By Joe D’Amodio | damodio@siadvance.com
Moore Catholic’s school colors are red and black.
Now, the Maverick colors will be flaunted on a new artificial athletic surface that will soon be installed, according to the school’s athletic director, J.C. Albano.
“The leadership at Moore Catholic, with the gracious support from the Archdiocese of New York and our Board of Trustees, is excited to announce the project for our new athletic field has been approved,” said Albano. “This has been a true collaborative effort spearheaded by our administrators, members of our Board, and all of our active alumni.
“I want everyone involved in the development of our facilities to know how fortunate it’s been to have a multi-purpose field not only for our student-athletes but for our Bulls Head community and really for Staten Island.”
Albano said the project was the idea of his predecessor, Kyle McAlarney, “and if not for the start of the pandemic a year ago, it would have been completed already.
“I’m happy to be involved in this process and I’m really excited for our school.”
Albano says the school will have to wait for the remaining snow to melt to get a better idea of the timeline for construction to begin.
“As long as we continue to have sunny and warm days I think we’ll be able to have it installed before the end of this school year,” he said. “That’s our dream at least. It would be great for our seniors to have something to be excited about and this is a step in the right direction.”
Coming this Spring! #Mavs #SeeingRed pic.twitter.com/3wJyEIiWCS
— Moore Catholic Football (@MooreHSFootball) December 8, 2020
The school’s football Twitter account had tweeted about the field late last year, but Moore principal Gina DeSantis said the school could not comment at the time as it was waiting approval from the Archdiocese.
“It was a long-time coming and I’m super excited for the students,” said DeSantis. “It was all made possible by the Archdiocese, Our Board of Trustees and (so many others).”
There’s a chance some Maverick athletic teams may be able to play this school year on the sleek-looking surface, which will replace the current green artificial surface put down in the early 2000s.
The field probably won’t be ready for the Catholic High School Football League’s spring season, which is supposed to start in mid-March. The pandemic forced the CHSFL to move the season from last fall.
Nevertheless, Moore head football coach Nick Giannatasio is excited about the new-look to Moore’s athletic field.
“Our players are really looking forward to playing on the red turf,” said Giannatasio. “We’ll be only the second high school in America with red turf, which is exciting.
“From a program perspective, I think it’s a strong statement about the school’s commitment to football and athletics at Moore Catholic. When the idea for a new red field was first floated last year, we had seniors from our championship team who expressed regret that they couldn’t stay another year and get to play on it.
“And I think it will definitely help drive enrollment as well. It’s a new chapter for our school and our program and we are excited to continue to build on the championships we’ve had as a program (in 2016 and 2019), and put a championship level product on the new red field going forward.”