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Gargiulo earns rare football honor for Naval Academy

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Anthony Gargiulo, a Howell Township native and Colts Neck High School graduate, was named offensive captain of the United States Naval Academy’s football team in February.

The honor was the result of a teamwide vote.

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Navy names only two captains each year, one on offense, one on defense. Gargiulo is a fullback in the team’s triple option attack.

“It was definitely a big honor because it’s all player picked,” Gargiulo said. “I wasn’t even a big name player last year. I had a few good games, but I wasn’t the star. It was nice knowing they had the trust in me to take the role on.”

Gargiulo carried the ball 76 times for 423 yards (5.6 yards per carry) and three touchdowns in 2017. He registered a career-high 145 yards and a career-long 44-yard run in Navy’s 43-40 victory over Southern Methodist University last November.

“His freshman and sophomore year he was more limited, because of the guys that were ahead of him. But he split time last year, playing about 50 percent of the snaps,” said Navy running backs coach Mike Judge, who also recruited Gargiulo. “He wasn’t necessarily the starter but he was carrying the ball in critical situations, like the starter did.”

Judge added that Gargiulo will be “the main horse this year.” Gargiulo hopes a strong senior year will carry him to a bigger stage in 2019.

“I’ll do the best I can to get the attention of one of the NFL teams for a fullback position,” Gargiulo said. “I want to increase my yards per carry and have a lot of yards this year.”

So yes, Gargiulo will be one of Navy’s leaders on the field this fall. But that is not why he was named captain. His Midshipmen teammates voted for him because he’s a vocal leader and a leader by example.

“He’s always working to do better as a player and person,” said Navy fullback Mike Martin, Gargiulo’s classmate. “He says stuff when it needs to be said. Like anytime the team is lackadaisical. He’ll be like, ‘Yo, this is not who we are. Let’s fix it.’ But he doesn’t say anything more than he has to.”

“It’s the energy he brings and the way he practices. He’s always first on the line, always finishes first in drills,” said another classmate, Navy slot back Tre Walker. “He demonstrates Navy football and who we want to be.”

Judge noticed those qualities when Gargiulo was playing for Colts Neck. Gargiulo’s father, Sal Gargiulo, noticed them when Anthony was playing Pop Warner football for the Howell Lions.

“He was very mature, well spoken, had a plan for his future. Not many 16 year olds have a clear impression of where they want to go,” Judge said. “I just got a good sense that he’s a great kid who sees the bigger picture. Those are the types of kids who succeed here. This is a service oriented institution. We are looking for guys who want to help others before themselves.”

“He’s a strange kid. He was never a problem, never in trouble, never picked on anybody,” Sal Gargiulo said. “Howell was always very military conscious. It was instilled in him at a very young age to always protect people who couldn’t protect themselves. He didn’t want anybody bullying anybody.”

Gargiulo may have always seemed ideal for the Naval Academy, but the truth is, he “didn’t even know Navy existed” until his junior year at Colts Neck, when Judge started recruiting him.

Gargiulo was already getting recruited by the University of Virginia, Penn State University and Temple University, among many others. But they all wanted Gargiulo, a 6-3 and 230-pound hulk, to play linebacker.

Gargiulo did not mind the idea, but he wanted to keep playing fullback. The problem was, many DI programs were marginalizing the position in 2013, at the height of Gargiulo’s recruitment. The mature teenager remained steadfast in his determination to play the old school position.

“He said, ‘Dad, I want to run the football.’ He would have been happy to play both ways. But he wanted to run the ball,” Sal Gargiulo said. “Navy was firm on letting him do that.”

“We run a triple option offense. Everything goes through the quarterback and the fullback,” Judge said. “The quarterback carries the ball the most. Then the fullback.”

But once Gargiulo started researching Navy, he became sold on the militant aspects of the school as well. Gargiulo is not a party animal. He prefers to monitor the party. During summers, he even works as a bouncer at a Belmar bar.

“My friends would tell me all the time that I’d be the one to go to the military academy. I was always the old man in the group, checking in, making sure we were doing all the right things,” Gargiulo said. “I was also sold on the great education and easing the burden on my family paying for college.”

Gargiulo clearly made the right football decision, since he is about to enter a season as a Division 1 program’s lead runner.

Off the field, Navy life is a little more challenging than the average life of a major college player. Gargiulo is in class five days a week, eight hours a day. His major is quantitative economics.

But the off-field challenges make the experience that much more worthwhile. Gargiulo will have myriad career options, even if he doesn’t make the NFL.

“It was the opportunity after college that sold me as well,” Gargiulo said. “I haven’t really thought about what else I want to do. Something with money, business-wise. Maybe law. I would really like to go forth in being a lawyer, especially a military lawyer.”

It will be hard for any company or firm to turn down a Navy football captain.  

“It’s a ‘They can’t take it away from him’ type of thing,” Sal Gargiulo said. “He’ll have it for the rest of his life.”

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