Double Duty: Athletes in band

Boys in the band — and on the football field

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

Poland senior kicker Kyle Filicky and East Palestine junior defensive end Antonio Diaz-Guy enjoy pursuing victories.

But unlike most of their football counterparts, Filicky and Diaz-Guy are among a handful of athletes who also treasure artistic endeavors and have found a way to perform double duty.

Filicky, a first-year kicker on Mark Brungard’s unbeaten Poland team, also runs cross country. And at halftime of Poland’s games, he plays trumpet and marches during the acclaimed Poland band’s halftime shows.

Diaz-Guy plays drums for the East Palestine marching band. But unlike the protagonist in Todd Rundgren’s “Bang on the Drum,” Diaz-Guy has other licks he’d rather be delivering all day. Diaz-Guy is a starter for Jeff Sharkey’s 5-1 Bulldogs, one of the area’s best small school teams.

But at halftime of the Bulldogs’ varsity games, Diaz-Guy takes off his jersey (51) and pads, and straps on his drum to perform.

It hasn’t always been this way.

“Twenty years ago when I played football, there is no way you would have had a football player in the band,” said McDonald coach Dan Williams, who has two freshmen players (Marino November on drums and Joe Campbell on trumpet) entertaining at intermission.

That football players have the opportunity to perform music on game nights is a credit to their coaches, band directors and administrators.

“It’s really nice that neither coach [Sharkey] nor teacher [band director Jennifer Mollenkopf] made me choose,” Diaz-Guy said. “They wanted me to do what was best for me and what I wanted to do.

“I like marching band a lot and I’m really happy they did not make me choose because I don’t know what I would have [picked],” Diaz-Guy said.

Mollenkopf, who has been East Palestine’s band director for five years, said, “Antonio is a joy to have in the band. He’s smart, he’s very dedicated, he’s going to do the best he possibly can at everything he does.

“And I know Coach Sharkey feels the same way about him on the football team.”

Take a close look tonight at the bands performing at halftime and chances are you’ll see someone out of uniform. Some are football players, specifically underclassmen football players.

Coaches who have shown a willingness to let players march at halftime agree that the more important the player is to the team, the less likely he’s available to play music.

Williams said it’s usually “younger kids who aren’t starters and aren’t in the mix of halftime adjustments. Once a player becomes a junior or senior, they probably have to make a decision [between band and football].”

Mollenkopf, who has five players marching (freshman Daniel Dodge, junior Eric Jones and sophomores Sam Reidy and John Crawford), said, “This is the first time that we’ve had any starting players who march at halftime.”

Sharkey, who is in his third season as East Palestine’s head coach after stints at United and Marlington, said he’s “always allowed it to happen with the younger grades — freshmen and sophomores. Usually as [players] get older, you need them at halftime.

“With his main position being on the defense, we didn’t make as many adjustments as we would if he was playing on offense,” said Sharkey of Diaz-Guy. “So we made the agreement that he could do it. I know it’s important to him.”

However, as the Bulldogs’ backup center, Sharkey said Diaz-Guy will be needed at halftime meetings should he take over the position.

“I try to let that [decision] be up to the players,” Mollenkopf said. “We talk about it — the coaches, the players and me. If Coach [Sharkey] needs them, obviously, I’m not going to require that they come and march. It’s really great the coach is open and we can work together.”

In Poland, Brungard said Filicky, who is playing varsity football for the first time, is his first football player to march at halftime.

“He approached me [in the offseason] about wanting to kick,” said Brungard who needed a kicker. “Later on in the spring, he asked me if marching band would be a problem. I said [OK] because don’t need to talk to my kickers at halftime.”

Brungard said he forgot Filicky’s trumpet playing skills “until after we came out at the half at Hubbard and there’s a trumpet on our table. I said, ‘What the heck’ and then remembered that he played at halftime.”

A former soccer player, Filicky said he started kicking footballs in his backyard “so I decided to try out.”

Filicky admitted that asking Brungard “was a little bit intimidating. He told me to keep practicing.”

Brungard said the decision wasn’t hard.

“The position lends itself to being [an easier decision]. If it’s your starting middle linebacker or your quarterback, someone who needs to process a little information [at halftime], I would have a harder time [saying yes].”

Filicky, who has been playing trumpet since fifth grade, said, “I like playing in marching band because it’s more more fun than concert band,” citing the song choices and marching formations.

Diaz-Guy almost didn’t get to march this season.

“There was a lot of confusion at the beginning of the year,” Diaz-Guy said. “I was going [to be] an offensive and defensive starter but that didn’t happen because we had a few changes in our offense.

“So I approached Coach Sharkey and asked him if it was OK if I marched halftime,” Diaz-Guy said.

Sharkey and Mollenkopf worked out a compromise where Diaz-Guy missed a week of practice to attend band camp.

“As far as game nights go, I go out and march, and then as soon as our halftime show is over, I put my [football gear] back on and go on the field,” Diaz-Guy said.

Mollenkopf said, “I told the boys that we’ll have your instruments ready — you do what you need to do for football and don’t worry about warming up, just go, you know what to do.

“And when you are done, hand us your instrument and run back to the team.”

How much commitment does it take to do both? Look how Diaz-Guy spent August weekdays when band practice would begin at 8 a.m.

“We’d go until 11:30, football practice wouldn’t start until 2:30,” Diaz-Guy said. “I left home, came to band, finished, went to McDonald’s and ate then came to football.”

Mollenkopf estimated that about 40 of her 70 band members are athletes in cross country, soccer, tennis and volleyball.

“I’ve got somebody on just about every team,” Mollenkopf said. “I think those kids especially understand what the football players are going through. I love to see them out there in their jerseys or without playing their horns. It makes me so proud.”

Filicky credits Brungard and Poland band director Nick Olesko for giving him this chance.

August was no summer vacation for Filicky: “We have our own band camp from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. every day.”

Filicky split his commitments this way: He practiced with the band from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. then practiced two hours with the football team. In the evening, he ran to get in shape for cross country.

Asked what he remembers about Poland’s first varsity game, Filicky said, “I felt great, it was one of the most amazing things ever.

“Cross country meets never have that many fans, and sometimes they don’t pay attention when the band plays. There was pressure, I guess, but I liked it.”

Mollenkopf considers Diaz-Guy a role model.

“He’s just a number one kid and a lot of kids look up to him, for the values he has in life, even outside of football and the classroom,” Mollenkopf said. “He takes everything very seriously and I appreciate that.”

williams@vindy.com