91����

Before afternoon programming on September 3, the weight room inside the Sabina Cain Family Athletic Center was, unsurprisingly, full of football players. Their first game wasn’t for two weeks, but everyone was putting in the work: new quarterback Crew Colon ’26 came away from a set of landmine presses to pat senior wide receiver Ryan Elloras ’26 on the back; Sean Croft ’27 and sophomore tight end KhyRen Jones ’28 sweated out planks while junior Richard Kimball ’27 broad jumped across the athletic center’s lobby floor. It was loud. The music was blasting. Strength and Conditioning Coach Blayne Lapan was cheering everyone on, clapping as they put up what seemed like outrageous amounts of weight.

Across the way, in an office, Coach Tommy Beaton sat quietly, mostly out of sight of his players, calmly working out a schedule for practice.

And this—the trust, leadership, hard work, and exemplary communication, both between coach and players and the athletes themselves—is what’s lead the Wildcats to where they now stand, as defending NEPSAC Bowl champions.

Last year’s Danny Smith Bowl championship, won in a decisive 42-26 game against Cheshire Academy, cemented Coach Beaton’s first championship since he took the reins in the 2016–17 season. It’s a vantage point that’s well earned, though Beaton would never go as far as to brag.

“A couple teams may have taken us lightly last year,” he said. This year, he said, the Wildcats’ talent isn’t going to take anybody by surprise.

What’s crucial to understand, Beaton explained, is that 91���� is a team—not a collection of standout individuals. The Wildcats are a cohesive unit that train together, push each other, and step onto the field as a unified front. That unity, Beaton said, comes from the genuine respect the players have for one another.

“You can see how much they truly care about each other on and off the field,” he said.

Colon, the new quarterback for the team this year, said the team camaraderie, and how much that motivates him, cannot be overstated.

“The communication has been off the charts,” said Colon, a postgraduate from Middletown, N.Y. “They took me in as a brother right from the start. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

Colon said he received 10 different Division I offers but has chosen to play football at Fordham University next year.

Elloras echoed Crew’s feelings about the closeness of the team, and emphasized that this tight-knit feeling translates to the field.

“This has been the closest team out of any of the three [years] I’ve played at 91����,” said Elloras, a wide receiver and three-year senior from Washington Heights, N.Y. “When we’re close we can be very competitive with each other, but at the end of the day we all have one goal, and we all love each other.” Elloras will play next year at Colby College.

91���� will face off against Tabor Academy on Sept. 13 for 91����’s annual White Out game on Sawyer Field at 6 p.m. The Wildcats play in the NEPSAC Class A League.

In between the lifting session, Dean Rusknaitis ’26, a four-year senior and the team’s center—a position that seems aptly named for the way he brings everyone together—touched on the closeness of the team, and how Beaton has curated this culture.

“Coach Beaton does a great job,” said Rusknaitis, explaining that Beaton encourages his players to be role models on and off the field—a job Dean takes seriously.

“Our football team is great, but if we can be great leaders and great students, that makes people come to our games and cheer us on,” said Rusknaitis, who is committed to play at Boston College next year. Dean is co-captain this year along with seniors Chris Oswitt ’26 and Nick Guay ’26 and junior Rowan Martin ’27.

As Rusknaitis talked, a bench press bar came down with a clang in the background. It seemed fitting, then, for him to invoke the team’s mantra, a clear and succinct encapsulation of the mettle each player strives to embody.

“Iron sharpens iron,” he said.

Coach Christian Brown is joining the Wildcats this year after five years coaching football at Suffield Academy. He has already seen Beaton’s impact in real time.

“Everyone genuinely enjoys each other, the players and the coaches,” said Brown, the team’s defensive line coach, the latest addition to a staff which also includes Jayson Leigh, Matt Sawyer, Steve Hoyt, Rick Rogalski, and Jim Mackay. “They hold themselves to a high standard and are responding well to pressure. They’re looking the part of a championship team. They are not any weaknesses I can see, and that’s the first time in six years I’ve seen that.”

Jade Morris, in her second year as 91����’s Athletic Director, is proud to watch the team working hard behind the scenes, for themselves and each other.

“Tommy [Beaton] has done a great job of creating a culture, where students from all walks of life, from a PG from Kentucky to an eighth grader can come together on that field and work hard and push each other. It’s an authentic, specific feeling and it trickles down throughout the team.”

Morris cited the “unmatched” energy from the coaching staff. “They’re prepared, they’re intense. Tommy’s been building that culture for a decade. It’s genuine.”