Dom Amore: Eric Mangini’s football camp wraps up June 10; Teddy Cashman’s big year at Avon Old Farms, growing college baseball, all in the Sunday Read

Each of the last 20 years, on a Saturday afternoon in June, Eric Mangini has climbed up to the top of the hill overlooking Colt Park and loved what he saw. Hundreds of kids, grouped off to play football 7-on-7, falling in love with the game just where he once did.

“I used to love going up there in the afternoon,” Mangini said. “To see this massive amount of kids in Colt Park from all over the state, different parts of the country, at the place where I practiced football and was able to fall in love with football, that will always stay with me, that image will be the most powerful.”

Next Saturday, June 10, will be the last climb, the 20th and final Carmine and Frank Mangini Foundation football fundamentals camp in Hartford. Times have changed, there are a lot of other camps going on in June, coaches have retired; it’s time for Mangini and the not-for-profit foundation named for his father and uncle, which provides resources to area students, to focus on the other ways it makes a difference in Connecticut.

“The whole foundation is designed to create opportunities for under-resourced kids,” Mangini said. “So even though it started with a football-driven origin, we try to make experiences available to kids in all different areas.”

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Mangini, 52, who went on from Bulkeley High to play at Wesleyan and coach the Jets, as the youngest head coach in the NFL in 2006, and Browns, and now works as a TV analyst, can rest assured he has impacted thousands through his camp. When he was in high school, the Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary came to speak, and it inspired him to do the same one day.

“I just thought it was a really cool thing to do,” Mangini said. “I thought, ‘if I could ever do that, I’d want to do that.'”

After winning a Super Bowl early in his career as a Patriots assistant, Mangini, with family and friends, including his brother, Kyle, and former coaches at Bulkeley, Graham Martin and Harry Bellucci, put together the camp, bringing in top flight players and NFL and college coaches, all on a volunteer basis, to come and work with kids. No one has ever been turned away for an inability to pay, and more than 700 have participated in some years.

Bryan Cox and Dante Scarnecchia have made all or nearly all the camps, and will be back next week, along with a host of NFL assistants and players.

“To have those kids get exposure to these coaches, if they can’t afford a couple of hundred bucks to go to camp, is an incredible opportunity,” said Bellucci, who retired last year after 42 years coaching at Bulkeley and Hartford Public and is Mangini’s brother-in-law. “We literally sat down at the kitchen table talking about it and we got it going, and now we’re giving out tens of thousands dollars in mini grants to teachers from Waterbury to New Britain to Hartford and we’re about to give out 20 brand new laptops to kids on their way to college, stuff like that is just an awesome feeling.”

There is still time for students in grade 8 to 12 to register for this year’s program, which will begin at the Sports and Medical Sciences Academy at 8 p.m. and move to the park. The CFM Foundation website has all the information you need.

“I wanted to provide an opportunity for kids who couldn’t go to a camp to have that opportunity,” Mangini said, “and I wanted it to be a special day, where really good coaching and the ability to compete in the afternoon, and all the things you would experience (elsewhere), maybe a little bit better, and to bring in as much diversity as we possibly could. Hopefully they take away from football things that will help them and we can surround them with great mentors, reinforcing that there are a lot of people that care about things you are doing and want to help you be successful.”

Okay, now we can’t let Mangini, who got the nickname “Mangenius” during his successful first season with the Jets and in a memorable cameo appearance on The Sopranos, go without having him don his analysts’ hat. His last coaching gig, with the 49ers, ended in 2015 and he’s enjoying time with his wife and three sons and appearing on various football shows for Fox Sports 1 and The 33rd Team.

“I do a lot of work each week to stay current and prepare for the work I do on TV,” Mangini said. “That stuff is still exciting and interesting. I’d never rule out (returning to coaching). but I’m exciting about the things I’m experiencing now.”

Mangini on the Jets:

“Got to be really excited with Aaron Rodgers. I went through that experience with Brett Favre, and it changes everything in the building, in the organization. When you get a guy like Aaron Rodgers, you’ve got a chance in every game, a chance to go to the playoffs, a chance to go to the Super Bowl.”

On the Giants:

“Brian (Daboll) was my offensive coordinator in Cleveland. He did an incredible job, and I relate to Brian, because we went to the playoffs my first year in New York, bucking expectations. But he’s got a real significant challenge going into Year Two, because you’re not sneaking up on anybody, and dealing with success can be just as challenging as dealing with adversity. And, God, the league made it hard on them (with the schedule).”

And the Patriots:

“It comes down to whether or not the Mac Jones we saw as a rookie is the real Mac Jones, or the Mac Jones who showed up in Year Two is closer to what he’s going to be. You look at the strides Miami has made, the Jets bring in Aaron Rodgers and the success Buffalo has had, it’s hard to get your mind around the idea that New England could finish last.”

Cashing in at Avon Old Farms

Avon Old Farms, after a 1-3 start, won 16 of its last 17 and took the Founder’s League championship with a 2-1 win over Loomis Chaffee on May 24.

Rob Dowling, who was named coach of the year in the league, and had 10 all-leaguers, gave rave reviews to centerfielder Teddy Cashman, the son of Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who hit .415 and led the league with five homers.

“Teddy had an amazing year,” Dowling said. “He was a great competitor, tough, great teammate, a big part of the chemistry of the team. He was at his best in the most important moments.”

Cashman, a postgrad, showed he could hit high-end fastballs. He has committed to play Division I baseball at Lafayette, but may have played his way into MLB draft consideration.

Sunday short takes

* Playing the Greater Hartford Pro Am at Saint Joseph’s gym makes so much sense, one is surprised it’s happening. Kudos to those who stepped up to make it happen.

Greater Hartford Pro-Am is back, revitalized for 25th season to take place in Jim Calhoun Gym

* Hillhouse-New Haven, in a co-op with Career, won what is believed to be its first-ever baseball tournament game since the CIAC era began, beating Fitch-Groton before losing to Masuk-Monroe this week. Hillhouse, which fielded its first teams in the mid-1880s, didn’t make a state tournament between 1989 and 2019.

* The Hartford Public Athletic Hall of Fame has moved its fundraiser to June 8, from 4-7 p.m. at the Red Rock Tavern in Hartford. Donations are $20 dollars, the proceeds to go directly to student scholarships in June. Contact Mike Forrest at 860-810-3734 for more information.

* The Yard Goats’ Hunter Goodman, who had 51 coming into the weekend, is leading the Eastern League in RBIs … by a lot.

* Not a big Home Run Derby fan, but if you stretch one out over a whole summer between Aaron Judge and Peter Alonso, yeah, I’ll sign for that.

Last word

The NCAA Baseball Tournament, “The Road to Omaha” is an underappreciated, undervalued event. How can that be changed? It would help to involved the two-thirds of the country that never see a Regional.

UConn and Boston College offered a great chance to re-route the road through New England, but the metrics used skew toward the certain conferences, where, yes, there are many good teams but they play each other all season. Suppose the formula is changed, or the 14 through 16 seeds play as the No.1’s in neutral site regionals near New York, Boston and Chicago? Worth a try, I say.