Holy Trinity's title run: 'Quality over quantity'

Holy Trinity has strength in numbers, but not in the traditional way. The football team has one of the smallest rosters in the Catholic League but those players are some of the most talented athletes around. The Titans proved that can be enough to move up in competition and take home another title.

Holy Trinity defeated Moore Catholic, 20-14, to win the CHSFL Class AA-1 title at Mitchel Athletic Complex on November 19. It was the program’s second straight title after winning the CHSFL Class AA-2 title last fall and moving up in competition.

Coach Kahmal Roy said Holy Trinity has a roster of about 50 players, which he said is significantly smaller than many of the teams the Titans face. But the players and coaches take pride in the ability to overcome the lack of roster numbers to still dominate.

“We always think quality over quantity,” said Jameer Reeder, a junior running back and linebacker. “We may have like a 50-man roster but we make sure our starting 11 and the bench is as good as they can possibly be. I’d rather have our little solid squad than to have a massive team that isn’t really close together, so we take a lot of pride in our smaller team.”

That smaller team has led to Holy Trinity winning 19 of 20 games the last two seasons. Its only loss was a 10-7 contest against Chaminade, which is a CHSFL Class AAA team playing at the top level in the state.

The Titans wanted to prove they can play with any school in the area as they moved up in competition this fall.

“We had a lot of motivation, especially from the success last year,” Reeder said. “We carried that on our back along with the target of moving up and having to prove ourselves even more that we could compete with the higher leagues.”

Roy said the motivation was more to prove to themselves they were capable of being one of the best teams around — not to others.

“It wasn’t necessarily that we wanted to prove it to the outside world, more so we wanted to prove it to ourselves,” Roy said. “The outside world, especially to our program, has been somewhat supportive but more so not supportive so we didn’t really let in our wheelhouse. We didn’t let that in our yard in terms of what we were hoping and planning to do. We just really wanted to prove to ourselves that we have talent and we can put that talent on display and execute at a high level.”

That talent led to Holy Trinity outscoring opponents, 316-122, in a 9-1 season. With Reeder in the backfield and standout receiver Josiah Brown along with a bevy of playmakers surrounding quarterback Rocco Rainone, Holy Trinity had no shortage of players capable of making a big impact. 

“It’s great having all these playmakers surrounding our quarterback and our offense,” said Brown, a junior. “It makes it really easy because when you make big plays and put up big numbers, it makes us harder to defend.”

“We laugh about it as a staff because I think we’ve gotten a little spoiled just being able to see it day in and day out but it’s really special to watch,” Roy said. “There are plays that even surprise us and make us go, ‘Wow, that’s a different kind of speed, that’s a different kind of athleticism’ and we are very fortunate.”

Holy Trinity returns many of its top playmakers. The Titans don’t know their fate for what league they will be in next fall, but the players want to continue proving themselves against top competition.

“If we do hit [Class] AAA, then we’ll actually be able to show our talents against the best in New York State,” Reeder said. “So once that’s on the table, all we’ll have to do is execute and prove what we have been proving these last few seasons and seasons to come.”

“AAA is something that’s a goal of ours,” Roy said. “I’d like to think we’d be ready for it sooner rather than later.”