The Driving Force Behind Gryphon Football’s Recruiters

John Casasanta often thinks of one of the many things his late father Frank taught him – if someone takes care of you, it’s your job to pay it back. That motto perfectly describes Casasanta’s experience as a young student-athlete at the University of Guelph.

Gryphon Football literally changed his life and years later, Casasanta is trying to do the same for others in his neck of the woods as a Niagara region recruiter.

“Going into my second year, my mom died,” says the high school teacher and father of two, who played defensive back for the Gryphons beginning in 1994. “I was a young man trying to figure myself out and I went through some pretty hard times. If it wasn’t for the coaches and friends I made, I wouldn’t have got through it.

“When I was ready to return to school, they welcomed me right back. If I wasn’t part of Gryphon Football, I don’t know that I would have graduated from university. You get into that rut where you think the world is over but because of the support I had, I was able to bounce back.

“I want to change a young person’s life, help them out, and have them experience the same thing that I did.”

Friends and teammates like Bill Brown and Nick Gallo were there for Casasanta when he needed them most. Gallo’s family actually took him in after his mother Mary passed away. He would take two years off and then return to the program in 1997 before completing his career as a three-year starter and with a U of G History degree.

One of Casasanta’s big influences was Gryphon great Kyle Walters. He was a role model as a player and when Walters took over as head coach, Casasanta wanted to get involved with the program again. But he was based in Niagara, making a regular contribution difficult. Walters suggested he start looking or talent in the area and then make his way to Guelph for game days where Casasanta still helps on the sidelines with player substitutions.

It was a perfect fit and his first big class of recruits – like James Savoie, Jedd Gardner, Sebastian Howard and Ben Blackadder – played roles in helping get the Gryphons to the Yates Cup in 2007. And in 2015, the team climbed that mountain. The Yates Cup winners that season had a great core of about 12 Niagara athletes.

“Every year, I would pick up a couple more,” says Casasanta, who has recruited about 80 players from the region. “Then I started landing some real good ones like Mike Miller and guys in the pros now, Jeff Finley, Alex Charette, John Rush, and Johnny Augustine.”

Like Casasanta, playing football at Guelph was a formative experience for Stephen O’Brien. He wore the red, black, and gold from 2001 to 2006 and also wanted to give something back when his days on the field were done.

“Gryphon Football, for those five years, was really an important part of my life,” says O’Brien, now a General Manager at the City of Guelph, in addition to holding recruiting and player personnel duties with the team.

“You feel an affinity for the program.”

Recruiting was becoming a great point of emphasis in the mid 2000s when Walters was in charge of the program.

“You couldn’t just stumble on athletes – you had to pursue the best of the best,” says O’Brien.

He helped bring in excellent Peel region talents like Royce Metchie and an alum of his own high school at Mississauga’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Kian Schaffer-Baker. 

Casasanta and O’Brien have taken similar approaches to recruiting. Both are fathers with young children so time is precious. It’s a matter of getting to know the coaches and players in their respective regions, venturing out to see the talent, and then explaining what Guelph has to offer these young men as university students.

Casasanta has put in many hours assembling lists of players, keeping tabs on junior teams like the Niagara Spears, and literally driving all around the region. Sometimes he has company.

“I had heard these legendary tales of this grade nine kid from Florida who had popped up at Notre Dame in Welland,” Casasanta says of Gryphon great and recent Grey Cup-winner Johnny Augustine. “It was funny, my wife was teaching dance on the weekends. My daughter McKenna was newly born and my son Carson was two. It was one of the only chances I had to go see Johnny play so I put McKenna in the pouch, I held Carson’s hand and we went over to the sideline to watch Johnny play.

“He came over and asked who the little ones were. Johnny could see we were about family.”

O’Brien says that the family feel is evident on Gryphons game days when he is responsible for bringing in prospective players. At each game, he hosts about seven to 10 recruits at Alumni Stadium. The incredible facilities speak for themselves but one of the important points to emphasize is the pro feel that has developed over the years, which has reached new heights since Stu Lang became prominent in the program.

“Stu, when he was the head coach, created this culture of professionalism,” says O’Brien. “You’re going to get the best of us.

“He said ‘We are going to demand a lot of you but you’re going to get a lot in return – facilities, student-athlete mentoring, top-notch strength and conditioning, medical treatment, and training therapy. When student-athletes come for those visits, they have already experienced something about Gryphon Football. The game day ties it all together. They see the professionalism of the program. They see how things are rolling, they see the efficiency and the timing and the scripting of pre-game warm ups, they see the wonderful spread in the tailgate area put on by the Parents of Players group.

“When you see Alumni Stadium humming on a game day, that’s the takeaway for them.”

Most importantly, the program is a second family. O’Brien says that comes across quickly. He feels honoured to have both played and helped the program with recruiting, noting the flexibility he has enjoyed since the arrival of his two young kids Blaire and Shea.

Casasanta can relate. His kids are 11 and nine now and in addition to teaching, he is also the Director of Athletics at Lakeshore Catholic in Port Colborne. Despite the busy schedule, he is eager to stay involved with the program. In fact, Carson, a noted expert on OUA running back stats, won’t let him leave.

“It’s a labour of love,” says Casasanta, who always wanted to give back to his football family that provided him with so much. 

“I couldn’t do it for any other school.”

written By: David DiCenzo