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The ‘Will’ of Willoughby leading the Sparks

Jerry Sullivan

Photo by Andrew Miller

Noah Willoughby was a pudgy kid when he began playing football. He played left tackle in Little League. But he was a natural athlete, one who understood the game at a higher level. He had loftier ambitions for himself.


“I got tired of blocking people,” Willoughby said after a recent South Park practice at Mulroy Park. “It was like a hitting dummy to me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. But I wanted to be more. I was such a vocal leader, I wanted to be more. I wanted the ball in my hands.”

So one morning about seven years ago, Noah woke up to an epiphany. He went to his grandfather and told him, ‘I want to play quarterback.’


Greg Willoughby, who has raised Noah from the age of six months, looked at his grandson and said, “Can you throw?”


“Yes,” Noah replied.


He could throw, all right. From the start, it was clear that Willoughby had a special talent for passing a football. He attracted the attention of some top Catholic programs. As a freshman, he briefly went to Canisius, but transferred to South Park High during the pandemic year of 2020-21.


Noah didn’t transfer in time to play in the abbreviated spring high school season, in 2021, but he was able to throw some with the scout team for the Sparks.


“We had him come out and throw for us in practice,” said South Park head coach Tim Delaney. “We were going to play Jamestown in the sectional final and they threw the ball pretty well. We knew immediately how good of an arm talent he had.


Willoughby burst on the high school scene as a sophomore in 2021, shattering South Park’s single-season passing record with 2,644 yards and 26 touchdowns — including a record-setting 451 yards against Williamsville East.


But he wasn’t content. Unsatisfied with his season, he again wanted more. He didn’t want records, he longed to be a complete quarterback, a legitimate college prospect and a leader.


“I was around 230 pounds,” Willoughby recalled. “I’m like 5-11 (he’s now around 195 pounds). From my sophomore to junior year, I had to make a choice. I didn’t have a good sophomore year to me. We went 5-5. So I had to make a choice, to step up and be that guy, be the leader of the team.”


At that point, he was training with Joe Licata, the former UB quarterback who had his own camp, Joe Licata Football. Licata gave it to him straight.


“I had a very candid conversation with him and his grandfather,” said Licata, now head coach at his alma mater, Williamsville South. “It was like ‘Hey, this is what colleges are looking for; you have to change your body’.


“That’s what’s been great about our relationship. When I tell him stuff like that and when we have those tough conversations, he responds and respects it.”


Delaney had the same advice. He told Noah he needed to get serious with his off-season training, change his body, and get his grades up to make himself a more attractive college prospect. He says Willoughby took it all to heart and came back a different player as a junior.


Willoughby didn’t have quite the stats as his sophomore year. But he finished with 2,303 passing yards and 22 touchdowns. The number that mattered was the team’s record: South Park went 6-3, 6-0 in its division, and became sectional A-3 champions. He also raised his grades in summer school.


The off-season commitment continued over this past summer. Delaney said Noah has become a terrific leader, like a coach on the field.


“When you have a kid like Noah, who throws it really, really well, we’re able to do some things we either haven’t done or won’t do with other guys,” Delaney said. “I mean, he really understands coverage; he understands what the defenses are attempting to do with their coverage, and with their alignment.


“When we watch film, he can tell me who the best kid is, who the worst kid is, what kind of matchup he wants, and the things he wants to do.”

Willoughby said he has a much greater command of the position at this point in his career. Licata says Noah has a “next-level mind”, that he understands quarterback concepts you’d see in college.


“I don’t make as many mental mistakes,” Willoughby said. “I’m calmer in the pocket. My pocket presence is a lot better. I used to be paranoid; I would run out of the pocket for no reason and try to make these acrobatic throws I wasn’t ready for. Now, I’m a lot calmer and I understand.


“I’m just growing as a player,” he said, “and I continue to grow every single day.”


One day soon, he could own the Section VI career passing record. Willoughby, who passed for only 84 yards in South Park’s opening loss Saturday at powerhouse Syracuse CBA, is 1,640 yards shy of the record — held by none other than his friend and passing guru, Joe Licata.

South Park hosts Williamsville South on Sept. 22. The Sparks won at Will South last season. Noah says he and Licata are close, like family. They text all the time. But he had fun teasing Joe over the summer about breaking his record — maybe in the game at Will South, though that’s highly unlikely at this point.


“I said, ‘Look, you can beat this thing as much as you want’,” said Licata, who said his mission in life is helping young players ‘get to where I was and beyond.’ But don’t have a great day when we play’.


“Last year, he made a throw down the sideline, a deep comeback route, right in front of our bench. It was a college, NFL-type throw. And he just looked at me. Yeah, it was all in good fun and good spirits. I was like, Man!’”


Licata, who recruited during his time as an assistant at UB, has seen a lot of college prospects and says Willoughby’s arm talent rates with the top passers in the country. Delaney tells college recruiters the same thing.


“If he was a couple inches taller, people would be beating down the door,” said Delaney, who led South Park to a state title in 2015, the first-ever by a city public school. “They’ll say, well, he’s only 6-foot. But the dude who won the national championship last year was 6-foot. I don’t get it. I never, ever get it.”


Willoughby has not been pursued by top Division I schools. He’s attracted interest from the likes of New Hampshire and Lafayette, both Division I FSC programs. Mercyhurst, a Division II program, is in the mix. He’s a preferred walk-on at UB, which Licata and Delaney expect to be his destination.


“He’ll go to UB and it’ll work out, or he’ll go to UB and he’ll decide after a couple of years, I’m not going to be the starter here and he’ll transfer,” Delaney said. “Then he’d go have two or three really good years at a different school, whether it’s a Division III school or II or whatever.”


Willoughby says he’s not caught up in the level of competition. He’s confident he’ll succeed wherever he goes. He’s not concerned with passing records. He’s a 17-year-old kid, looking to help his teammates win a state title. The CBA loss was a blow, but the Sparks are in Class B this season, with high hopes.


As for college, walking on at UB could be the plan. There’s some promising history of under-recruited local kids doing so and making out OK. His friend Sean Dolac walked on, became a starting linebacker for the Bulls, and last year finished second in the country in tackles.


“My guy Sean Dolac!” Willoughby said. “I played seven-on-seven with him when I was 13 in 18U. He’s kind of like my big brother. He took me under his wing and he showed me what a leader was. We still talk to this day.


“I just want an opportunity to play,” he said. “That’s what I want.”


All he needs is a chance. By now, everyone knows he has the arm.


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