Thursday, October 29, 2009

Best friends, Canon-McMillan overcoming obstacles


CANONSBURG – Mike Martin always wanted to be part of the Canon-McMillan High School varsity football team and, in his senior year, the tall, slender and loyal Big Macs booster has found several roles to fill.
Martin (6-3, 178) backs up classmate Zach Hoffman at quarterback. In spot duty, Martin has completed three of seven passes for 53 yards.
He's also Canon-McMillan's third outside linebacker, meaning Martin is one of the first defensive replacements to enter a game. With his holding duties on extra points and field goals, Martin is one busy player at practice.
"Mike has progressed very nicely. I feel we would not be at a disadvantage with him at quarterback if something happened to Zach," Canon-McMillan coach Guy Montecalvo said. "He's come a long way."
And, for most of that journey, Martin has been joined by Big Macs' ballboy and best friend Grant Chupinka.
"He's been my best friend since third grade," said Martin, who wakes up at 5 a.m. most mornings to help rebuild the family barn. "We played football outside our houses because he wasn't allowed to play real football."
Chupinka, a senior at Canon-McMillan, is blind in his right eye and losing the sight in his left. Six months into his life, Chupinka was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer that occurs in the chest and lungs.
With the cancer long gone, Chupinka plans to attend CCAC next fall and eventually work with his father's real estate company. For now, he's enjoying the view from the Big Macs sideline.
One of his favorite moments came during a 37-7 loss at Woodland Hills. Martin scored Canon-McMillan's lone touchdown on a 33-yard interception return.
"Oh yes, that was awesome," Chupinka said.
That play came a little more than a month after Martin's older brother Andrew, a former Canon-McMillan football player, was seriously injured in a dirt bike accident. Martin was flown to UPMC-Presbyterian for treatment.
Adversity is nothing new for Mike Martin. Maybe that's why he maintains a calm demeanor during one trying football season.
Not much has gone right for Canon-McMillan (1-3, 3-5) as the Big Macs prepare for the regular season finale at Great Southern Conference rival Peters Township (0-4, 4-4).
"We're just taking it one game, one step at a time," Martin said. "We're trying to stay healthy and work through everything."
Staying healthy has been the Big Macs' problem.
Canon-McMillan opened the year without Ohio State recruit Chad Hagan, who missed two games recovering from Wolff-Parkinson-White disorder. Key players Dom Broglia (stingers) and Karon Adams (hip) have also missed significant time and both are questionable, at best, against Peters Township.
Adding to the woes last week was a team-wide illness.
Canon-McMillan could not practice last Monday in preparation for defending WPIAL champion Bethel Park and, on Tuesday, 22 players missed school.
"It was the most pervasive case I've ever seen," Montecalvo said. "We tried to get as much done as we could but when you can't practice it greatly impacts preparation."
One of the affected players was Penn State recruit Mike Hull, who is still recovering from the flu.
Hull played against Bethel Park and made 22 tackles (20 unassisted) but was so fatigued when the Big Macs were on offense that he had trouble standing.
"We can only worry about our squad and our health," Montecalvo said. "(Hull) wasn't even allowed to go to the Mt. Lebanon game but we can't worry too much about what's happened. We're trying to field a healthy football team."
Despite the adversity, Canon-McMillan can still qualify for the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs.
The Big Macs must beat Peters Township coupled with a Baldwin loss at Bethel Park.
"We've hit a few rough patches but we're a good team and we feel we should be in the playoffs," Martin said. "We just need to get there."

14 comments:

CM Fan said...

Great Article about 2 great kids!!

Anonymous said...

Great article, but come on!!! Why do we need excuses for CM's horrible year?! How many articles can the Observer put in the paper about poor little Big Macs! Everyone got the sickies! Whaa Whaa! Every team has had to deal with this flu!! Not just CM! Every team has had to deal with injuries, not just CM.
Stop with the excuses!! Every year that CM underachieves we get excuses about this person being injured and that person being sick......I'm tired of it! Start winning or it is time for a change! That is life! DEAL WITH IT! Tired of my community making excuses for poor performance!

mike_kovak said...

I've had never heard of a Quad-A school having so many sick players that it could not practice.

