It’s father’s day every day around Gov. Mifflin football
2024 Berks football coverage
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Nick Morrissey realized as soon as he became a head coach that he needed to surround himself with a stable of experienced assistants and people he could lean on.
He started building his Gov. Mifflin football staff right at home, hiring his fathers – each of them.
The 39-year-old Morrisey installed his biological father, Mick Morrissey, as his co-defensive coordinator and his step-father, Todd DeIuliis, as an offensive line coach.
It’s an unusual, perhaps unprecedented, situation, having two dads on your coaching staff. It was important for Nick to have them close at hand.
“This is a job you certainly can’t do on your own,” he said after being hired in December, “and you want to have the best people around you.”
Morrisey hired former Central Catholic coach John Arty, a long-time family friend and his youth coach, as an offensive line coach.
He coaxed former Mustangs head coach Mick Vecchio, a mentor during much of Nick’s nine time as a Mifflin assistant, into coming back as a full-time coach. Vecchio is the Offensive Coordinator and run the same Mid-Line Veer offense that lifted the Mustangs from mediocrity in the early 1990’s to a dominant 20-year run that saw them win 15 league titles.
Mike Vecchio, Mick’s oldest son, will serve as an Offensive Coordinator with his dad; Doc Vecchio, the youngest of Mick’s three sons, is back to run special teams. Those three were together on the sidelines throughout the Mustangs’ great run.
Nick was 2 years old when DeIuliis married Nick’s mother, Carol. It could have become a contentious situation, what with a divorce and seeing your son being raised by another man. Mick Morrissey never let it become so. He and DeIuliis formed an understanding right away, each realizing that it was best for Nick for them to live in harmony.
They’ve both been there throughout Nick’s life and now they’re together with him each day on the practice field, supporting him as he tries to resuscitate a Mifflin program coming off back-to-back losing seasons. The two dads have formed a tight bond over the years.
“These two have gone above and beyond doing whatever they can in the best interest of Nick,” said Arty, a longtime friend of each. “Those guys complement each other so well.”
Mick Morrissey, a teacher in the Reading school district for 30 years, saw how a disruptive home life can adversely affect a student. He was determined not to let that happen to Nick.
“Life’s tough,” Mick Morrissey said. “It’s not always perfect. But as long as you have enough care and concern and love for somebody, you (can make it work). The more people who are involved who you respect, the better off the child is.
“Todd and I, we’re two totally different people, which is even better for Nick because he can get the strength of Todd that I don’t have, and vice versa.”
“When Nick was a kid, I’d always focus on the little stuff,” DeIuliis said. “Anything big, his dad was there to take care of that. So we had Nick covered on both sides.”
“We’re on the same page,” Mick Morrissey said of himself and DeIuliis.
Football was always a constant in Nick Morrisey’s life. He was a ballboy at Wyomissing in the early 1990’s when Mick was an assistant coach with the Spartans. He dreamed of playing and someday coaching, like his dad.
Arty, long a father figure to Nick, saw those possibilities at an early age.
“I could tell when he was in (the Penn Alsace) youth program, just with his intensity, his football IQ, that he was gonna be a real good high school football player and a good college football player,” Arty said. “I could tell he was gonna be a leader, a captain, and eventually a head football coach.”
Nick played at Muhlenberg, where he had great mentors in John Yocum, the Muhls’ longtime head coach, and Kerry Ciatto, their line coach. He later coached with them.
Nick was an all-league guard who played on Inter-County League Section 1 champs as a junior and senior, in 2001 and 2002. He went on to play at Albright where his dads, Mick and Todd, would tailgate and watch the games together.
DeIuliis was an offensive lineman at Clarion but hadn’t coached since Nick was playing at the Mite level. He was thrilled when his stepson asked him to join his staff; he’s loving being on the field with every day and working with young kids to help them develop their skills.
DeIuliis feels a great sense of pride watching Nick run the program.
“I’m proud of his leadership, and how much he loves his players,” DeIuliis said. “He’s letting his coordinators be coordinators and he’s overseeing the program. He’s not trying to be in charge of everything.”
Mick Morrisey has coached football for three decades. Name a local school and he’s probably been there: Albright, Exeter, Fleetwood, Muhlenberg, Reading High. He joined the Mifflin staff seven years ago so that he could work closely with his son. The past two seasons, when Nick was elevated to Defensive Coordinator, Mick worked for him defensive backs coach.
“It was a win-win,” he said. “It helps when you have family around you who are going to make it easier for you off the field so you can spend time with your family,” Mick Morrissey said, “and that was important to both Todd and I.”
Nick Morrissey’s goal is to restore Gov. Mifflin’s winning ways; he has surrounded himself with a rock-solid support staff in order to make that happen.
“You do not know until you get into this position everything that (being a head coach) involves,” he said. “I thought I knew what I was getting into, but until you’re in it and going through it day to day (you don’t know). It’s been a whirlwind (but) it’s been an awesome learning experience, too.”
