By Kim J. Harmon

Whenever Joe DeVellis had an opportunity with a ball – be it of the basket, foot or base variety – you held your breath because anything could have, and often did, happen.

It may have been a punt return for a touchdown with more bobbing and weaving than an old Muhammed Ali fight … or a fake no-look pass and a zipty doo da drive through the lane … or a bunt in the dirt and a mad dash down to first that turned into a mad dash over the second after an errant throw.

The bottom line is, Joe DeVellis was electric and after helping lead the football team to the brink of the Class LL playoffs and the basketball and baseball teams into the South-West Conference and CIAC Class LL playoffs he is, hands down, the Newtown High School Male Athlete of the Year.

The Short Shrift

If there is one thing that holds Joe back it’s his height. But it doesn’t hold him back – rather, it impacts the perception of football and basketball coaches for whom things like feet, inches and seconds in 40-yard dashes are too often absolute.

“On every (college) questionnaire it’s about height,” said Joe, 18, “and you have to put down 5-5. It’s been addressed so many times and sometimes you want to say, ‘hey, just look at the tape.’ But I’m thankful for what I have.”

And what he has is a spot on the Ithaca College football team. At Newtown High School, Joe was all over the field as a split-end, safety and kick returner but the Ithaca coaches are not willing to pigeonhole him so early and, instead, will refer to him in the “athletic” position – which means, essentially, that he could find himself in any of the skill positions on the field at any time.

“They don’t really have a spot for me,” said Joe, who was shown around campus by Newtown alumni and former teammate Bob Pattison, “but I have a chance to come right in and play.”

It’s odd that he has reached this point, considering that at one time he didn’t much care for football.

“For me, football came in third behind baseball and basketball,” said Joe, who grew up throwing around a baseball in the backyard with his father and grandfather. “I started when I was 73 pounds and it was one of those things – it was not fun for me.”

But while he didn’t grow much more, his love for the game did. And so as he was helping lead the Newtown 12-year-old All Star baseball team to a state championship and then helping lead the Newtown Middle School basketball team to two of its best seasons ever (which included an epic win over Blackham of Bridgeport), he was preparing for a great high school football career.

And, for that matter, baseball and basketball career. Yep, Joe is a multi-sport talent and this year became one of the very few athletes in the history of Newtown High School to earn his 12th varsity letter (classmate Moira Collier did it this year, too). Now that all is said and done, Joe finished with 21 career touchdowns, 521 career points and a .389 career batting average with 30 stolen bases.

“As good as my numbers are,” said Joe, “the only regret is I never won a championship. That’s the only downer. If I could have just had one. But looking at it, I kept it up for four years and that’s nice. I’m proud of what I’ve done.”

What he has done is set a standard of excellence and a style of play that will be difficult for anyone to match. On the football field he was the kind of dangerous talent that forced opposing teams to, say, punt the ball directly out of bounds instead of facing the risk of putting it into his hands. On the basketball court, he was the kind of player who would almost rather dish it off with a nifty no-look pass than score the basket himself. And on the baseball field, it was all about putting the ball in play, taking the extra base, and getting dirty.

“I love it when other people succeed because of something I do,” said Joe.

That may be the case, too, later in life as Joe plans on going into education – perhaps elementary or middle school teaching, where he can influence and mold young minds. And it probably goes without saying that he will coach a youth baseball or youth football team sometime – much like his father before him.

And now that he prepares for a life on the college gridiron (lifting three or four times a week and then running with future teammate Chris Potter), Joe took a moment to reflect on some of the great moments at Newtown High School – like beating Norwalk in the state basketball tournament, beating Masuk on the football field as a sophomore and beating Masuk in overtime on the basketball floor.

“I got a lot of memories,” he said. “I can’t believe four years have passed by so fast. It’s amazing.”

It’s amazing, too, that Joe is the first of four DeVellis boys likely to impact the Newtown athletic scene with Jake (16), Justin (11) and Jaret (9) already here or coming soon.

“It’s unbelievable to think that I’m leaving them,” he said. “My family has had such a huge impact on me playing sports. My mom was my biggest fan – even as much as she didn’t want me to play football. I’m going to miss them.”

And Newtown High School is going to miss Joe.