A dream realized with hard work, sacrifice

The dream was born in unlikely circumstances.

“It was during my freshman year, when I was about 120 pounds and a backup, I started thinking what I really wanted to do was play quarterback for Mead,” said Andrew DeFelice.

But during all of DeFelice’s freshman year and most of his sophomore, he was the second-string junior varsity signal-caller, stuck behind his classmate and friend Kevin Schneider, the Panthers’ heir apparent.

But DeFelice didn’t bail on his dream.

“I’ve never been the biggest guy out there, so I got into (coach Sean) Carty’s weights class and starting hitting the weights pretty hard,” DeFelice said. “And I worked at it, throwing the ball in the backyard a couple of hours every day waiting to get a chance.”

It came late in his sophomore year.

Schneider suffered a major concussion, opening the door a little for DeFelice, and nearly causing the roof to cave in.

“I almost got in the Pasco (state playoff) game because (starting varsity quarterback) Chad Flett hurt his arm on the second drive or something,” DeFelice said, still recalling the terror he felt. “Someone yelled ‘DeFelice, warm up,’ and I’m really nervous, because it’s the big Pasco game and we were up 7-0. I didn’t go in, but it was a lot of pressure.”

The door burst wide open before the next football season when Schneider decided to concentrate on baseball, leaving DeFelice with the reins to the Panthers’ offense and a chance to fulfill his dream.

“It wasn’t by default that Andrew got this opportunity,” Carty said. “It was one of those things where they were both working and working and Kevin dropped off. It was one of those things where there was going to be competition and I’m not going to say Andrew was going to win it because who knows, but Andrew was working so hard.”

DeFelice’s dream season – he passed for 1,208 yards – had a nightmare result, as defending GSL champion Mead finished a disappointing 5-5 overall and failed to make the postseason.

That’s not the case this year.

“No one expected me to have the best quarterback rating in the league (last year at 91.8),” DeFelice said. “Since I did it junior year, I knew senior year I couldn’t get worse.”

He didn’t. The Panthers are league champions again, roaring through the nine GSL games undefeated. They earned their way into the 4A round of 16 by easing past Wenatchee 28-8 Tuesday.

DeFelice, who is all of 150 pounds, led the GSL with 1,385 passing yards and a 111.4 quarterback rating. He also did his part Tuesday, throwing three touchdown passes, all to Nick Proen, and all perfectly delivered.

The second one was the most memorable. Dropping back, DeFelice looked off the safety to the right, turned back to the left and threw the ball into an open spot in the defensive backfield long before Proen came free. The college-caliber throw resulted in a 24-yard scoring catch and a 20-0 lead for the Panthers.

“I don’t think I could have made that play last year,” DeFelice said. “I have such a good connection with the wideouts, Andy (Mattingly) and Nick. There’s a trust we have that’s gotten better since then.”

But DeFelice will have to deliver more than just touchdown passes Saturday for the Panthers to advance past top-ranked Southridge. He knows he has to bring a presence into the huddle, one of those intangibles coaches always rave about.

“When he’s out there on the field and things are looking as bad as they can get, he’s still dialed in,” Carty said. “Nothing gets him upset. If there are any sticky spot, he’s the guy to get us out of it. And we need that.

“We’ve got some fiery guys. Those guys are hard to keep the reins on. He does it. It’s the respect thing. It’s not like he’s in charge of them, but he is, do you know what I mean? They don’t fight. They just know he’s the guy.”

“I try to stay calm,” DeFelice said. “With Carty firing everybody up, I’ve got to stay that way. And we’ve had a problem with penalties this year, so after a big run that gets called back by a penalty, I try to keep calm so they don’t see me saying, ‘Dang, I can’t believe this,’ so I try to stay positive and keep everyone else positive.”