Long Island Football Influencer
[These are the movers and shakers of Long Island Youth Football that we wish to honor. They are Coaches, Recruiters, Parents, NFL/NCAA players, and dedicated people doing things in and outside their communities to elevate the level of football on Long Island. These people do not all have 20 years of experience, fancy alma maters, or superstar backgrounds. Many of them do; but what they all have in common is more important than that: they all put in many hours dedicated to the cause. This is time spent away from their families, sacrificing, working hard to to gain more exposure for players on Long Island, and creating new opportunities for them. Their passion and dedication is fueling the new movement that is getting people on Long Island excited about football. #JoinTheLiyfaMovement]

Gerald Filardi has ignited youth football on Long Island in a major way. He is the Founder and Director of the Long Island Spartans Elite Football Program, the first travel select football team in the region. Filardi is no stranger to “elite football”. He has played at the highest level for Penn State, and later the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has a gregarious personality, commanding the attention in any social setting; and kids and parents love him. A native Long Islander, Filardi is determined to put Long Island on the map for football. 

“Long Island has had some players make it to the pinnacle of football, but not like other regions of the country. There are elite lacrosse academies here like Team ’91, and Outlaws. There are also Soccer Academies like Red Bulls, Paul Reilly, and ISA New York. I am cultivating a movement on Long Island to bring youth football to that same level, and offer kids that are serious an opportunity to play at the highest level of competition,” said Filardi. He is also a charter member of Football University, a national football program for elite football players, and is widely recognized as an expert in the sport.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Lions’ Top Linebacker A Self-made Blue-chip Walk-on Who Believed In Himself Proved A Lot Of Recruiters Wrong.
By Ray Parrillo, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 14, 1995

Standing with scholarship players with fancy high school resumes, guys who had been coddled during the college football recruiting process, Gerald Filardi was cooling down from his preseason conditioning drill when Penn State coach Joe Paterno approached him.

“Tell your parents that if they get any bills from the school, not to worry about them. They’ll be taken care of,” Paterno told Filardi on that sweaty August day two years ago. “You’ve worked hard. Congratulations.”

With that, Filardi, a 6-foot, 230-pound linebacker with jet black hair, a thick Long Island accent and a year behind him serving as a freshman grunt on Penn State’s scout team, had gone from unheralded walk-on to a scholarship player.

“Needless to say, I was glad to hear that,” Filardi said yesterday. ”After what I went through, I think maybe I appreciate my situation a little more than some other guys. Maybe my story will help motivate other players who try out for the team as walk-ons.”

Filardi’s story didn’t end with his earning a scholarship from one of the country’s top football programs. Last Saturday, he started at inside linebacker in the Nittany Lions’ 24-23 season-opening win over Texas Tech, calling the signals for a swift defense that appears vastly improved over last year’s.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Coming out of tiny Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, N.Y., where he’d enjoyed a sensational career, Filardi did not find his name on any recruiter’s blue-chip list. He’d hoped Penn State would come calling with a scholarship offer, but was told the Nittany Lions already had their share of scholarship linebackers. His only chance was Indiana, which had offered him a full ride. But when he called back, he was told he was too late.

Filardi said he and his family were devastated.
“It was really tough to take,” he recalled. “Looking back, I should have taken the Indiana offer, then waited to see if something better came along. You know, putting it on them rather than them putting it on me. But I didn’t know what I was doing. No one from my high school had ever been recruited for Division I football. No one from my family had ever been exposed to anything like that. It left me with a bad feeling.
 
“With my situation now, though, things couldn’t have worked out any better.”

Scholarship or no, there was something about Filardi the Penn State coaches liked. In high school, he’d attended State’s summer camps. State assistant coach Joe Sarra called North Carolina State and some other schools to try to stir up interest in Filardi. No takers. So Filardi was invited to try out as a Penn State walk-on with a chance to earn a scholarship. Until he did, his parents would have to pay his way.

 And when Filardi showed up at his first Penn State practice, he looked around at all the blue-chip recruits and told himself, “I think I’m better than some of these guys.”

 “I wasn’t intimidated at all,” he remembered. “My attitude was that I deserved a scholarship, too. My attitude was that once you leave high school, you’re starting out even with everyone else, no matter who’s all-this or all- that. I was going to prove I could play Division I football, and I’d always wanted to play for Penn State. I might have been even more motivated because of my situation. I wanted to earn a scholarship as a way to thank my parents for their sacrifice.”I could have gone to a Division I-AA school and stepped in right away. But I didn’t want to live the rest of my life wondering if I could have made it with a major program. I didn’t want that at all.”Quickly grasping coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s intricate defense, Filardi rose up the depth chart while paying his dues on the bomb squads. Last year, he backed up star linebacker Brian Gelzheiser, who played much of the season with an injured knee, and made 21 tackles, 14 solo. When Filardi entered games, fans and reporters wondered who was this No. 47 playing the glamour position at Linebacker U. In many ways, Filardi, a fourth-year junior, epitomizes this year’s Penn State defense – young, lacking in marquee names, and out to prove that last year, when the Nittany Lions often yielded too much yardage, was an abberation.”We have to be better because we can’t expect our offense to go out and score a bunch of touchdowns in 50 seconds, like it did last year,” Filardi said. “We have a good group of guys who really hustle, and we’re determined to be one of the best defenses in the country.”

 

So far, so good. Against Texas Tech, the Nittany Lions allowed only 237 yards. The Red Raiders drove into Penn State territory only twice and, if not for three Nittany Lions turnovers in the first half, might still be looking for their first TD. And with Texas Tech hurrying to the line of scrimmage for each snap, Filardi had to be quick with his calls. He was.

 “A great test for our defense,” Filardi said. “We had to react quickly. We had to hold them after they got that (20-7) lead. And we did.” Now Filardi has a warm spot for other walk-ons trying to beat the long odds against them.”I do my best to make them feel comfortable, to make them feel a part of the team,” he said. “I know what their situation is like.”