Jack Iuliano Named Rye Lions Club Athlete of the Month for October
By Mitch Silver
This has been Jack Iuliano’s season for playing in big games and taking home big awards. As a captain of the Rye High Football team, the Garnet senior has anchored the line on both offense and defense in a number of important wins. Starting with their early-season 19-9 defeat of former State Class A champs Somers, following that with Head Coach Dino Garr’s 300th career victory against Sleepy Hollow, and continuing with back-to-back wins over Harrison, Jack helped Rye to the No. 4 seed in the Section playoffs.
After beating Nyack, the team avenged an earlier loss to top-rated Clarkstown South in the semis, before coming up four yards short of a winning touchdown against John Jay-Cross River. What most fans don’t know is this: Jack dislocated his left shoulder on the hard Clarkstown turf in the semis. He played the whole way against John Jay wearing a harness under his uniform.
Afterwards, he said, “I couldn’t extend my left arm all the way, couldn’t reach out wide for the tackle the way I wanted to.”
Even so, Jack was named Outstanding Lineman in the championship game. And now he’s been named Athlete of the Month.
He said, “It’s a great honor to represent the football team in this way.”
The Lions Club awards go to the student who exemplifies excellence on the athletic fields, in the classroom, and in service to the community. In nominating him, Coach Garr said, “Our football team really is a band of brothers. And Jack is the big brother his teammates always wanted to have.”
This award isn’t the only significant honor the U. of Pennsylvania-bound Iuliano has received recently. He was named Rye’s 2018 recipient of the Christopher D Mello Memorial Award, given to that individual who exemplifies athleticism, sportsmanship, academic accomplishment, and community service the way the late Chris Mello did.
Jack Iuliano checks all the boxes. A member of the National Honor Society, he has taken AP courses in Calculus, Forensics, Psychology, both U.S. and World History, U.S. Government, and Politics while maintaining a 94 GPA. He’s been named Student of the Month in, among other classes, Algebra/Trig, Chemistry, and American Sign Language. He’s considering majoring in History in college, and thanks his teacher Sean Moughty for deepening his knowledge of and love for the subject. An assistant lector at Resurrection Church on a regular basis, Jack volunteered the summer before junior year to work at Grand Teton National Park, rebuilding trails and water barriers.
Winning this monthly award also earns Jack an invitation to the Lions’ year-end dinner at The Osborn, when Rye’s Player of the Year will be announced.
