The AMCATS had never won more than two football games in a season but Dan Mulrooney and Co. have turned things in a new direction. Anna Maria athletics photo

By Brian Lester
D3sports.com

Dan Mulrooney beamed with pride and his heart filled with joy as he watched his team celebrate its first ECFC championship in program history Saturday afternoon with a 31-7 victory over SUNY-Maritime.

In that moment, a moment that was once just a dream with long odds attached to it, the head coach of Anna Maria thought back to 2016 when he was hired to take over a program in shambles.

The AMCATS were 1-9 in the season prior to Mulrooney taking the job. Only 17 players showed up to the first team meeting he held. He was basically starting from scratch.

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“People told me I was crazy to take the job, that I was never going to win there,” Mulrooney said. “I just had to block out the noise. The guys had to do the same. It’s surreal that we are here. It’s a dream come true. We’ve literally gone from worst to first.”

The story isn’t over. The AMCATS – an acronym for Anna Maria College Athletic Team Sports – are headed to the NCAA playoffs and will take on Delaware Valley on Saturday in the team’s first-ever postseason trip. They are 7-2 on the season, an impressive mark when one considers Anna Maria had never won more than two games.

“It’s truly an underdog story,” senior quarterback Alex Cohen said. “It feels so amazing to accomplish what we did.”

Cohen was one of the original players Mulrooney recruited. He is one of 24 seniors still standing from a recruiting class sold on a vision and nothing more.

“Coach told us that if we came here, we’d have a chance to do something special and leave a footprint on the program,” Cohen said. “And we have. It’s pretty cool knowing we’ve helped make that happen.”

Mulrooney believed in what he was selling to his players, not just to the ones in his first recruiting class but in the ones that followed as well. The AMCATS continued to struggle, winning just four games in the first three seasons under Mulrooney’s guidance, but no one stopped believing.

“You have to be crazy enough to trust your own vision,” Mulrooney said. “It’s been a process, and it’s tough to stay positive when no one is clapping for you. No one likes losing, but we stuck with the process and always pictured winning here. This season has given us validation.”

Proving the doubters wrong is what gives Cohen the most satisfaction.

Alex Cohen is definitely the best quarterback Anna Maria football has had in its short history. Anna Maria athletics photo

“To win the conference and go to the playoffs is a dream come true,” Cohen said. “It makes it even more special to do it when you have people telling you that you couldn’t do it.”

Cohen has been such a big part of the success. He has produced the greatest season by a quarterback in program history.

He has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards (2,926) and 23 touchdowns while rushing for six scores. Cohen holds single-season marks for yards, touchdowns and completion percentage (61.7).

One thing Cohen knows, though, is that he didn’t achieve that success by himself.

“A lot goes into it,” Cohen said. “I have great athletes around me and a wall of an offensive line. They have made the player that I am this season. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

The defense has done its part as well, anchored by senior Jude Sampson, who has come through with 57 tackles while setting the single-season sack mark with 8.5.

Mulrooney said this group of players is connected, largely from spending so much time together last year when there was no season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team would have workouts and hold trivia nights after team meetings. The players were unified in believing what 2021 could be for the program.

But beyond the unity and the numbers on the stat sheet is the fact that this team has grown through the battle scars it has acquired through defeat. Dealing with losing played a big role in setting the stage for winning.

“Football is a tough game, and when you are losing, it’s even tougher,” Mulrooney said. “We learned a lot through failure. There isn’t a successful person out there that hasn’t failed at some point, and the lessons we’ve learned have helped us along the way.”

It appeared that perhaps another long year was ahead for the AMCATS this season. They let a 20-0 lead slip away in a 27-23 loss to Nichols in what was their first game in 672 days.

“We prepared hard for almost two years for that one and when we were up 20-0, the game was going the way we pictured it in our heads,” Mulrooney said. “When it didn’t go our way, we were dejected, but I told the guys nothing has ever been easy here. We came back with more fire. That loss was the best thing that could have happened to us.”

Anna Maria won its next five games.

“The expectations were high going into the season,” Cohen said. “The Nichols loss was tough, but we felt like we were going to be fine. We just had to put the pieces together. Instead of rolling over, we got things together and started playing the way we knew we were capable of playing.”

The AMCATS are now in new territory. They face a Delaware Valley team that is unbeaten and is coming off its fourth consecutive MAC championship. The Aggies are undefeated heading into the playoffs for the first time since 2017 and this is their 10th playoff trip since 2004.

Nothing is going to come easy for Anna Maria, but then again, that isn’t anything new from a program that has risen from ashes to find success.

“When you play great teams your margin for error is small,” Mulrooney said. “We know we have to play our best. This opportunity is what we’ve worked so hard for.”

Cohen knows the AMCATS will go into the game as an underdog. But it’s a role he and his teammates have embraced from the jump.

“We’re not used to playing this late in the year, but we love that we have the opportunity to do it,” Cohen said. “We know it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re used to that. We aren’t going to back down from it.”

No matter what the scoreboard says Saturday afternoon, Mulrooney is going to be happy because of how far the program has come since 2016 when everything was a mess. There is stability and success is an expectation rather than a hope.

“The players are winners regardless of the outcome because of everything they have been through,” Mulrooney said. “The fact that we have a conference championship and are in the playoffs is validation for everything we’ve done to get here. I’m proud of the team for sticking through the tough times to make this season happen.”