Long Island’s high school football season is underway and Whitman started strong with a 21-3 win against Patchogue-Medford on Friday, September 12th. Jordan Churchman scored on an 84-yard punt return.  Jason Thompson had a 5-yard touchdown run and Jarone Park had a 1-yard rushing touchdown. It’s a good start to a year where Head Coach Robin Rosa, now in his 16th season at the helm, has his sights set on making the playoffs again.

 

Rosa and five of Whitman’s players - Aiden Jorgensen, Dodge Alahverdian, Alex Cerna, Jordan Churchman, and Dominic Chiusano - attended the Suffolk Chapter of the National Football Foundation’s annual Media Day in August at the Radisson Hotel in Hauppauge.  We spoke to Coach Rosa and the players about how the team is shaping up for this season in Suffolk’s tough Division I.

 

SHUFSD: Whitman has a new quarterback and other new players this season.  How are they fitting in?

 

Coach Rosa: I think Dodge Alahverdian is as good a quarterback as we've had in a while. He's got a lot of talent. Still got a lot to learn, but I think he can give us some real chances of winning games. We have a lot of young JV kids coming up. Jason Thompson, good wide receiver. Mark Rutledge, another sophomore running back who will be starting. Ronnie Park is another young man who'll be starting as outside linebacker. He's a junior. So we have a nice group, but we're really senior orientated. Maybe over 30 seniors. I think what happens here with these seniors, they know the ‘21 team (Suffolk Division I Championship team) very well. They know how hard they worked. So a lot of those kids were JV or junior high, and they came up to watch the workout with those teams. They've taken that same step. They worked out the whole summer. They've been working out since May. You know, doing speed, agility in May and June. They’ve been working out in the weight room since July and August. Like I always tell my guys, you don't win on the day of Saturday, you win Monday through Friday. Practicing. 

 

SHUFSD: What do you think of the support you get at Whitman from the top all the way down to the fans who sit in the stands? 

 

Rosa: We get support from everybody. And one of the things that I've learned being a head coach, when you run a program, you can't do it by yourself. So you need support from the principal, which John Murphy gives me. I get support from the superintendent. I get support from Dave Barth, my athletic director. Even the secretaries who work for Dave, Donna and Michelle. Without them, I'd be so confused. But my point is that I have great assistants. I’ve got great coordinators. I try to make it as much of a family as possible and make sure that everybody is a part of my program. Just make sure that they know it's their program. And you do that, people buy in. 

 

SHUFSD: So as the head coach, what do you see as your main focus, your main purpose? 

 

Rosa: Making sure that everybody does their job or their task and what they're assigned to do. But more importantly, enjoy doing it and wanting to be doing it. I always found out that if you treat people with respect, that they know that they're valued, then they will go out of their way to do whatever you need to make your program successful. So my job is to make sure that everybody knows I know who you are, and I value what you do for me and for our program. 

 

PLAYERS

 

#3 Aiden Jorgensen, Senior, tight end, linebacker:  I’m very impressed with how we started so far this season. I think we have a very good core group coming back. A lot of the young guys have been showing up. Definitely gonna fill some big roles for the team this year as we graduated a lot of seniors. But we should have a good year. I'm excited, and we should make a good playoff run. I think the number one thing for us is we have a very sour taste in our mouth from homecoming last year.  That's not sitting right with any single one of us seniors, and we're coming ready this year. 

 

#5 Dodge Alahverdian, Junior, quarterback:  You know, Coach Rosa trusts me in this system. I got brought on early in the season, and everyone who's a senior has believed in me, trusted in me. Everyone in this team put their faith in me, and they gave me the keys to offense. And throughout the whole summer, I've worked really hard. I show up early, and I leave late. I gotta give a 100% effort. I gotta train with the kids who don't know the plays. I’ve just gotta work extra just because I'm a junior and I haven't played football all that long.  I just gotta play cool and calm. And if they trust me, then I gotta trust myself because I gotta lead this team at the end of the day. I really love this group. So I’ve just gotta show the team that I belong here. 

 

#88 Alex Cerna, Senior, wide receiver, tight end, outside linebacker:  I'm looking forward to seeing how far we can go. I wasn't satisfied with just making the playoffs the last few years. I think that we have a better team than that. And we have such a strong bond this year with the team that we have. We're a really close knit group, and we're gonna shock a lot of people this year. We're gonna make a lot of noise, and we're gonna be a really good team.

 

#12 Jordan Churchman, Senior, defensive back, wide receiver:  I have really high hopes for the season. You know, we have a really good skill group this year, and playing against skills the whole time, you know, on offense just lets you know how good the defense is gonna be. We got a big line group this year led by my man Dom (Dominic Chiusano) so I'm excited to see how it goes, and I think we're gonna be a very scary team. 

 

#77 Dominic Chiusano, Senior, offensive lineman, defensive lineman:  This year, I really hope we do good. I think that our linemen are gonna really show something that we've never shown before. We have a small line, but we're gonna work harder than everybody else. We're going all the way this year. We're gonna beat these big teams and show Division I we're the best. 

 

All the players had high praise for Coach Rosa and his entire staff, from offense to defense to special teams - Mike Buck, Ralph Milazzo, Kieran Elmore, and Chris Olberding. “They want to see you do the best you can. And, yes, Coach Rosa wants to see us be great players on the field, but his number one goal is to make us better men off the field,” said Jorgensen. 

 

Alex Cerna wrapped it up best for the team by saying, “Whitman football is coming to play, and we're coming for it all. We don't care who you are. We're willing to play anybody. We'll play it to the best of our ability.” 

For the Whitman football schedule, click on the Section XI website.