By Eugenio Torrens
During his college career, center Jeff Deremer snapped the ball to such Super Bowl-winning signal callers as Brett Favre and Brad Johnson, but he formed some of his longest-lasting memories in high school.
He said as much when he visited his old coach John Castelemare, who is in his second season at Academy at the Lakes.
“The stuff you’re going through right now, you’ll remember the rest of your life,” Deremer, who played college ball at the University of Southern Mississippi and Florida State University, told the Wildcats who gathered in the school gym’s weight room.
Castelemare coached Deremer at Ridgewood his sophomore through senior season, 1985-88. Any time the Wildcats coach beckons his former player to speak to the team, Deremer obliges.
“Sometimes when you’re a player, you kind of let what coaches say and teachers say go in one ear and out the other, but this stuff really means something, and you don’t figure that out until later in life,” Deremer said.
Deremer stressed academics and taking care of responsibilities more important than athletics, though he said sports teaches life lessons, including one that has stuck with him more than any other since high school.
“Never quit,” Deremer said.
Castelemare’s Wildcats welcomed Deremer last year, when the team went 5-5. This season he spoke in front of a 9-1 squad, and the several players said they hoped he noticed their improvement.
“I think he’ll be impressed,” said junior lineman Alex Stark.
That’s saying something for someone who played at a college football powerhouse.
“We’re not even an 11-man team, but to have somebody who played on the highest level of collegiate football to come talk to us is pretty cool,” said sophomore lineman Jack Fishman.
He remembered some of the lessons from Deremer last year, such as working hard and never giving up. He joked how Deremer made it known that Castelemare had gotten softer since the 1980s.
But even as the hard-nosed, rough-and-tumble, whistle-blowing coach, Castelemare served as a role model for his athletes, including Deremer whose father was bedridden during his playing days.
“Kids need these role models in their lives,” Deremer said.
Every year he speaks to Castelemare’s new group of players, Deremer was overcome with nostalgia.
“You come back and you see the same stuff and you see kids working that hard and all the opportunities that they’re gonna have, it’s incredible,” Deremer said. “I’ll do anything to hand back what I was taught.”
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