WATCH: ESPN Gameday feature on Tom Cutinella, SWR football team
ESPN aired a five-minute segment on Tom Cutinella and the Long Island champion Shoreham-Wading River football team during its popular College Gameday show Saturday.
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The piece about Tom, the SWR football player who died this fall after an on-field injury during the team’s Oct. 1 game at John Glenn, was shot earlier this week. Gene Wojciechowski — an analyst and columnist for the network — was in the district Tuesday gathering material and doing interviews for the piece, SWR athletic director Mark Passamonte at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
The Shoreham-Wading River team also attended the Army-Navy game due to the generosity of one total stranger. After reading about West Point offering Cutinella a posthumous scholarship, Dr. Michael Masciello — a 65-year-old cardiologist and 1971 graduate of Army — purchased tickets for the entire team to attend the game, which is 3 p.m. Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Masciello, who has no connection to the SWR program or the Cutinellas, reached out to the family and the team. He also bought special jerseys for the team that bear Cutinella’s No. 54.
A No. 54 sign, made in memory of Tom, was visible at times during the show Saturday among the many other signs fans typically prepare for the cameras.
