As a mentor, Wendell Fevrine gets it

May 8, 2023 Andy Furman

New Utrecht High School. Wikimedia photo by MJ

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He’s more than a coach. A teacher, perhaps. A mentor, maybe. Perhaps a role model.

Wendell Fevrine, an Assistant Football Coach on the staff at New Utrecht High School says he has his “dream job.”

And on Saturday, he shares his dream at New Utrecht’s Second Annual Football Alumni Career Day.

“Our Utrecht family is striving to be international about showing the 2023 football team that the values they are developing will translate directly into their professional lives,” Fevrine said.

New Utrecht football has a special place in the life of Wendell Fevrine – he played his high school football for the Green and White.

“At this point,” he said, “It ain’t even about me no more. I don’t even think about my playing career, I just like working with the kids. That’s just my purpose. I’ve been around these kids so long, longer that I played there.”

In fact, Fevrine’s mother didn’t let him play football.

“My mother never let me go anywhere, so I would sneak away and tell her I’m at a cousin’s house or something,” he said. “The grown men in the neighborhood would play tackle football. All the drug dealers and those guys would just go to the park and play tackle football. I would play with them, but I was 12. I would be scoring like five touchdowns and breaking out.”

Wendell Fevrine. Photo courtesy of New Utrecht High School Football Alumni

As a senior at New Utrecht Fevrine was getting recruited by eight or nine schools. “By the third game of the year I already had 600 yards rushing. The fourth game I was injured – a thigh bruise – and that was my season.”

The University of Florida, New Haven, Rhode Island and Pace were still on his radar – and he decided on Pace – for education and football.

Next stop –the regional combine.

“If you do well at regional,” he said, “You get an invite to Indianapolis.”

With three running backs under contract, the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian League took a chance on Fevrine – he couldn’t wait —he signed in the Arena League.

But Wendell Fevrine’s calling was working with youngsters.

“Mentoring kids and seeing them play it forward is the greatest reward,” he said. “There is no better feeling than touching a young life that in turn touches other young lives.”

Fevrine will be doing just that at his alma mater – New Utrecht High School – Saturday.

“We’ll be practicing from nine-to-noon and having a Meet-and-Greet from noon to 1 pm,” he said.

He wants to touch the community so badly he adds: “If you cannot attend, feel free to send a one-to-two-minute video discussing the impact of New Utrecht High School football on your professional life.”

The pillars of our program, Fevrine reminds, are Resilience, Attitude, Accountability, Competition and Discipline. “We ask that any alumni coming on this day consider one or-more of our pillars and it’s connection to their respective career,” he said.

“As Utes, not a day goes by without summoning the lessons learned in a helmet and shoulder pads to overcome life’s adversity,” Fevrine said. “Many of our youth have limited exposure to multiple career paths and financial literacy, but within our Utrecht football family we have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. We can and will enable these young men to dominate life as fathers, heads of households and professionals.”

And the one thing that bonds this group together —Wendell Fevrine.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR