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12/19/2023 11:00 AMEli Sahadi always had the passion to play football and the athletic acumen to perform on the field, and he took full advantage of the opportunity to showcase that to the entire Pequot Conference this past fall on the gridiron.
The Valley Regional-Old Lyme football team senior grew up around football. An avid New York Giants fan, Eli would always be throwing the ball in his yard. Yet he found a love for the hardwood with basketball and has played that throughout his life, but he decided to try his hand at his first love and emerged as a senior leader and wide receiver/cornerback for a young Warriors’ squad this past fall.
“I love the competitive nature of football and sports overall, plus making those bonds with teammates,” says Eli. “The experience was different for me being a first-year player. But through basketball, I grew in my athleticism, which I think is key to success with football. I also think I knew what I was doing out there through developing an IQ for sports through playing basketball. It kind of just happened randomly this year; I decided one day I was going to play football this year. I learned a lot of hand-eye coordination through basketball with dribbling and shooting, which helped me catch the football.”
Whether lining up in the slot or in the secondary, Eli explains that it can be nerve-racking for each snap by being thrust into a one-v-one matchup. Still, nothing is more exhilarating or satisfying than the feeling of reeling in a pivotal pick or making a crucial catch to move the sticks.
“I just love catching the ball,” says Eli. “It is just you and the wide receiver out there, or just you and the cornerback if I am on defense, so you have to just have confidence in yourself. As a receiver, there is nothing more rewarding than making that big catch for a first down. I did not expect the amount of physicality involved in that section of the field, but it really translates throughout the whole game.”
While seemingly being a sport so heavily predicated upon cardio and endurance, Eli details that hitting the weight room for hoops helped harbor key physical traits and abilities to move between the hash marks.
“Throughout my freshman and sophomore years, I was not really big,” Eli says. “But I always had that motivation to never give up. I was in the weight room for basketball and got bigger, which really served me well for football and helped me transition well to the game.”
In terms of the cerebral component of Eli’s exponential growth, overcoming the seemingly insurmountable challenges of the gridiron only served as an iron that sharpened Eli’s mental endurance, and gave him the belief that no task was too much.
“There was nothing more intimidating than seeing some of these big teams out there,” says Eli. “Yet I got through it, and football trained me so hard mentally and gave me the ability to know how to go up against some big challenges.”
While the Warriors’ campaign in 2023 did not turn out quite as Eli and his teammates had hoped following a Class SS state final berth the year prior, they certainly made their strides and garnered great growth that he feels will serve them well down the immediate road.
“We had bigger goals as a team this year,” says Eli. “But as one of the few seniors on the team, I knew I had to be a leader out there. Yet I really believe in them next year; they have all the talent in the world, they just have to go out there and work for the success.”
Warriors’ Head Coach Hill Gbunblee details that Eli was quite a solid addition to the squad. He left a swift, sudden, and unexpected impact on the Valley-Old Lyme gridiron this fall on both ends of the ball, as a tempered but tenacious competitor.
“Perhaps the best compliment that I can give Eli is that I sincerely wish that I had the opportunity to coach him all four years. Eli joined the program this year after never playing organized football previously,” says Gbunblee. “From the moment he joined the team, Eli made an immediate impact. Eli made himself into a football while playing at a high level against the toughest schedule we've faced in six years. The best and most valuable component Eli possesses is his attitude. Eli had the best outlook and work ethic any coach could want. He was incredibly coachable and didn't make excuses; that's a rarity in today's sports and society in general.”
Camaraderie through competition has left a big impact upon Eli when it comes to his experience with athletics as a high school student. No communal connection, though, has struck deeper than his most recent one with the Warriors on the turf.
“Throughout sports, I have made great bonds,” Eli says. “Yet with football, I had a feeling that I never had before, because this team truly felt like a family. We were really playing for each other, and there was a lot more to it than just playing the game.”