November 23, 2023, marked the most awaited game of the year - the Thanksgiving game between the rival schools, Steinert High School and Hamilton West High School. The Hamilton community got together at West’s field, with there being over 2,000 people in attendance. Despite the rivalry between Steinert and West, many people came out to support the Hamilton teams. Everyone’s excitement and anticipation could be felt from the bleachers and around the fence. With the cheers and support of the Spartan family, Steinert won this annual game against West for the second year in a row, ending their season with another shutout against West, 21-0. 

Under the guidance of head coach, Thaddeus Richards, the team was able to achieve this victory. The boys have improved drastically from the beginning of the season, both offensively and defensively. Coach Richards said, “It feels good ending the season with a win and I think we were able to set a foundation that hopefully is steady for this off-season.” He mentioned that there were a lot of lessons learned but “Our kids gave us everything that they could consistently and we grew as a program as the season went on.”

The Spartans started off strong, keeping the win in their hands throughout the game. Junior quarterback, Anthony Giglio, assisted the team with two touchdown passes, which fueled the team’s offense to become increasingly efficient as the game went on. In the second quarter, sophomore Isaac Pate’s 40-yard touchdown run got the scoring going. 

Coach Richards said, “Pitching a shutout is hard in a game of that magnitude, but our defense played consistently which speaks to their efforts and our efforts as a program.” Defense put the boys in good spots as far as getting their opponent off the field. Junior line-backers Matt Iraca and Remy Feniello remained brick walls throughout the game with their solid defense. In total, Pate had 106 yards with 14 carries. Giglio’s passing and some hard earned rushing yards by senior Anthony Torres secured this win for the Spartans.

After West missed a field goal, Steinert got points on a 19-yard touchdown strike from Giglio to Feniello in the beginning of the fourth quarter. West was clearly a bit shaken at this point and fumbled the ball, giving the possession back to Steinert. Senior Connor Phox was able to score a 25-yard touchdown for Steinert. Corby threw the ball to Giglio, and Steinert scored again on a two-point conversion.

Senior Nick Corby was named Most Valuable Player in this game. “He played phenomenally as far as communication-wise and contributed to our defense.” Nick Corby described his feelings as a senior captain after winning this game. “It felt really good to win the West game back-to-back years. The boys worked extremely hard all season and played very well during our final game together as a team. With a new coach and fighting a lot of diversity, our team was able to have a good year and set the foundation for what the Steinert football program will look like from here on out.”

The captains encouraged their teammates by reminding them to remain positive and holding them accountable in a positive way. Corby said “Being a captain of the football team is a very big role and I was honored to receive that this year and even lead by example. As a captain this year, I had to be a very strong leader and make sure my teammates were giving it their all when they stepped on the field.” Coach Richards believed that senior captain Mike Rizzo had been the team’s rock this year. With the way he goes about his business throughout the game, “A lot of guys look up to him as far as leadership goes. He’s a steady, lead-by-example kind of guy.” 

The team had taken huge strides forward as far as their approach to practice and games. The coaches always reminded the players to just take things a day at a time and make sure that they stayed process-oriented. “We’re not looking ahead to anything in the future. We’re building brick-by-brick, laying a strong foundation so that we’re successful.” Coach Richards explained that the boys did a great job remaining positive throughout the season, especially in that game, “because although the game initially didn’t go the way we hoped, the boys trusted the process and things worked out in the end for us.”

Coach Richards was very excited that the whole team, especially the seniors, had this opportunity to play together at this point of the year. Not many programs are afforded this Thanksgiving tradition anymore “so the ability to continue to build at this point of the year is special and we are super grateful to be in this position and excited about this opportunity.”

In order to honor the seniors, the big thing the team did was come out and play the way that Spartans are supposed to. “I feel that this game will be a culmination of all of our efforts to get to this point of the year so it would be really special to send out this group of seniors with the best performance of the year.” After their last game, the team came back to our field to celebrate the seniors one last time. The seniors walked the field one last time and said their final goodbyes.

Junior Remy Faniello said, “I think we definitely had ups and downs throughout the season but had a strong finish. The one special thing about this 2023 football team was even when stuff did not go in our favor, we all stuck together and kept chopping wood. We are a very young team with very little varsity experience which made this year a huge one for us to grow. Every single person contributed to the big win against our hometown rival Thanksgiving because WE wanted it more and WE were hungrier. Coach Richards really prepared us for the strong finish to the end of the season by starting us early and working us extremely hard. We won that game in June, July, and August, not in November. I am very excited to see what this team is gonna do next year and all I have to say for everyone else is that... we're coming.”