Keeping Arianna’s promise: Roman Catholic coach Rick Prete serves as an inspiration to his team

Every year began with a question: Is it okay if daddy coaches this season? Each year, Rick Prete would get the same response, “yes.” So, he struggled there in the early evening twilight of Friday night, August 23, with his fist wrapped around a framed picture of her, the one whose response he had to hear before he started again. He stood there at the far end of the field, away from his team, away from everyone, his shoulders shrugging, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, because, hell no, he was not about to break. Not here. Not in front of his guys.

Prete took his shades off, wiped his eyes, kissed the image of his sweet princess dangling at the end of a chain he will never take off—and began coaching the 2024 Roman Catholic football team in their season opener against Neumann-Goretti.

His first steps that night were the first steps in recovering from an unimaginable tragedy no father ever wants to confront.

This Friday night, the District 12 Class 5A champion Cahillites will play District 3 champion Bishop McDevitt (13-2) in the PIAA Class 5A state championship. It is the first time Roman Catholic, a legendary basketball powerhouse, has ever been to the state championship in football. This season marks the first time the Cahillites (11-4) ever won a state playoff game.

All led by someone who says when he looks at himself in a mirror he sees the reflection of a weak man.

Talk to every one of Prete’s Roman Catholic players and they will vehemently disagree. Talk to any member of the Roman Catholic coaching staff and they will vehemently disagree. Talk to any member of the vibrant Philadelphia football community and they will vehemently disagree. Talk to Prete’s wife, his children, and they will vehemently disagree. Talk to anyone who knows or knows of Prete, and they will vehemently disagree.

He was weakened, as anyone would be, if they were greeted by two Lower Providence police officers on Thursday, July 11, at 4 in the morning, as he was, with the news that his oldest daughter, Arianna, 19, was killed in a car accident when a tow truck ran a red light. It killed him. His insides imploded, followed by the surreal numbness that usually comes with the disbelief it happened.

This football season, his coaching staff, his team, have gradually helped piece Prete back together. He says, rightfully, that he will never be whole again without Arianna. Though he stresses he would have never been able to live again, and laugh again, and coach again, all those things Arianna knew her father loved, along with her, without this team and its coaching staff.

Gabriella, Prete’s wife, urged him to coach this season. His oldest son Gene and younger daughter Nylah supported the decision—if not for anyone, for her, for Arianna, who before each season Prete would ask if it was okay he coaches another year.

“I really didn’t think I would be able to continue on, and I was convinced I would not coach again,” said Prete, who is in his sixth season. “My wife talked me into it because I would talk to Arianna and Nylah before every year about coaching. This year, it was more or less, Gabriella, and my whole family who I talked to about coaching. I didn’t know if I would be able to give the kids a full commitment. I had to be true to myself. I had to give a full commitment. These are special kids. This is a special team.

“I couldn’t let my kids down. I know they love me. I love them, too.”

Roman Catholic was at East Stroudsburg for a summer workout camp with other teams that Thursday Prete received the news. They were devastated.

Will Felder, Roman’s sterling Duke-bound linebacker and one of the Cahillites’ leaders, knew where the program was when Prete began. The Roman Catholic football program was in tatters before Prete resurrected it. He was everywhere traveling with his kids, to summer camps, seven-on-sevens, taking them by minivans to workout camps in different states, while scrambling back to watch Arianna play in travel softball. How he managed the time, he still does not know, although he did.

Gradually, the Cahillites began reaching respectability. Prete demanded more. He began with the cultural foundation of building a winner and maintaining a high standard, regardless of where the program was. It is a standard these last three years that Prete and Roman Catholic have achieved.

The Cahillites were knocked out of the state playoffs the previous two years by state powerhouse Imhotep Charter.

The grind of a football season can carry a toll. It comes with tedious mental and physical repetition. It comes with film study, and walk throughs, and what sometimes gets left behind is real time—always thinking and moving to prep for the next opponent in the next game. Things get missed and passed.

