By: BOB GROTZ, Delco Times

UPPER DARBY - The ribbon cutting ceremony Friday was a win-win, which lately is a concept you would have a tough time identifying with Monsignor Bonner High football on a won-loss level.

Linebacker Omar Gaither and a delegation from the Eagles joined Friars football players, students, coaches and friends to show appreciation for the NFL Youth Football Fund Grassroots program and accompanying $200,000 grant used in a dramatic makeover of what is now St. Augustine Field.

Dramatic may be an understatement. Senior linebacker Larry DelViscio, one of the Friars captains, remembers the days when practice meant keeping an eye out for stray automobiles.
"My sophomore year we didn't have a field to practice on so we were on the blacktop out back in the parking lot," he said. "You can't do much with that. It's been tough. You can't really make any excuses now with the facilities we have but all the different coaches we had, it took getting used to. For me, there were three coaches in four years."

Friday night there was a victory celebration for the Friars, their first in 25 games - a 7-6 win over Interboro that might qualify Gaither for Knute Rockne status when it comes to pep talks.
There is hope again for the football team, and not simply because of the nouveau NeXturf field surface and sizzling track.

Once it was hard to find people to roll up their sleeves and help Friars football; now there is a growing mix of alumni and celebrities appreciative enough to reward the hard work put in by school supporters and guys like head football coach Tom Oropeza.

"Anything you can do to affirm what they're doing out there on the football field obviously is a big thing," Oropeza said following the ceremony. "Anything that recognizes their hard work is a big thing. And this is recognition in a way to the hard work and the resiliency of the players. A lot of these guys could have checked out after last year and they didn't. This is a big thing for us."

Sunday, Gaither and tight end Anthony Becht will meet at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles opening the regular season against Becht's Rams.

It was a few months ago that Becht, the Friar alum who grew up in nearby Drexel Hill, conducted his annual youth football camp at Bonner with yet another wave of professional football players.

The list ranged from veteran QB Vinny Testaverde to up-and-coming wide receiver Maurice Stovall of Archbishop Carroll and the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Just as they do every year, the pros shared their thoughts with participants as well as Friar football players. From that innocuous gathering came more of the bonding which for too many years has eluded a program synonymous with achievement, as in Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti.

"We were very fortunate that we had Anthony Becht here during the summer," Oropeza said. "And we're fortunate to have a guy like Omar who you see playing out there on Sundays. You see what a tremendous football player he is but just for his presence, to be here and interact with the kids, I think the kids really appreciate that."

After the ceremony, Gaither gave the players carrying the burden of a 24-game losing streak a pep talk.

"I didn't win all my games in high school so I certainly know what it's like," Gaither said. "You just try to put it in the past. They have a lot of seniors here, about 30, and that's a great start. Everything won't go perfectly, but you have to start somewhere so you just start with that first win and see what happens. I tried to tell them mainly just to have fun because football flies by fast."

Obviously it worked.

The fun theme also is a big part of the message Becht tries to present, as well, whether he's talking to players at the camp or lending his help to the annual Bonner golf outing.
Becht's work ethic is part of the reason he's entering his ninth NFL season with a streak of 134 straight games played. You've got to be doing a lot of things right to put that string together.

"That's the exception, not the rule," Rams head coach Scott Linehan said. "He's a throwback."
There's a reason Becht has played on winning teams in six of his eight NFL seasons, a reason he's made five playoff appearances and a reason the Jets drafted him in the first round in 2000 out of West Virginia. And it's partly because he's a Friar.

And there's a reason current Friars football players, alums and former teammates like Oropeza find it so easy to relate to Becht. It's vulnerability, and it rarely pops out in public.
"It's near the end of our senior year," Oropeza said. "School is almost over. Anthony was always a cocky guy. And he turns to me and he says, 'you know what? I may never play a down at West Virginia.' That was the first time I ever heard him express himself like that. And you saw the career he had at West Virginia, and he was a first-round draft pick. Maybe in recognizing that, he realized how hard he had to work to make this thing come true. That was the only time I ever heard him express doubt about his ability. It was just a random comment, unprovoked but it always stuck with me."

From the alums to the current players, the theme these days is to do whatever hard work it takes to win - or win-win both on and off the field.