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Sean Stellato Never Backs Down | The Salem State Log – By the Students, for the Students.
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Sean Stellato Never Backs Down APRIL 22ND, 2016 HAROLD RIVERA SPORTS 0 COMMENTS
Stellato (22) was recruited to play Division I football at Marist College, where he switched positions from quarterback to wide receiver. / Photo courtesy of Poughkeepsie Journal
by Harold Rivera / Sports editor
Salem native, Sean Stellato, knows what it’s like to succeed in a competitive field. As a dual-athlete at Salem High School,
Stellato led the Witches to success on the gridiron and the hardwood. As an NFL agent, he represents 16 professional
football players. As an author, he captured his journey through the power of the written word and provided a source of
motivation in the process. All in all his path has been far from easy, but he’s never backed down.
Stellato was born and raised in Salem to a working class family of Italian heritage. He remembers Salem as a city full of
pride and tradition.“I’m extremely proud of where I came from,” Stellato said. “Salem will always have a special place in
my heart. I remember the history and the tradition, the pride. That’s something that always resonated with me as a young
boy.”
Growing up in the Witchcraft Heights part of the city, Stellato was introduced to sports by his two older brothers. “I was
the baby so I used to tag around with my older brothers,” Stellato added. “They put the toughness in me to play sports.
We were constantly out all day playing football, basketball, baseball.”
The countless hours of playing pickup games with his older siblings paid off for Stellato when he earned the starting
quarterback job for Salem High in 1994. That same year, he quarterbacked the Witches to a Super Bowl championship.
On the basketball court, Stellato helped the Witches to a State Championship and an undefeated season in 1995. The
Witches were one of the last teams to ever play in the old Boston Garden, where they won the State Championship game
Sean Stellato Never Backs Down | The Salem State Log – By the Students, for the Students.
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“No Backing Down,” written by Sean
Stellato, was released in July 2014.
The second edition of the novel will be
that year. “Basketball at Salem was always a sport that I loved,” Stellato said. “I thought hoop was one of my better
sports. Going 25-0 was pretty unique.”
After a successful high school career, Stellato went on to play football and basketball for The Gunnery prep school in
Connecticut. He was then recruited to play Division I sports for Marist College in New York.
Although recruited as a quarterback, Stellato was forced to climb yet another mountain when he converted to wide
receiver at Marist. With the help of a “speed guru” named Ron Jones, Stellato elevated his skill set and committed to his
new position. He led Marist in receiving in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. “I was as committed as I’ve ever been at that point
to being the best I can be,” Stellato said. “I really turned myself into a wide receiver.”
As a student-athlete, Stellato was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Academic team in 2000 and 2001.
He earned dean’s list at Marist for nine consecutive semesters, despite facing the challenge of balancing both football and
basketball with academics. “The balance was tough,” he added. “I took a ton of exams in hotel rooms. I took exams on
airplanes. I was committed to succeeding. I knew I could control how smart I wanted to be. My dad always taught me not
to sweat the things I couldn’t control.”
After finishing his collegiate career at Marist, Stellato went on to play professional football in the Arena Football League.
He signed his first professional contract with the Florida Firecats. His career also included stints with the Louisville Fire
and the Memphis Xplorers.
When his football career came to a close, Stellato went through a transitional phase in looking for his next calling. He
recalls finding inspiration from a film he watched during his senior year in high school. “I remember watching the movie
“Jerry Maguire” when it came o
ut in 1996,” Stellato said. “I was just blown away by the story with regards to
how it all panned out. I fell in love with that movie and I knew it was either
going to be coaching or being an agent. I threw my ring in the agent shark
tank.”
Stellato remains involved in the game he loves by representing a long list of
NFL stars. His clientele includes Ryan Allen, Nate Ebner and Joe Vellano of
the New England Patriots, Bryan Braman of the Philadelphia Eagles, Shaun
Draughn of the San Francisco 49ers, Jonas Gray of the Jacksonville Jaguars,
and Alfred Morris of the Dallas Cowboys.
“It’s like being on the tower of terror,” Stellato said. “You have days that are
high and days that are low when players get cut and contracts get terminated.
There’s 825 agents to 1,600 NFL players, so it’s as fierce a competition as
ever. I feel that I can’t play the game anymore and this is as close as I can get
to the gridiron.”
“A lot of people, in their jobs, watch the same movie every Monday morning
Sean Stellato Never Backs Down | The Salem State Log – By the Students, for the Students.
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released in July. / Photo courtesy of
Nick Johnson
TAGS BASKETBALL BELIEVE FOOTBALL NEVER BACK DOWN PHOTOS SALEM HIGH SCHOOL
SALEM NATIVE SEAN STELLATO
and know the end result,” he noted. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys. I
wanted something that makes my heart beat a little faster.”
Aside from his successful career as an agent, Stellato also authored a novel
titled “No Backing Down,” chronicling the story of the 1994 Salem High football team. When a teacher’s strike
threatened to end the team’s season, head coach Ken Perrone refused to let politics get in the way. “I look at Coach
Perrone and he had 1,419 wins in his coaching career,” he said. “He didn’t back down. He fought for his kids. That’s no
different from Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks. They stood up for what they believed in.”
The project began in 2009, with the novel’s release in July 2014. “It was very therapeutic for me to be able to write that
book,” he said. “I did every ounce of due diligence to write that book from studying [Nathaniel] Hawthorne to watching
every game film from that season.”
A second edition of the novel is scheduled
to be released in July. He believes that the novel, along with the story, can be used as a source of motivation and
inspiration for those who face challenges and follow his mantra of no backing down.
“We’re all given one paintbrush and one canvas and the picture you paint is up to you,” he said. “I’ve made so many
people believers along the way, and I believe that I’ve sprinkled a little bit of inspiration everywhere I’ve been.”
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