Eagles assistant Joe Pannunzio helped Apache Junction's Bruce Binkley find his passion

Right after the Philadephia Eagles defeated the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC championship, Apache Junction football coach Bruce Binkley texted his mentor of 41 years.

He reminded assistant special teams coach Joe Pannunzio of the dinner date they'd set up earlier in the season if the Eagles came to the Valley to play in the Super Bowl.

"Absolutely!" was Pannunzio's response.

This isn't just an NFL coach providing lip service to a kid he coached in Colorado in the early 1980s when Binkley was a middle school wrestler on Pannunzio's team. This is an unbreakable bond between coach and pupil that has them regularly texting each other.

Binkley credits every coaching job he has had in his career to Pannunzio and his connections, including his latest, leading the Apache Junction Prospectors football program the last three years.

So when Binkley found out all of the Eagles coaches and players would be a part of Opening Night on Monday at Footprint Center for Super Bowl 57, Binkley made it a point of being there with his 10-year-old son Peyton.

They connected. Posed for pictures.

"I was teaching middle school math (in Grand Junction, Colorado), and you could see he had a passion and a dream," Pannunzio said. "For me, it's the same thing. I've been a part of three national championships at Alabama. But when the plane took off (for Phoenix), I'm saying to myself, 'I'm going to coach in the Super Bowl.' Bruce had the same kind of dream and same kind of passion."

It started for Binkley in the seventh grade in 1982, when he was a student in Pannunzio's class, competed on his wrestling team, and after school would head over to Mesa (Colorado) College to watch game film. Pannunzio also was an assistant coach at Mesa College then, where his football coaching career took off. He eventually became the offensive coordinator and was a part of two teams that reached the NAIA national championship game.

That led to stops at Auburn, Mississippi, Miami and Alabama, before going to the Eagles, serving in different capacities.

"To me, he's always been more than a coach," Binkley said. "He's been everything. People can big time the crap out of you. I went to Alabama to visit him and he took us around, showed us the offices."

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Binkley recalls how his dad would ask him where he was going after school in the seventh grade. He told him he was hanging out with Joe at the college to break down film.

"People get on kids today that they're not this or they're not that," Pannunzio said. "They're more talented than they've ever been. But they also need more direction and they need more real people in their lives.

"I learned real fast that coaching isn't about the fame and the fortune. It's about how many lives you can change, and what a difference you can make through sports to not only help our country but to help our world, help people realize what their full potential is."

Binkley owes his current profession and drive to Pannunzio and the steady positive feedback he received during formidable years.

The Jesse Parker character coaching award he received this year he owes to the influence Pannunzio had on him.

"This game is about relationships," Binkley said. "It's not about anything else. We've had a wonderful relationship."

Pannunzio, 63, believes the high school level is the most important time to influence a kid and to find the greatest gratification as a coach.

"I've been very fortunate," Pannunzio said. "I came from a home with educators. I had a mom and a dad who cared about me, but along the way there were coaches and a second-grade teacher who helped me learn that I didn't have to be perfect, but I could be whatever I wanted to be, if I worked hard enough at it. That's what I wanted to do through coaching.

"That's what life is. I think Bruce is a perfect example of trying to become that. Him as a high school coach, he's trying to do the same thing I did."

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To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Eagles assistant Joe Pannunzio mentored Apache Junction's Bruce Binkley