“I cried, we all cried when we found out what happened to coach Prete’s daughter,” Felder said. “We’ve dedicated this whole season to him; every day, every practice has been dedicated to him. He doesn’t have to hear it. He knows. Without him, we wouldn’t be playing in the state championship. I know the history here and what coach Prete has meant. My freshman year, we were 3-7. He built this program. We have to get this done for him. I can’t imagine what coach Prete has gone through.

“As a team, I don’t think we have grasped the whole of how we have helped him. You do get into that routine of a season. You look at the next practice and the next film session. We play for him. He knows that. I think the toughest time was the season opener against Neumann-Goretti. We missed coach all through summer camp. That was a big step for him—and for us. We had to have coach Prete back.”

Prete spoke about the “off times,” when his mind would wander, and he would be hit with a visceral pain. It was never more than in the Neumann-Goretti game. He would make a coaching decision, then pause for a moment to grope for something that was not there. He leaned heavily on his coaches, Dom Joseph and Marcus Hammond. He leaned on Felder, team captain Jaasai Simmons and star junior quarterback Semaj Beals. They accepted Prete’s vulnerability. They were there when needed.

“Coach Prete never gave up on us, and with everything he’s been through, he was still there for us,” Beals said. “You tell me he looks at himself in the mirror and sees a weak man, I have a tough time hearing that. Coach Prete is one of the strongest men I know. No one would have had a problem if he passed on this season. He’s been an inspiration to us. I can’t imagine what he has been through. His daughter was close to our age. I remember when we heard coach Prete lost his daughter. We still scrimmaged that day because it is something coach Prete would have wanted us to do.

“We know deep down; his pain is still there. We have helped him get his mind off what happened. We would not be playing in the state championship without him. The man lost his daughter, and he came back for us. That’s a strong man. We love him.”

Simmons, a Marshall-bound edge rusher, along with the coaching staff, Felder and Beals, has been one of the pillars of this team. He does not know how many people would have endured the kind of pain Prete did and more than a month later walk a high school sideline.

“Coach Prete tells us every day about how much he appreciates us,” Simmons said. “Coach knows he can lean on us. He is with us 100-percent, and even though he is hurting, he doesn’t show it. Coach always tells us play with emotion, don’t be emotional. He makes sure we are locked in, even though he may not be. He’s a very strong man.”

Four years ago, Prete picked up Hammond during a low point. It was typical. He welcomed in Hammond, who is in his third year at Roman, and made him offensive coordinator. When the Cahillites hit the field on Friday, they are playing for themselves, and they know it. They are playing to make history, they are playing for each other, though mostly, they are playing for their coach.

“These kids are doing this for coach Prete,” Hammond said. “Everything this program has become, it’s Rick. There is no one I know who can say a bad thing about Rick. When I was down, it was Rick who picked me up. I can’t imagine, being a father myself, what Rick has been going through. We’ve been there for him. This has made everyone come together, and life tangible to Rick because Arianna was so close to the age of the kids on this team. More than a few people approached me to say they did not know whether they could have coached after what happened to Rick. We are absolutely not here without him. Our coaching staff has input, but everything goes through Rick. He is very methodical.”

Now, Roman Catholic stands on the brink of making school history at one of the oldest Catholic high schools in the nation.

Arianna had a special cackling laugh. She had an infectious personality. You knew she was in the room. She tended to light everything up around her. The Prete family are planning to create a charity foundation in her name. That will have to wait until next year. Football has dominated everything the last few months.

It’s been a great escape.

“I look at myself in the mirror and I don’t see someone who is strong,” Prete said. “I am still having a tough time with this. I will never recover. But these kids and this season have been a blessing. The support from the kids and the whole Philadelphia football community has helped. It’s a battle. It will be a battle forever, because she was 19, my first born daughter, and she told me every year this is something she wanted me to do. She wanted me to coach.

“I couldn’t break that promise.”

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito [twitter.com]. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball [twitter.com].