Date: Fri 14-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Quick Words:

Feature-Pat-Reilly

Full Text:

Basketball Feature - Pat Reilly

B Y T. W YATT

On a warm summer afternoon in early September of 1995, one of Newtown High

School's most-anticipated athletic careers came to a blinding halt when

junior-sensation Patrick Reilly suffered a tear of his anterior cruciate

ligament during the first NHS football scrimmage of the season.

As a sophomore, a year earlier, Reilly had been All-Conference in football and

had averaged nearly six points per game as the sixth man on the varsity

basketball team. He had coaches drooling when he grew to 6-foot-4 and 205

pounds, but the knee blowout looked like it would be the end of it all.

Reilly missed his entire junior year, but was determined to make it back as a

senior. He did it.

Today, coming off a football season in which he was named Class L All-State,

Reilly is starting to get his game back together on the basketball court as

well. Averaging nearly ten points per game and leading the team in rebounding,

the senior has been an integral part in Newtown's building up a 13-2 record to

date.

"When Patrick came here I though he had what it took to become an All-State

basketball player," said NHS coach Kevin O'Sullivan. "Then came the knee

injury. To be totally honest, I didn't know how he would fit into the mix this

year. All the others had played together all year long and developed a

chemistry and then here comes the football hero. Well, it's worked out very

well. Patrick is one of the best players on our team."

While missing his entire junior year had no noticeable effect on his senior

football season, Reilly felt intimidated when he showed up at basketball

practice as one of the team tri-captains in December.

"Everybody had improved so much," Patrick said. "They knew basketball and

their skills were so much better than mine. I didn't have the same skills I

had when I left. I could still jump and I felt strong and quick, but I didn't

have the mind for the game anymore. I was one of the captains and wasn't sure

if I was even good enough to start. It was so frustrating for me to go from

all that football attention to somewhere where I felt completely lost."

It didn't take him long to get it back. After scoring eight points in

Newtown's first three games, and nine in the fourth, Reilly pumped in a

career-high 17 in a loss to Thomas Aquinas. Newtown's first loss was Pat

Reilly's gain. His confidence was back.

"When he really gets tough, and lets his body take over, Patrick is at his

best," O'Sullivan said. "He can shoot the outside jump shot, he's so explosive

from the wing, and he can post up a little bit. He's the best athlete on the

team. At any one point, he can win the game for you. He's back to where he's a

real presence on the floor."

Big Brother Role Model

Back as a fifth grader at St Rose School, Patrick watched his big brother Sean

star for the school's varsity team. Sean then grew to 6-foot-4 and went on to

Newtown High where he excelled in both football and basketball.

Little 4-foot-11 Patrick wasn't so sure of his athletic fate.

"My fifth grade year in Park and Rec basketball I scored four points in our

last game and that gave me six for the whole season," Pat remembers. "After

the game I was all happy and cheerful and some kid came up to me and asked me

if I got a letter for the all-star team. Then everybody laughed at me. It hurt

me so much. I said to myself 'that's it' and I was determined to come back the

next year and be better."

Reilly attended basketball camps that summer but, though he grew five inches,

was the last player picked in the following year's basketball draft. With his

new-found size, though, Reilly was gaining coordination as well. He went on to

average 19 points per game and was named Most Valuable Player of the

Intermediate League. He was on his way.

Patrick made the Newtown Middle School team in seventh grade and became its

star the following year. As an eighth grader, playing along side of TJ

McKenzie - the Providence College-bound senior, who now plays at St Joseph's

of Trumbull - Reilly led the team in both scoring (20 ppg) and rebounding.

Patrick excelled with the jayvee team at NHS the next year as a freshman as

his brother, then a senior, led the team with 324 points (14.1 ppg) and

finished his career 25th on the school's all-time list.

"That was when I started thinking about making the top-ten as my goal to leave

my mark on the school," Patrick remembers. "I grew to 5-9 and then to 6-foot

and then 6-3. Everything was coming together and my athleticism kept on

improving. It seemed like I was faster and could jump higher every month."

That was also about the time when football became such an important part of

Reilly's life. It had been all basketball right up until high school, but

after leading the freshman football team in touchdowns, as a halfback, it had

become clear that Pat Reilly was going to be a football star as well.