You may say it's an excuse but there's no denying it's a fact.

Anonymous said...

You don't hear other schools complaining! Trinity has been without their Division I kid for 3 games this year (Sick?!), Both starting Senior RB for 2(injuries), best O-lineman for 2 games (Suspended). Best outside linebacker 2 games (Injury). One of their best D-Lineman all year (injury).
So where is their article Mike?! Why don't we cry for the Hillers and their "woe is me" season?!!
Here is the answer....Because it is Montecalvo. Excuses Excuses Excuses......yet no results! Trinity gets bashed for under achieving with Division I players (at least they made the playoffs and won a game in the playoffs!) Yet when CM is loaded with multiple DI talent, (4 last year and 2 this year) excuses are made for them on why they underachieve. Hmmmm, very interesting point. Protect the ones you like and allow the bashing for those you don't!

CM Fan said...

This article has nothing to do with making excuses!! It was nice article and an uplifting, positive story for a change! Why do YOU (Anonymous!)have to find negativity with it?

mike_kovak said...

This article is not meant to bash Trinity or C-M.

The discussion on this thread should be about a couple young men who love high school football.

Anonymous said...

Couple things about Trinity and Canon-Mac: Trinity's D I player was held out of those games or not playing defense because he got in trouble with Coach Dalton. He made mistakes and had to pay the consequences which is how it should be no matter who you are. Trinity was ranked in the top 3 in AAA this year. They should be bashed for underachieveing. Just think if Trinity was in AAAA they wouldn't win a game possibly because of how competitive the league has become.

Now back to Canon Mac. Will you please tell me the 4 D I players that they had last year? Also, whomever you are, I have a question for you? Can you control how big your heart is, literally? If you can please let me know because I will become a millionaire to demonstrate. If someone wants to say that they are using excuses well I would classify that as a real good one wouldn't you. Canon-Mac has underachieved in many peoples' eyes, but they compete in the best conference in AAAA. The past 4 years in AAAA have been won by someone in that conference.

It's funny to read on here about how people from Wash High, Trinity, Canon Mac, etc believe that their schools are not liked because they are not talked about in a blog. Dude, give me a break. Articles and interviews cannot be written and conducted about every kid on these teams. Suck it up they are TEAMS. The teams that get written about are the teams who have exciting wins and impressive seasons.

Lastly, this article is about adversity. My favorite saying when it comes to talking about adversity is "It's not how many times you get knocked down, but how you get back up." A lot of teams are facing adversity on the field. Hopefully it will be a good life lesson.

Anonymous said...

I would love to inform you about CM's 4 Division I Players:

Mike Hull: Penn State
Chad Hagan: Ohio State
Brad Strimel: Army
Pozonsky: Army

Let alone the big lineman that was getting DI looks (John Corey: Don't know where he went) and Pihakis, a 4 year starter.

Anonymous said...

The kids that went to Army weren't div.1 recruits.......they went to Army and are out for football. They weren't recruited by any div.1 schools, what are you talking about? And the big kid your talking about only played football for 1 varsity year. He's not playing anywhere! Quit trying to ruin a nice article about two great kids! Thanks Mr. Kovak.

Anonymous said...

I'm laying here in the fetal position, protecting myself from all of the excuses that are going to be thrown around by CM for why they didn't make the playoffs! Cover your heads everyone!!! HERE THEY COME!!!!

Sarcastic Sword said...

What is the name of Trinity's D-1 recruit and where is he going?

Anonymous said...

Kenny Wilkins - Michigan

Anonymous said...

Pahikis was not a DI player. Of the two kids that were supposed to go to Army, I think only one of them is at Army. The other is at a prep school trying to get into West Point. Mike Hull has finished maybe 3 games and Chad Hagan has missed about 5 games if you total all his time together.

Trinity's big recuit is Ken Wilkins and he is going to Michigan, supposedly.

Anonymous said...

Pahikis was not a DI player. Of the two kids that were supposed to go to Army, I think only one of them is at Army. The other is at a prep school trying to get into West Point. Mike Hull has finished maybe 3 games and Chad Hagan has missed about 5 games if you total all his time together.


waa waa waa.......face cm your program is horrible and it's going to get worse.