MR TWISTER
09-14-2008, 09:56 AM
http://www.blueandgold.com/images/photos/Image/players/anello_mike/anello_mike_200x300.jpgTaken from Notre Dame Blue & Gold (http://www.blueandgold.com/content/index.cfm?aid=5888)
The funniest in a bunch of stories Mike Anello likes to share is one from earlier this season when he was trying to enter the stadium with his teammates for a practice.
“You have to be a player to get in here,” Anello was told by the gatekeeper, who stopped him in his tracks.
At 5-foot-10 and maybe 170 pounds, it took some persuasion, but Anello talked his way past the guard and into the locker room. Recognition has been an ongoing challenge for Anello the last three seasons.
“I walk out of the stadium and people think I’m a manager,” he said. “It’s a normal life for me.”
Whether it’s being stopped at the gate, getting mistaken for a football student manager, or dealing with the endless “Rudy” references, Mike Anello is loving every minute of it.
“Honestly, I walk around campus and nobody even notices me,” he said. “I look like every other guy on campus, so it’s no different. I’m fine with it. As long as I get to run down that field, I’ll do whatever.”
It took the senior Anello years of hard work and four memorable solo tackles on special teams – two on punts and two on kickoffs – against San Diego State to become an overnight success. Those who don’t know Anello well might call this tale of a walk-on, to special teams mainstay, to scholarship player a modern-day “Rudy” tale.
Those familiar with Anello say defying reality is just Mike being Mike. It was that way through high school in suburban Chicago. It was that way when he asked his Carl Sandburg High School coach if it was silly to try to walk-on at Notre Dame in the spring of 2006.
“I told him he was an underdog in the biggest sense of the word,” said former coach Marty Balle. “But if there was anybody who could do it, Michael was that guy. Mike is the perfect example of a kid who physically doesn’t look the role of a Division I football player, but Mike epitomizes the word heart.”
Starting last year on special teams, Anello defied the odds and his size to become a terrific gunner opposite David Bruton on punts. He was so effective, the Irish staff expanded his duties to kickoff coverage this year. Through effort and talent, Anello has beaten out all the scholarship players and blue-chip recruits the last two seasons and become a stalwart on those special teams.
Anello remembers the practice last season that changed everything. It came when Charlie Weis called out for the “pesky” little guy who was constantly beating everybody downfield as a scout-team gunner for Michigan.
“He’d have two guys doubling him and he’d go by them every play,” recalled Weis, who a week earlier saw a 7-0 lead at Penn State vanish with a 78-yard punt return by Derrick Williams. “I said, ‘He’s on the wrong team.’ ”
“I figured I had done something wrong, like he was going to yell at me,” Anello said of Weis telling him to pack his bags for Ann Arbor. “The next day I came in, and I was on top of the depth chart. From then on out, I’ve been starting at gunner.”
Even Anello, who immediately made a first-quarter tackle in that 2007 start at Michigan, admits he doesn’t believe all this is happening.
“If you guys would have told me at any point in my life that I would have just been on Notre Dame’s team, I would have laughed,” he said.
The road from high school wrestler to Irish special teams ace was dotted with circumstances and decisions that make the journey even more unlikely for Anello.
He wrestled at 103 pounds as a high school freshman, 119 as a sophomore, 135 as a junior and then “trimmed down” to 140 as a senior. He skipped football his junior year to concentrate on wrestling – and he had to be persuaded by the coaches and team members to come out his senior season, when his playing weight was 150 pounds.
Still, Anello became the shutdown corner and a team captain at Sandburg, and he helped lead the team deep into the state tournament.
“He was the guy we put on the other team’s best receiver, and he welcomes those challenges,” Balle said. “He never thought of himself as 5-6 and 150 pounds. He played like he was 6-3, 200 pounds.”
A brilliant student as well, Anello had plenty of enticing scholastic opportunities after high school, including the University of Chicago. The University of Illinois offered Anello a place in its elite business program. The curriculum featured study opportunities overseas, and a full scholarship.
With his parents’ support of whatever decision, Anello strongly considered the Illinois offer but ultimately Notre Dame won out after a visit there with a family friend. Like a mini-signing day moment, Anello announced his choice to his parents by pulling Notre Dame T-shirts out of a couple of gift bags.
“We never looked back,” said his father, Andy Anello. “Notre Dame has been just a special, special place. I’ve always known that, but being involved through Mike, I just can’t say enough about Notre Dame.”
The place became even more special after practice on Aug. 25. The Anellos were visiting campus and were on the practice field when Weis announced to the team that Mike was one of three walk-ons awarded a scholarship this year.
