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Sports

Fitch Football A Viral Sensation (With Video)

YouTube Videos Feature Baldoz, Gordon Highlight Reel

The Fitch High football team is due for a spectacular season. Since coach Mike Emery led the Falcons to four straight state finals, winning two, from 1998 to 2001, Fitch has reached post-season just once in 2005.

There is a feeling this could be the year Emery brings glory back for Fitch, which opens Sept. 16 at Plainfield. Until then, Fitch definitely ranks as the No. 1 area tube in the YouTube poll.

YouTube? Well, no team can match the viral exploits of two videos featuring Fitch players quarterback Derrik Baldoz and wide receiver Lexus Gordon.

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In a five-minute video taken in 2007, Baldoz displays his game-breaking running ability and passing as a Groton-Mystic Falcon youth football player. Not yet topping 130 pounds at age 13, Baldoz looks like a miniature version of Michael Vick, scrambling for at least 10 plays of 50 yards or more.

His quick moves and lightning cuts leaves tacklers leaning the wrong way as he sprints around them and up the sideline untouched. On one play, the ball is snapped over his head in shotgun formation. After he retrieves the ball, he eludes the rush, sprints to the right sideline and scampers 60 yards for a score.

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Baldoz, now a 6-foot, 170-pound senior, has showns glimpses of that breathtaking running style in two years as Fitch starting quarterback. His signature moment was a three-touchdown performance, running the option majestically in Fitch's 24-14 upset win over Montville last season.

Many believe Baldoz is on the verge of blossoming into the same consistently dynamic player you see on the YouTube video. If he is, Fitch could be playing past Thanksgiving.

While Baldoz provided Top 10 video highlights, Gordon looked like a Perfect 10, physique-wise, in his YouTube reel. The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder struts his chiseled body in a two-part "inspirational workout video" to music.

Filmed in the Fitch High weight room, Gordon demonstrates situps, leg lifts, calf raises, chest flies with 75-pound dumbells, 405-pound squats and 225-pound bench presses. The squats and calf raises were especially impressive. In the bench, well, you could critique his form for not bringing the barbell all the way down to his chest, but you can't fault his results. He's built like a statue.

How that relates to the field is another story. He's in the mix to play a lot of receiver and defensive back. Strength and speed wise, he has potential to be a productive player. A perfect body, though, does not guarantee success. As a former UConn coach once said, "The weights don't hit back."

But if he doesn't make it big in football, he can always play a body double for the next remake of "Flash Gordon."

Anyway, both Falcons and their videographers (sk8erboy2213 for Gordon and getwrecked105 for Baldoz) should be commended for these viral shorts. They're interesting, fun and impressive and a nice prelude to what they hope will be a Fitch state championship highlight film in December.

 

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