As a two-way sophomore on the varsity team, Reilly rushed for 297 yards and

three touchdowns and was named All-Conference as a linebacker. He then went on

to score 122 points in 21 games with the varsity basketball team, posting the

8th-best sophomore scoring totals in NHS history.

Patrick was also the first NHS sophomore in nearly 20 years who could dunk a

basketball.

People started talking.

"I started hearing about the coaches at Newtown telling people that I was one

of the best athletes they had ever seen," Patrick said. "I was trying not to

let it affect me. The summer before junior year I was at UMass at basketball

camp and was feeling better than ever. I was averaging 25 points a game and

one night, after scoring 35 points in a game, I remember sitting on my bed

thinking about how blessed I was. Up to that point I had thought that my

success had come from all hard work, but now I was beating guys who had worked

just as hard. That was when I realized that God had blessed me. I was faster

and stronger and could jump higher than a lot of other players. Not to sound

cocky, but I was thankful of what I had."

Only a month later, during football practice, though, what God had giveth Mr

Reilly, God tooketh away.

"Junior year I was ready to explode," Patrick said. "And it all ended in a

fraction of a second. I broke off a big run, made a cut, and was running for a

touchdown. Then the kid came in and hit my knee. I was crushed."

Reilly's torn ACL put an end to his junior year and jeopardized what was left

of his entire high school career.

Patrick tried to return to the basketball court later that February, but could

not. "The knee was weak and it hurt a lot," he explained. "I had lost 20

pounds of muscle, just in my legs. I could not come back and play at the

varsity level. It was horrible. Making the top ten was out the window."

Senior Sensation

Patrick's knee was rehabilitated as he began his senior football season and he

started it by scoring Newtown's first touchdown of the season against Staples

in the season opener. He would go on to score a total of 15 more including a

49-yard touchdown run on the second play of the South West Conference

championship as Newtown beat Masuk, 28-0.

Though Reilly had the explosiveness to be considered one of the state's best

running backs, Newtown's high-powered Wing-T offense didn't allow him to fully

unleash his potential.

"The whole premise of our offense is to get all of our backs involved," said

Newtown coach Bob Zito. "If Patrick had a chance to get the ball 20 times a

game he would have really showcased his talent. He could have easily been well

over 1,000 yards for us. But he's a team player. He didn't moan about it, he

just did his job. He was one of the best backs around, no doubt."

Patrick averaged only 7.6 carries per game (99 total) during the season but

made the most of nearly every one. He led the team with 785 yards (7.5 per

carry) in addition to finishing second with 17 receptions for 15 yards per

catch. Reilly also led the team with 16 touchdowns leaving him eighth on the

school's all-time list in that department as well. His career rushing total of

1,082 left him tenth all-time - all this having skipped his junior year.

"It would have been nice to get a chance at the record books," he said. "I

would have liked to have gotten the ball more but it was an honor to lead the

top-ranked offensive team in the state. I couldn't help but wonder what I

could have done with 20 carries a game, but our team wasn't built that way.

Instead, I'm happy with the things we accomplished as a team."

Reilly was snubbed for offensive league honors, but was named All-Conference

and then All-State for what he did on the defensive side of the ball at

linebacker.

"It's a great honor," he said, "but the most satisfying thing is knowing how

many miles I had to travel just to get back on that field."

Getting back on the basketball court, though, didn't come as easily after the

two-year layoff.

"I was getting rebounds early but I had a hard time learning the offense,"

Patrick said. "I wasn't good at improvising on the floor, I was like a stick

figure out there. It took me a while to finally feel my body on the court and

feel like I belong out there.

"I'm still learning every day. I would be so happy if this was my junior year.

It hurts to think that this is it for me. I lost a whole year. Instead of

spending last year concentrating on getting better I was concentrating on just

getting back to where I had been before."

Reilly won't achieve his goal of making the school's top-ten basketball

scoring list. He won't even come close. But he will most assuredly have left

his mark on sports at NHS nonetheless.

Next season, Reilly, an honors student, plans on playing Ivey League football

at Brown University - his first choice. He hasn't yet been accepted, but has

visited and spoken with the football coach who is most interested in acquiring

Patrick's talents.

"Patrick will fit right in at Brown," coach Zito predicted. "And he'll play

very well there. There's no doubt in my mind. Patrick is a fine young man.

We'll sure miss him at Newtown High."