“He’s being rewarded for all of his efforts because he has worked hard,” the appreciative father said. “It’s a dream.”
Mike Anello has a fifth-year of eligibility remaining in 2009, if the coaches invite him back and if he decides to return. If not, he’s already planting the roots for a Wall Street career in finance, a major in which he carries a 3.9 GPA. Weis has even recommended medical school for Anello.
Ask him where he sees himself in five years and Anello jokes, “Well, if I’m not in the league...”
Who would put it past him?
Not Pinned Down
There is something about a wrestling background that seems to lend itself to a tough, overachieving football player. Defensive lineman Trevor Laws was a prime example last season. Senior Mike Anello may be an even better one this year.
Anello chose wrestling over football during his time at Carl Sandburg High School outside of Chicago. He was a state qualifier as a junior at 135 pounds. He finished third in the state at 140 pounds as a senior captain of a team that won the state title.
Now he’s using the desire and techniques he learned in wrestling to become an unlikely star on punt and kickoff coverage teams. From walk-on to scholarship regular, Anello said wrestling is an instrumental reason for his success.
“I just knew once I could get in the door, I could excel because of work ethic,” said Anello, who is up to a beefy 170 pounds. “That’s something I kind of took from wrestling and built upon here.”
Wrestling, a sport dropped by Notre Dame nearly two decades ago, brought Anello some scholarship opportunities, but the demands on the body and soul after eight years of cutting weight had lost their appeal after high school.
“Wrestling meant a lot to me, but I wanted to enjoy my college years,” Anello said.
Anello’s modern-day Rudy story is laced with a bit of irony. Anello actually wrestled against the nephew of the real Rudy – Rudy Ruettiger – in high school.
Danny Ruettiger was actually one of the first friends Anello called when he was coincidentally issued the No. 45 (Rudy’s number) in his first season at Notre Dame.
Anello has since been given No. 37, the first number usually seen downfield on kick coverages.
“As long as I an running down the field,” Anello said. “You can put me in whatever number you want.”
Similar to the way Laws did last season, Anello is becoming a bit of cult figure around campus after his four solo-tackle performance against San Diego State, two of them at the Aztecs’ 20 on kickoffs. The Notre Dame sports information department said Anello was the most requested player for interviews the following week.
Charlie Weis said all the attention is coming from the effort everybody sees every day in practice.
“If he isn’t making a play, he’s getting held,” Weis said. “I mean he’s pesky.
“You have to be a sicko to wrestle anyway, and I think that it kind of helps in your development as a football player.”
The funniest in a bunch of stories Mike Anello likes to share is one from earlier this season when he was trying to enter the stadium with his teammates for a practice.
“You have to be a player to get in here,” Anello was told by the gatekeeper, who stopped him in his tracks.
At 5-foot-10 and maybe 170 pounds, it took some persuasion, but Anello talked his way past the guard and into the locker room. Recognition has been an ongoing challenge for Anello the last three seasons.
“I walk out of the stadium and people think I’m a manager,” he said. “It’s a normal life for me.”
Whether it’s being stopped at the gate, getting mistaken for a football student manager, or dealing with the endless “Rudy” references, Mike Anello is loving every minute of it.
“Honestly, I walk around campus and nobody even notices me,” he said. “I look like every other guy on campus, so it’s no different. I’m fine with it. As long as I get to run down that field, I’ll do whatever.”
It took the senior Anello years of hard work and four memorable solo tackles on special teams – two on punts and two on kickoffs – against San Diego State to become an overnight success. Those who don’t know Anello well might call this tale of a walk-on, to special teams mainstay, to scholarship player a modern-day “Rudy” tale.
Those familiar with Anello say defying reality is just Mike being Mike. It was that way through high school in suburban Chicago. It was that way when he asked his Carl Sandburg High School coach if it was silly to try to walk-on at Notre Dame in the spring of 2006.
“I told him he was an underdog in the biggest sense of the word,” said former coach Marty Balle. “But if there was anybody who could do it, Michael was that guy. Mike is the perfect example of a kid who physically doesn’t look the role of a Division I football player, but Mike epitomizes the word heart.”
Starting last year on special teams, Anello defied the odds and his size to become a terrific gunner opposite David Bruton on punts. He was so effective, the Irish staff expanded his duties to kickoff coverage this year. Through effort and talent, Anello has beaten out all the scholarship players and blue-chip recruits the last two seasons and become a stalwart on those special teams.
Anello remembers the practice last season that changed everything. It came when Charlie Weis called out for the “pesky” little guy who was constantly beating everybody downfield as a scout-team gunner for Michigan.
