Item speakers encourage all-stars to aim high

SAUGUS – Giving teenagers advice can sometimes be a dicey proposition, but the 25 football players being honored at Monday night’s 64th annual Item Football All-Star banquet had plenty of reason to listen to some words of wisdom that came their way from some people who have been in their shoes.Click here for a photo gallery.This year’s guest speakers included three former Item All-Stars, Classical’s Tony Johnson, Bishop Fenwick’s Ralph Renzulli and Salem’s Mike Giardi, as well as Merrimack College head coach John Perry.Johnson, who was the 2007 Item Defensive Player of the Year, just wrapped up his second year at Merrimack and did it in style. This year he had 61 tackles and nine sacks as a linebacker, and he recovered two fumbles. He’s a two-time Northeast-10 All-Star.Johnson’s message to players who plan to pursue football in college was a simple one: Pay as much attention to what goes on in the classroom as you do on the football field.”I wished I’d paid a little more attention to schoolwork,” he said, referring to his freshman year.”Treat classroom work as you would treat football. Get up and go to class, study for tests and make sure you get stuff in on time,” Johnson told the future college prospects.Johnson also warned players to be prepared for some stiff competition for playing time at the college level.”It doesn’t come as easy as it does in high school,” he said. “In college, everyone was the best player on their team.”Giardi, who played three sports at Salem High and won state titles in two, basketball and baseball, told players that being successful opens doors and with that comes more choices. Giardi went on to play quarterback at Harvard after graduation from Salem High, and he recently was inducted into the Crimson Hall of Fame. He also played baseball and went on to play in the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees and Montreal Expos farm systems, finishing up with the Massachusetts Mad Dogs. He is currently a teacher and assistant football coach at Marblehead High.Giardi said he has friends who have big careers on Wall Street and all the trappings that go with the lifestyle, but he’s happy with the choice he made to get into teaching and coaching.”I’ve had a great career both playing and coaching because I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “Keep your options open. Don’t stick yourself into a corner you can’t get out of.”Renzulli, whose brother, Chris, was one of the all-stars, went to Curry College to play baseball and football, but ended up only playing baseball. Renzulli told the all-stars he showed up for football practice as a freshman and quickly realized there were seven other quarterbacks looking for a job and six were freshmen. When his coach asked him to switch to a defensive position, he opted not to play and focus on baseball.”It was one of the decisions I regret most,” he said of his decision to give up on football. “Football was my No. 1 love.”He encouraged players who might be asked to change positions in college to give it some thought before making a decision they might regret.Perry gave players some words of advice from a coach’s standpoint. He reminded the all-stars that there are a lot of football players on the North Shore, but only 25 were in the room that night.He told players the lessons learned from playing football will serve them well no matter what they do in life and he encouraged them to aim high and when they think they’ve done as much as they can, to do a little more.”Judge yourself on excellence, not success,” Perry said.The all-stars also received words of encouragement from several others, including Rick Moore and Tim Kearns from MSO Web Radio, State Sen. Thomas McGee; and Paul Halloran, who works for Grant Communications and represents the Agganis Foundation. State Rep. Steven Walsh was also on hand, as was the Rev. Joe Rossi, St. Pius V Church, who delivered the invocation.