By Ella Greenwood
The Centennialight
Centennial High School’s new head football coach, Joey Paradiso, previous offensive coordinator, is very excited to continue the season and bring new successes.
“I am excited about being the head coach of Centennial High School. It's a historic program with a lot of tradition that I can now say I am a part of,” said Paradiso.
Paradiso plans to make this team successful again by first instilling winning habits in the players and coaches. Paradiso will take his favorite parts of the program and combine them into his own program in an effort to produce more success on the field.
“The biggest change I want to bring to the team is to instill winning habits into our players and coaches. Winning is earned in everything we do, never given. The only way to win is to outwork everyone–in the classroom, in relationships, and on the field,” said Paradiso. “Winning is a habit; once you have a winning mindset with every aspect of your life, the wins will stack up on and off the field.”
Paradiso hopes that his players will be willing and wanting to do more than everyone else. “If other teams run five yards, we run eight; and that mindset should go with us everywhere. If other students study for an hour, we should want to study for an hour and five minutes.”
Thus far, Paradiso has succeeded in instilling these winning habits.
“I am enjoying my sport much more with Coach Paradiso," said Danny Langarica, senior football player. "I like that [he] is making us work harder for what we want; we won't win if we don't have winning habits and that's a big thing that he's trying to teach us.”
Brayden Donisthorpe, sophomore, said, “The new coach is making us work harder and giving us discipline and overall making us better.”
Paradiso has eight years of coaching experience. Previously he coached at Pueblo County High School and Pueblo West High School before moving to Centennial.
With this change, the entirety of the coaching staff has changed a little bit, but the mindset and goals of building better athletes and competing each and every week has not changed.
In addition to making the team successful, Paradiso also hopes to impact his players’ mental health.
“When I was in high school, my dad passed away from brain cancer. What helped me get through it the most was sports, my coaches, and specifically football. So since they were such a big help to me in a time like that, I've always wanted to be able to help give another athlete a chance to get their mind away from any other stresses they may be going through. Just let them have a place to compete, and play the game we all love.”