“He’d have two guys doubling him and he’d go by them every play,” recalled Weis, who a week earlier saw a 7-0 lead at Penn State vanish with a 78-yard punt return by Derrick Williams. “I said, ‘He’s on the wrong team.’ ”
“I figured I had done something wrong, like he was going to yell at me,” Anello said of Weis telling him to pack his bags for Ann Arbor. “The next day I came in, and I was on top of the depth chart. From then on out, I’ve been starting at gunner.”
Even Anello, who immediately made a first-quarter tackle in that 2007 start at Michigan, admits he doesn’t believe all this is happening.
“If you guys would have told me at any point in my life that I would have just been on Notre Dame’s team, I would have laughed,” he said.
The road from high school wrestler to Irish special teams ace was dotted with circumstances and decisions that make the journey even more unlikely for Anello.
He wrestled at 103 pounds as a high school freshman, 119 as a sophomore, 135 as a junior and then “trimmed down” to 140 as a senior. He skipped football his junior year to concentrate on wrestling – and he had to be persuaded by the coaches and team members to come out his senior season, when his playing weight was 150 pounds.
Still, Anello became the shutdown corner and a team captain at Sandburg, and he helped lead the team deep into the state tournament.
“He was the guy we put on the other team’s best receiver, and he welcomes those challenges,” Balle said. “He never thought of himself as 5-6 and 150 pounds. He played like he was 6-3, 200 pounds.”
A brilliant student as well, Anello had plenty of enticing scholastic opportunities after high school, including the University of Chicago. The University of Illinois offered Anello a place in its elite business program. The curriculum featured study opportunities overseas, and a full scholarship.
With his parents’ support of whatever decision, Anello strongly considered the Illinois offer but ultimately Notre Dame won out after a visit there with a family friend. Like a mini-signing day moment, Anello announced his choice to his parents by pulling Notre Dame T-shirts out of a couple of gift bags.
“We never looked back,” said his father, Andy Anello. “Notre Dame has been just a special, special place. I’ve always known that, but being involved through Mike, I just can’t say enough about Notre Dame.”
The place became even more special after practice on Aug. 25. The Anellos were visiting campus and were on the practice field when Weis announced to the team that Mike was one of three walk-ons awarded a scholarship this year.
“He’s being rewarded for all of his efforts because he has worked hard,” the appreciative father said. “It’s a dream.”
Mike Anello has a fifth-year of eligibility remaining in 2009, if the coaches invite him back and if he decides to return. If not, he’s already planting the roots for a Wall Street career in finance, a major in which he carries a 3.9 GPA. Weis has even recommended medical school for Anello.
Ask him where he sees himself in five years and Anello jokes, “Well, if I’m not in the league...”
Who would put it past him?
Not Pinned Down
There is something about a wrestling background that seems to lend itself to a tough, overachieving football player. Defensive lineman Trevor Laws was a prime example last season. Senior Mike Anello may be an even better one this year.
Anello chose wrestling over football during his time at Carl Sandburg High School outside of Chicago. He was a state qualifier as a junior at 135 pounds. He finished third in the state at 140 pounds as a senior captain of a team that won the state title.
Now he’s using the desire and techniques he learned in wrestling to become an unlikely star on punt and kickoff coverage teams. From walk-on to scholarship regular, Anello said wrestling is an instrumental reason for his success.
“I just knew once I could get in the door, I could excel because of work ethic,” said Anello, who is up to a beefy 170 pounds. “That’s something I kind of took from wrestling and built upon here.”
Wrestling, a sport dropped by Notre Dame nearly two decades ago, brought Anello some scholarship opportunities, but the demands on the body and soul after eight years of cutting weight had lost their appeal after high school.
“Wrestling meant a lot to me, but I wanted to enjoy my college years,” Anello said.
Anello’s modern-day Rudy story is laced with a bit of irony. Anello actually wrestled against the nephew of the real Rudy – Rudy Ruettiger – in high school.
Danny Ruettiger was actually one of the first friends Anello called when he was coincidentally issued the No. 45 (Rudy’s number) in his first season at Notre Dame.
Anello has since been given No. 37, the first number usually seen downfield on kick coverages.
“As long as I an running down the field,” Anello said. “You can put me in whatever number you want.”
Similar to the way Laws did last season, Anello is becoming a bit of cult figure around campus after his four solo-tackle performance against San Diego State, two of them at the Aztecs’ 20 on kickoffs. The Notre Dame sports information department said Anello was the most requested player for interviews the following week.
Charlie Weis said all the attention is coming from the effort everybody sees every day in practice.
“If he isn’t making a play, he’s getting held,” Weis said. “I mean he’s pesky.
“You have to be a sicko to wrestle anyway, and I think that it kind of helps in your development as a football player.”