Fairfield Prep football opens year vs. Belen Prep of Miami
The two football teams that meet Friday night at Fairfield’s Rafferty Stadium represent two all-boys schools with the Jesuit tradition. They also share Thomas de Quesada, a fact that helped make Friday a reality.
Fairfield Prep opens its season against Belen Jesuit Prep of Miami at 6 p.m. For the past three years, de Quesada was Fairfield Prep’s principal. This year, he returned to Belen Prep as executive director of enrollment and community outreach, where he’d earlier been a teacher and dean of men.
“We talked about (a game) a few years ago, but it never came to fruition,” de Quesada said. “We worked overtime to make it happen.”
Belen’s campus sits a few blocks away from Florida International University in Miami.
The school traces its roots to the Colegio de Belén (Bethlehem) in Havana in 1854, founded by Spain’s Queen Isabel II. Among its alumni was Fidel Castro, whose communist regime confiscated the school’s property in 1961. The Jesuits, expelled from Cuba, established the new school in Florida that year.
The schools have cooperated in other programs, but as far as football, there’s nothing set for beyond this season, de Quesada said. Planning, scheduling, everything involved means it’s difficult to make happen.
But this year will be fun: Their traveling party is about 145, de Quesada said. Add in others who are making the trip, and the final total may be around 200. The school also sent an invitation to local alumni.
The two schools will come together for Mass on Friday morning.
“It’s a shared experience beyond a football game,” de Quesada said. “They (at Fairfield Prep) have been amazing with their hospitality.”
After their game Friday night, the Belen Prep team will visit West Point for the Army-UTSA game on Saturday.
The Wolverines are already 1-1. Their season started Aug. 26, three days after Fairfield Prep’s first scrimmage.
“It will be interesting to see how Connecticut and Florida football match up, two really successful programs,” de Quesada said.
The Jesuits — the Fairfield Prep Jesuits — reached the Class LL final last year, falling to No. 1 Darien. “We haven’t gotten that far,” de Quesada said, at Belen, but he said coach Don Chaney and his staff are doing a great job with a team that’s heavy on juniors and sophomores.
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