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EXETER — In its 69th year, players from Meyers, GAR and Coughlin will play in their last UNICO All-Star Football Classic on Friday before the schools consolidate their athletic programs to become the Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack.
The Wilkes-Barre Chapter of UNICO National tabbed four legendary coaches of the gridiron from those schools to receive the Sponsors award at the organization’s 69th UNICO Players Banquet at Fox Hill Country Club Wednesday night.
The Sponsors award is given to an individual, school, coach or team in the Wyoming Valley that has made a significant impact on the quality of sports in the community.
Charlie Fick, John Joseph, JP Meck and Mike Namey were the honorees, all of whom either coached the all-star game numerous times or put on the pads and played in it themselves.
“I was really surprised and honored to be invited here,” said Meck, a former Coughlin coach. “You get out of it (coaching) for awhile, you think people forget about you. Bill Anzalone called me and it was really, really nice.”
Meck, who coached Coughlin from 1976-83, recalled one of his favorite UNICO game memories.
“George Curry wanted to coach the game to coach against me,” Meck said. “He (Curry) told me he was gonna kill me. I said, ‘George it’s a fun game and everyone’s having a fun time.’ He was a tough character to coach against.”
Speaking of Curry, the Italian-American organization made a notable change a few years back. It renamed the MVP award to the Coach George Curry MVP award, to honor the late Berwick Bulldogs coach who amassed 455 wins in his career, making him the winningest football coach in the state.
“I played in it and I coached it three times,” said Namey, who coached at Meyers from 1992-2009. “The craziest times were coaching in it and the first two times I coached were against George (Curry). Just when you think you were going to catch a break, you found out you were competing against him.”
Having representatives from all across the Wyoming Valley Conference, Namey said when he was coaching, players dropped their school colors very quickly because they wanted to win.
“It’s been hard on all of us all the way through,” Namey said of the three Wilkes-Barre schools consolidating into one. “This is hard because you are going to take a look at the colors for the last time. You’re going to take a look at the names of the neighborhoods they represent. There is a bigger picture, and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Namey played in the UNICO game his senior year in 1983.
“We had a lot of heavyweights in my class,” he said with a laugh. “There were times I was out there saying what am I doing.”
“It was always a great game,” recalled Joseph, who coached Coughlin from 1984-99. “You got to coach with your friends and against your friends. I always had a lot of fun.”
“The athletes are the ones who really enjoyed it,” he added. “They made a lot of friendships out of it.”
Unico is the Italian word for unique — chosen to represent the one-of-a-kind nature of the organization. The word has since become a backronym which stands for Unity, Neighborliness, Integrity, Charity and Opportunity.
“I enjoyed what I did. It wasn’t a job, it was fun,” said Fick, GAR’s coach from 1980-97, about receiving Wednesday night’s award. “It’s not me by any stretch of the imagination. It was all the kids.”
Fick said he coached the UNICO game about four or five times, even playing in the very same game in 1964.
“It’s 55 years ago. They still had it,” Fick chuckled. “But that’s when the game was still in August.”
Fick said he didn’t realize how much talent the area had until he coached in the UNICO game.
“They are all all-stars, and they should be treated that way,” he said. “They all worked hard because they wanted to outdo their counterparts and impress them. I had a real deeper appreciation for those guys.”
The UNICO Pioneers will face off against the UNICO Miners at 7 p.m. Friday at Wyoming Area’s stadium in West Pittston.
