Coffee With New Canaan's Lou Marinelli

Lou Marinelli took over a football program in 1981 that was riding a 31-game winless streak and built it into a perennial power. But on the road to eight state championships and four FCIAC titles, there have been a few speed bumps. The head coach of the Rams took time out to talk with Patch about dealing with parents, coaching kids in today's world, and the one thing that continues to tug at him.

In 2009, Marinelli made the decision to replace Willie Ouellette, a senior captain and starting quarterback, with Turner Baty, who had just moved into town as the season was starting. It wasn't a popular decision and threatened to divide a team that eventually won the state championship. Baty committed to Kansas last week, and it re-opened wounds with some people who did not like the way the situation was handled.

"Of all the people that feel bad, I feel worse than anybody because I love that kid (Ouellette), I really do, "said Marinelli. "It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in all my time. It has put a strain on the relationship that we had. I hope in the years down the road, that Willie understands. He got beat out by a kid who just won a junior college national championship and signed with Kansas. I don't mean that to be mean to him or those people. If anything, Baty's signing is more validation that my decision was right and I hated to make that choice."

Advances in technology have made scouting and breaking down film easier for Marinelli and his coaching staff. However, cutting-edge technology has also led to a social media explosion that's given high school kids more choices than they've ever had. That's forced Marinelli to change the way he tries to get his message across.

"It a whole new world with the Internet and everything," he said. "The attention spans aren't that long. They go home and they have 400 channels on tv to choose from and if they don't like something, they go on to something else," said Marinelli, who has won 74 percent of his games at New Canaan. "If they don't like what you say in five minutes, the kids are gone and looking all over the place. I tell my coaches to keep it short in film and demonstrations. If you stand up and lecture them, you will lose them."

Marinelli has won 255 games in his career at New Canaan and by the time it's over, he should be the all-time winningest coach in state history. However, Marinelli doesn't measure himself by wins and losses.

"We're trying to build better people and help them survive in a ruthless world, and they can't survive in a ruthless world if they're always being told, 'you're the best, you're the best, it's going to be easy,' he said. "It's hard for parents to sometimes accept that maybe their kid isn't as successful as he was before he got to the high school. But the more you fail at something and have to keep fighting back again and again to be successful, shows great character. Look at Jeremy Lin of the Knicks and all the times he got cut. But there was something inside of him that kept him going. Those are the type of people that you want on your team."