Faith, family and football are all vitally important to Rino Monteforte.

"The long term goal is to be a principal, athletic director or football coach and teach theology at a Catholic high school in New York." Monteforte said about his specific plans for the future, while he also emphasized the importance of having a family to enjoy the environment with him.

Monteforte built his foundation and strong principles growing up in the town of North Babylon, New York on Long Island, where he attended Catholic school from the age of 2 1/2. He prepped at Kellenberg Memorial High School in nearby Uniondale and then moved on to Notre Dame, where he played in all 16 games a year ago for the Fighting Irish, including the national championship, before graduating in just three years with a bachelor's degree in theology.

"This is my first year ever not being in a Catholic school," Monteforte said with a chuckle.

"It's like I'm going off into the real world and getting my school paid for through a scholarship, while still being able to play football at a really high level," said Monteforte, who is in a master's program in education at Cal.

Monteforte has remained steadfast in his faith and is a regular at the Newman Hall Catholic Church in Berkeley but is also enjoying new experiences at the nation's top public institution and living in an urban area.

"I was always sort of isolated so to live in an urban area and be exposed to the things I have been has definitely been an adjustment to say the least, but I'm very grateful for it," Monteforte said. "It's super important to get the experience I'm having now. Sometimes, people just want to jump to conclusions about each other but that's not what it's about. I like the opportunity to have a conversation and gain an understanding of each other. The point is to create interfaith dialog and realize that just because someone believes something different than you do, it doesn't mean they're a bad person. It means that they have different beliefs and opinions, but you can still respect and love each other."

Monteforte has long used his experience in sports to get to know others.

"Sports have really amplified my ability to get along with others," Monteforte said. "That's one of the reasons sports are so great. You have people from all different backgrounds, all different ways of life, and you have to be able to get along with everybody."

Monteforte's love of sports started as a young child in North Babylon, where he grew up in a family of huge New York Giants fans. He vividly remembers the team's Super Bowl XLVI win over the New England Patriots in February of 2012 that helped the then eight-year-old cope with the loss of his father, Benito Jr., who had passed away the previous September after a long battle with brain cancer.

"He was praying for his Dad to make the Giants win but they weren't winning," said his mother, Justina. "And then all of a sudden they won. Rino was convinced that his Dad helped the Giants win that game."

Monteforte was also determined to play college football one day, but after being one of the biggest kids on his youth football teams, he was beginning to be passed by in stature by many of his peers. By the time he was in the seventh grade, he knew he was going to have to be creative to realize his dream.

That's when he came across a YouTube video of NFL long snapper Joe Cardona, who ironically played for his family's much-hated Patriots at the time.

"It was a simple video talking about the form and technique, and I was like, 'man, I could do this,'" Monteforte said.

He was laughed at by his friends and his start was rough, but he stuck with it.
 

The first person he practiced with in the family's backyard who caught his snaps was his grandmother, Aggie.

"She's the best woman in the world and I love her to death, but she said straight to my face, 'you suck.'" Monteforte said.

"From that moment on all he did was practice," Aggie said. "He practiced every single day. If it was Christmas, he was out practicing. If there were 18 inches of snow, he would shovel the snow away and practice."

Monteforte practiced so much that his snaps became a little too much for Aggie or anyone else in the family to handle, and rumor has it caused some damage in the backyard fence where his snaps would end up. He convinced his mother to spend $700 on a practice net and another $400 to ship it from California to New York.

It was the best money she ever spent.

"Once he got good, no one could catch his snaps," Justina explained. "It was so fast, your hand was bruised. Sometimes we would go out there with a big pillow or a baseball catcher's mitt until we got that net."

Soon, the seventh-grader was attending long snapping camps and taking on high schoolers. He made the finals at his first camp. Two years later, he played junior varsity as a freshman at Kellenberg and then the next year became one of the few sophomores ever to be called up to the school's varsity team.

"Rino has a very strong work ethic," said Joe Citrano, who coached Monteforte at Kellenberg and continues to work with him today. "He doesn't take mediocre. He wants to be great at everything he does."

Faith, family, football – and a new experience at Cal. Monteforte is living up to his standard of greatness.
 

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