Why trying to stop tough-nosed Butler quarterback Nicco Baggetta is ‘just not worth it’
BUTLER TWP — Nicco Baggetta has always been wired with a rough-and-tumble, screw-loose frame of mind.
Even when the junior Butler quarterback/middle linebacker wasn’t on the football field.
“As a basketball player, he was a good football player,” his father, Dom, said with a laugh.
Baggetta, who described himself as a rebounder first and foremost, was the first to ever lead an elementary hoops team in tackles. Even as a catcher in baseball — another sport he’s since given up — Baggetta absorbed the bruises that came with crouching behind the plate and shielding the umpire from errant fastballs.
“I liked baseball, but I never loved it,” Baggetta said. “I started playing flag (football at 6 years old), and I was tackling kids. ... My parents were like, ‘Well, he wants to be a football player.”
Nowadays, opposing linebackers and ball carriers probably wish he hadn’t.
Through seven games for the Golden Tornado (6-1) this season, Baggetta has gone 70 for 144 through the air for 939 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s battered defenses on the ground for another 252 yards and seven scores.
He can help Butler to a road victory Friday over Allderdice, two days after Westinghouse said it had used an ineligible player and was forfeiting the Week 5 game, what was a Bulldogs win, to give Butler a chance at a winning season for the first time since 1997 under Mark Farabee.
Nash Cuffman, a classmate of Baggetta’s who caught one of his two touchdowns passes during Butler’s 35-27 win over University (W.Va.) last Friday, used to have to try to bring him down in practice.
“I learned it’s just not worth it,” Cuffman said, serving a warning to those ready to try.
Baggetta’s youth football film would show the same sort of playing style. His father and coaches advised him to “use your legs, run around the tackler,” but the direction went in one ear and out the other.
Baggetta, who’s been in contact with Slippery Rock University, IUP and Susquehanna about playing in college, likely as a safety, sees pummeling opponents in close-quarters as the reward for his consistent weight room attendance and dieting.
“Hit after hit, it just feels great,” Baggetta said.
However, rather than lower his shoulder on a carry during a game earlier in the season, Baggetta surprised Butler coach Eric Christy by wheeling out of bounds. Christy said he turned and high-fived an assistant coach, thrilled the smash-mouth signal caller finally chose to pick his battles.
“They were so happy,” Baggetta said. “Part of (welcoming contact) is I don’t like people trash-talking me. ... When you run out of bounds and they start saying all this stuff, it’s like, ‘Alright, run it up then. Meet me in the hole.’”
Off the field, the switch flips off. He divvies praise with his teammates. Homework is his first priority once he gets home. After helping beat the Hawks, he willingly scribbled an autograph on an excited child’s cast.
Just don’t expect him to be as kind to the Dragons.
