heart. Nofri doesn’t just coach a team, he manages a program.

“You worry about the kids all the time,” he said. “We try to impress upon them that the logo of SHU football never comes off. This is all about you, and your family, and this program.”

The phone always rings, and job offers come in, but Nofri can’t imagine coaching any other team.

“I am very loyal to (Sacred Heart),” he said. “I did my graduate work here, they kept me on, and I grew close to the school and the people. This is a great situation, a great school, and a great place to call home.”

And, now, a winning football program too. What, if anything, has changed in the Nofri era?

“It’s consistency,” he said, “and a lot of support from the administration. Whether you win or you lose, a lot of people play a big part in that. Everyone has been on board with support.”

Nofri said the football office usually crawls with players, and that’s how he wants it. He wants to know every student. He wants them in the office, watching film, hanging out.

“We want them to do it right, and do it our way,” he said. “We hold them accountable for being late, to practice, to winter workouts, or to study hall.”

He said he weeded out more than a dozen players who did not want to do things the SHU way. When Nofri recruits he looks for what he calls grinders.

“Maybe they’re a step slow, or a foot short,” he said, “but they come here with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. I have kids that were overlooked, but who can play. We’re a bunch of grinders, and in the fourth quarter, I know I can count on my kids to be mentally prepared to go on the field and get it done. That’s what we are. All of us together.”

The Pioneers graduate 26 from this championship team.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” Nofri said.

The search for grinders goes on.