What it means to be a Raider and My Journey

I’ve had this idea of writing something like this for a while. After leaving Glen Falls last March in tears, I knew I couldn’t leave on that note from the program so I came back for another year. Before we start our Sectional run tomorrow, I hope you give this a read.

We all grow up here and say we hate where we grow up. It sucks, there's nothing to do, the people suck. When you grow up in Suburban America you tend to say this, however you don’t notice how much you will miss home until you go away for a while and come back. I’m proud to be from Colonie, I’m proud to be a Raider and to wear my gear in public even 4 years removed from high school.

When you’re from Colonie you have a sense of pride of what it means to be a Raider. If you played a sport and went to the banquet you know, there's always an award for it. I think it's a magical thing, to be the best of your respective sport, to be a good teammate, community member, friend, and student-athlete. It always gives me pride seeing that award given to a kid I’ve watched all year and seen them grow and prosper. It’s hard to put it into words what it means to be from Colonie, New York.

As a kid I knew I loved sports, and race cars, and still at the age of 21, those two still ring true. I played Little League as a kid but felt ostracized from my peers, I tried Shot Put and Disc my Freshman and Sophomore Year of highschool but didn’t feel 100% into it (Rest In Peace to Coach CJ, miss your attitude and smile man).

As I grew up it was clear I had a focus and anger problem. My Freshman Grade Level Principal sure saw that, when i got into a fight my freshman year 2 weeks before christmas break, what I thought at the time was the behavior I exhibited in middle school was going to follow me and haunt me, turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me.

While bullying had followed me all through my school years up to my Freshman year, it was a blessing as I got to sit and build a relationship during breakfast with my grade level Principal Mr. Robilotti, something that even through the next 3 years i continued to do.

I was let back into school two days early to catch up on my work before the Holiday break under a few stipulations from the school. 1. If I had ever gotten into a fight again I was kicked out. 2. I had to come sit next to Mr. Robilotti during basketball games, home and away and score with him. It gave me a chance and him a chance to talk about problems not during the school day, and gave me an incentive to keep my nose clean. It sure was fun time for me, and I learned to find a sport that I love very much still to this day.

My Sophomore year I decided to still help, and would dress up for every game like the players, my PE coach at the time, Coach Roemer asked me what I was doing dressed up and asked me if i’d like to come manage the football team come August. He probably did not think I would, because when I showed up, his face was a bit shocked. I woke up two weeks before school started early everyday to just be driven to 2-a-days, where some days I worked hard and some days I didn’t but I loved every second of it. It gave me the acceptance from my peers every high school kids wants, they saw me out there just like them, maybe not playing but putting the time in they did also. That’s what gave me the idea to show up to practice everyday for basketball, even when the big guys would hit me as hard as they could as I held a pad because well I’m Friebel. 6 Years later, and I may not be at Practice as much as I used to, I’m still apart of the program and helping the team, just more on the backend. I still love it just as much as the first day of practice my junior year in November 2012

There’s so many people to thank along the way, to Coach Roemer, Coach Kilmer, Boland, Dags, Scalzo, Karbo, Flood, Peer, Lapointe, Bearup, Young, Harvey, Rouleau, my parents, there just too many to remember or mention. However if it wasn't for Mr. Robilotti I don't know where I would be today, he helped change the course of who I have grown up to be, get the acceptance every high school kid wants from his peers, So I owe the biggest thank you to him but to everyone, Thank You!

The game of basketball has given me so much in my life but yet I’ve never stepped on the MUG floor with a Colonie uniform on and played a single second. I’ve gained friends, life long lessons, social skills, and a game I love.