Dreams Come True

Beginning at the age of four, all Brian Pugh knew was Holy Cross football. As he grew up, his high school plans did not change, and nor did his goals. He wanted to go to the Flushing school and play football.
It did not matter that he was too small or that it was the borough’s best program. He lived the sport, attending as many as games as he could, going to practice, sitting in on team meetings.
His father, Tom Pugh, was - and still is - the legendary coach there, entering his 35th season with nine city championships to his credit. He knew Brian’s chances of playing were remote. Although he had excelled as a quarterback in Pop Warner with the Valley Stream Hornets, the Catholic Football League was quite different.
However, the father was not going to change the son’s mind, either.
“Obviously he would be better prepared to play in public school,” Tom said, “but all his life he wanted to come here.”
Brian was never treated any differently, never showed any favoritism, once he entered Holy Cross as a freshman. He was merely referred to as “Pugh.”
He led the freshman team to a 7-1 record, played in a few games as the backup on the jayvee as a sophomore, and got in one game for the varsity last fall, running for a touchdown in mop up duty against Holy Trinity.
This summer is vastly different. Last year’s starter, Dan Hussey, a talented import from Maine, went down with a concussion early last year, never to return. In fact, he was not coming back this year either. Therefore, there was a hole under center.
Still, Brian was just 5-foot-4 last year, too light and too small to play the position. He knew there was a chance his senior year, a chance to play for his father and reach the dream he dreamed about for years. He dedicated himself in the off-season, running and lifting and throwing until he could run and lift and throw no more. Then doing it some more.
“He works harder than everybody else on the team,” marveled senior running back Darryl Whiting.
Brian gained enough weight, Tom said, to where he could take the hits, and, as the Football Gods saw fit, grew to 5-foot-6, the same as his father, enough to where he will be the team’s starting quarterback, and will split time with sophomore John Rose.
“I’m very proud,” Tom said, “because he’s an undersized kid who made up for a lack of size with a strong arm, his guts and determination.”
Oh, and he knows the team’s west coast offense like the back of his hand. He first learned it years ago and now knows it just as well as the coaches. He taught it to running back Kevin Williams last year, when he made the switch to quarterback after Hussey went down.
“Kevin told me he wouldn’t have been able to do it without Brian’s help,” Tom said.
Brian also has the arm and leadership skills needed. He proved it in Pop Warner and again in the lower levels of high school football.
Nevertheless, this will be like nothing he experienced before, beginning September 14, under the bright lights of St. John’s University’s DaSilva Field in the annual Battle for the Boulevard grudge match against St. Francis Prep. He was on the sideline last year, in the stands many other times before that. He was not in the huddle, barking out signals, or dropping back to pass.
“This is for real,” Brian said. “I always wanted to be a part of it. I have been working hard all off-season, running, lifting, just so I can play my senior year. I have been looking forward to this since I was a little kid, and now I’m here.”