Joel Martin went along for the ride and the game, and he’s shared these game-day pictures, including the big pink fire truck that gets rolled out for every Breast Cancer Awareness weekend. If you didn’t catch the TV interview about what that weekend means to Carlo’s mom Annie Calabrese, it’s here.

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She got her wish: The Air Force fell 59-33.

You can watch the whole interviewer by clicking here and then on the little TV camera icon.

A Notre Dame fan site caught up with Calabrese in practice earlier this month.

This past weekend, the South Bend Tribune, which is more or less the hometown paper for Notre Dame, had a lengthy profile of Calabrese. The Chicago Tribune did too. And the Web site of the university’s athletic department had a video interview, which you can see in the right-hand column of this page (alas, Notre Dame does not seem to allow its videos to be presented elsewhere).

The South Bend Tribune singles Calabrese out as the “most intriguing” of of the team’s wild cards. Yes, this is the Midwest, and the East Coast still has a whiff of the exotic. But the story notes how Calabrese is deeply attached to his family, paying an unusual tribute to his mom and grandfather through tattoos. It also notes his unofficial role as team barber to the Fighting Irish. He hasn’t yet cut the coach’s hair, but the story, which you can read in full here, has that “anything is possible” feel to it.

Calabrese will get his first big test of the season this Saturday, when Notre Dame faces Purdue. The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne says he’s a start at linebacker.

Coach Eric McElroy, who is beginning his seventh season as VHS coach, admits that it may be a bumpy road for the varsity team. “We lost a one-thousand-point scorer,” McElroy explains, referring to Chris Looney, who last year became the first Veronan to achieve that lofty perch since 2002. (Although Looney, who now attends Colgate University,  won’t be playing for the Hillbillies on Friday, he may well be in attendance as the game will be preceded by the Girl’s hoops opener at 5 p.m., followed by a ceremony honoring past VHS  thousand-point scorers.)  McElroy went on to list a few more players who have graduated who had been vital assets to the championship team: Keith Herman, Carlo Calabrese, and Mike Castellanos, who was always a “good deep threat.”

Coach McElroy, or “Mac” as he is fondly known by every member of the VHS student body, does not seem terribly worried, however, since there are some solid players with varsity experience returning this season in the persons of Noah Herman, Justin Bruso and Eddie Nicastro. There is also some young talent brewing in the Verona High School gym: McElroy is eager to see what Brian Farrell, Bobby Kaslander, Luke Sniatkowski and Jack Denton can do for the team.

Mac also hopes to benefit from Verona’s departure from the Colonial Hills Conference; the games in the new conference are closer to home and the days of playing Newark powerhouses such as Science and University are over. “It will be a little easier,” McElroy reasoned. “But nothing’s really easy.”

Look for an opportunity to catch a game or two this season. VHS Boy’s Basketball games are a favorite winter pastime,  drawing a small herd of loyal fans. Don’t be surprised if you hear a poorly played trumpet smuggled somewhere into the student section; Athletic Director Gary Farishian will confiscate it soon enough and, after a good laugh, you can go back to enjoying the game.

MyVeronaNJ.com will post all school sports events on its calendar. Check there often for game dates, locations and times.