Chris Onorato Kicked His Way to Notoriety in the Football World

Chris Onorato played soccer his entire life, but when he was cut from the varsity program at Sachem as a junior his athletic career took an interesting turn. Already tall and strong, he was built for the gridiron, so he didn’t think twice when Fred Fusaro came calling.

At first Onorato said he was fed up with the aspect of kicking and liked the idea of throwing his weight around as a tight end. Fusaro worked his magic and eventually had Onorato kicking.

“Coming from soccer to football, I didn’t have a good idea of how big of a football coach he actually was,” Onorato said. “I had no idea about him because I was just used to the soccer coaches. Ever since day one he was always right in my corner.”

Onorato was 4-for-7 in field goal attempts at Sachem during his senior year in 1999. He nailed a 48-yard attempt, which still stands as the program record and one of the longest field goals in county history. As a senior, he was named All-Long Island, All-County and All-Division and also averaged 46 yards per punt.

His best kicking attribute was kickoffs, where he had a 92 percent rate for touchbacks and sent six balls through the uprights in 1999. Programs like Clemson, Wake Forest, Rutgers and Virginia Tech came calling, but Onorato wanted to say close to Long Island and opted for Division I-AA Hofstra.

With the Pride he was able to learn from another coaching legend in Joe Gardi, who was patient with Onorato through his freshmen and sophomore seasons, which were rocky, and eventually guiding him as one of the top kickers in the Atlantic 10 Conference as an upperclassman.

During the last game of his senior year against Northeastern he kicked a 45-yard field goal in the wind to push Hofstra into the playoffs.

“That was big,” Onorato recalled. “With that, it tied the A10 record for most career field goals.”

After five seasons at Hofstra, he had pro workouts with the Jets, Giants and Bills. His meeting with the Giants went well as he drilled 14-of-15 field goals, only missing one from 55 yards out. Though it didn’t pan out, he wasn’t done with kicking.

He took a gamble and left his leave replacement teaching position in Valley Stream to train with renowned kicking coach Doug Blevins in Abingdon, Va. after which he landed a roster spot with the Corpus Christi Sharks of the now defunct AFL2.

After one season in the south, he landed a spot with the New York Dragons, who used to play at the Nassau Coliseum. The Dragons eventually folded a year later and Onorato had to finish his master’s degree, so his football playing career was over.

“I gave it a big shot,” he said. “Coming out of college I was going to give it two years.”

Today Onorato is a substitute teacher in the Sachem Central School District and he helps with the kickers at Sachem when he can.

“He is probably the biggest reason that I have progressed as much of I have,” said current Sachem kicker Bryan Morris. “He understands exactly what it’s like to be in my position because he had a very similar experience when he played at North.”

Click here to watch Onorato kick on YouTube