Wiedmer: Porky's Open helps UTC achieve national acclaim

I have a personal rule regarding University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic columns. Any time I can work UTC Sports Hall of Fame football player Cos DeMatteo into the copy, I require myself to do so.

So before we get to everything else that was great about the 16th annual Porky's Open golf tournament Tuesday at Council Fire, let us begin with a DeMatteo gem.

When former Mocs quarterback BJ Coleman -- who, sadly, never got to throw to DeMatteo, since their careers were a decade apart -- leads his Arizona Rattlers arena league team into New Orleans this weekend, DeMatteo will be calling defensive signals for the VooDoo, which, if nothing else, might be the coolest team name out there.

"It's kind of weird," said DeMatteo, who's actually the offensive coordinator at Baylor School but moonlights with the VooDoo on weekends through the summer. "I've been watching film the last couple of days and I find myself rooting for BJ to do well. But not on Saturday."

If you've paid close attention the past few months, you already know the UTC athletic department has been doing extraordinarily well this school year. The first football playoff appearance in 30 seasons. A nationally ranked women's basketball program that knocked off two top-10 teams during the regular season, including big sister Tennessee. Its usually stellar wrestling team. A Southern Conference regular-season champion softball program.

But it's where this places the financially strapped athletic department nationally that should most open eyes and mouths.

Thanks to its winter sports efforts, UTC is ranked No. 100 in the Learfield Sports Director's Cup. The Learfield Cup honors institutions that achieve athletic success across the board.

And when you don't have the money to so much as field a team in baseball, lacrosse and rowing -- not to mention being forced to cut men's track -- standing 100 among 351 NCAA Division I athletic departments is pretty impressive stuff.

"You're hesitant to say a lot about it because it can change in a hurry," UTC athletic director David Blackburn said during the Porky's, the department's biggest fundraiser. "But it's a great credit to both our coaches and all these bright, hard-working students who compete so well in both athletics and in the classroom."

The tournament's a big part of that. Begun by loyal booster Frank "Porky" Kinser, it helps fund athletic scholarships for all sports. Kinser expect this year's final figures to show that the tournament has raised more than $1.25 million since its inception.

"This is as good a turnout as we've ever had," Kinser noted of the 33 foursomes who paid $1,200 each. "It just keeps getting better and better."

But according to Blackburn, football coach Russ Huesman and new basketball coach Matt McCall, the city should also take a bow.

"We sell the heck out of this town," Blackburn said of its impact on recruiting both coaches and athletes. "It helps a ton."

It certainly helped sell McCall, the former Florida assistant who was hired last month to replace Will Wade.

"There's no question the city makes a difference," McCall said. "The people have opened their arms to us. We've already bought a home. The hardest part for me right now is that my wife and (daughter) Brooklyn are back in Gainesville. But for so many reasons -- including the central location, because the Southeast is a huge recruiting area for us -- this is a great place to be."

Huesman, who played for the Mocs at the dawn of the 1980s when the city wasn't nationally perceived as a great place to be, agrees.

"This city is one of the best selling points we've got," he said. "We use it big, and though I'm biased, I think it's the best city in the Southern Conference."

DeMatteo came to the city in 1998 from Winchester, Tenn. He once caught six touchdown passes for the Mocs in a single game. He later played Arena Football League ball at Arizona, of all places. He also earned a small role in the 2006 football movie "Invincible."

It was that understated performance opposite veteran actor Mark Wahlberg -- who played real-life Philadelphia Eagle Vince Papale in the film -- that made a director's slight in last summer's Nationwide Insurance commercial shot at UTC's Finley Stadium so much tougher to take.

Though the ad's star was Peyton Manning, DeMatteo had been cast as a coach.

"But," he said, somewhat sheepishly, "I didn't make the cut."

However, he'd easily make any cut for Best Dad after explaining why he left a wide receivers coaching position with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL for the Baylor post.

"You can't be a good husband and father and be gone all the time," he said, referring to his devotion to wife Ashley, 6-year-old son Cosmo and 4-year-old daughter Ellison. "I needed to be home."

And just in case anyone in UTC Blue and Gold needs another reason to keep generating scholarship money through the Porky's, young DeMatteo appears to have a future in wrestling.

"He just won a tournament at 55 pounds," said Poppa Cos. "He's pretty good."

If the kid's good enough to make the DeMatteos UTC's first father-son Hall of Fame duo one day, someone should make one of those ESPN 30/30 documentaries and title it "Just BeCos." Especially if any mention of that Nationwide editing fiasco winds up on the cutting-room floor.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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