With two games remaining this season, the Poly Prep High School football team has lost more than it’s won. The Blue Devils are 3-4 this fall, but victories don’t define success for head coach Dino Mangiero.
Now in its second season, “The Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year” features college and prep coaches each week on ABC. Last week, Mangiero was featured for his outstanding performance – on and off the field – at Poly Prep.
During his eight-year tenure in Brooklyn, Mangiero has coached approximately 200 players at the varsity level. Of those 200, a remarkable 60 have gone on to play football at the college level. More impressive, however, is the number of players who have earned their college degrees after competing for Mangiero. The number? All of them. A perfect 100 percent.
During Saturday’s piece, Mangiero laid it out quite simply: “We try and give poor kids from the inner city a chance to come to a school like Poly Prep and maybe change his life for the better.”
Sounds like a pretty good candidate for a “Coach of the Year” award to me.