WORDS: Bre Jones Mulock
PICTURES: Whitney Patton
To the heart-tugging rhythm of his mother sobbing, Dr. Charles Tomeo – stoic and stone-faced – listened to searing words drop in painful slow motion from the frowning mouth of his high school senior guidance counselor. Tucked in a tiny office inside the school, the counselor’s opinion slammed down as final as a guillotine: You will never amount to anything in life.
The harsh words echoed and singed. Then the wayward student with dipping grades and low SAT scores accepted the challenge. He crushed it.
Tomeo not only graduated from dental school at the top of his class, but he also fought as a captain in the Vietnam War. He forged a career as a leading oral and maxillofacial surgeon, raised seven kids, and inspired generations of children through founding 35 years ago the Manatee Wildcats – a football, cheerleading, and lacrosse organization. And as if that isn’t enough, the Wildcats, which now fall under the Pop Warner Little Scholars and the Foundation for Youth Development, have never succumbed to a losing season. Ever.
“My grades weren’t good, but that counselor didn’t know me,” said Tomeo, whose office boasts shimmering gold sports trophies, smiling pictures of his family, and Vietnam War memorial statues. “My parents didn’t make it past the eighth grade, and I had no one to lean on to support me through school. But what I did know was that I could play ball.”
Like a life raft bobbing in an ocean squall, Lacrosse saved Tomeo – hoisting him out of the depths of indirection and paving the way for the rest of his life. Through sports, Tomeo secured a full scholarship to Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he unlocked the puzzle of academic success as an incentive to play the sport he had fallen madly in love with.
As if sharing the secret back roads to a life map, Tomeo carved out a way to give back and created in 1983 the Wildcats, which teaches much more than punts and passes on the ball field. More than three decades later, Saturday mornings at G.T. Bray still buzz with camaraderie, commitment, and success for thousands of kids who sport the red, white, and blue uniform and need passing school report cards to play.
“I was lucky,” said Tomeo, who shared 25-30 percent of Wildcats rely on scholarships to play. “I knew sports, and I knew this is how I wanted to give back. Some of our kids don’t even eat lunch. Some have no father figure, and they come to practice looking for guidance from a coach to help them work through the chaos in their neighborhoods – the chaos in their families. I use sports as a vehicle to achieve academic success. These days you need your education.”
With dew still glistening on manicured blades of grass, streams of kids hoping for a win fill the ball fields at G.T. Bray Park each Saturday. Dedicated parents haul lawn chairs, and coolers trail behind as the volunteer coaches strategize. Historically a 100 percent volunteer program, the Wildcats never receive government money or grants.
Armed with a $10,000 loan, a handful of donations, and sheer determination, Tomeo created the program with four initial teams during a time when Manatee County had only one failing youth tackle football option. To this day, the Wildcats have never turned away a player who could not afford to join.
“Year after year, thousands of children have participated in the Wildcats football, cheerleading, and newly added lacrosse program,” said Nick Pagnotta, Tomeo’s stepson and the league’s current president. “The faces change, but the goal remains the same. Once you’ve taken part in being involved in the Manatee Wildcats village, you are always family.”
Pagnotta emphasized the values the program has always radiated: to be selfless and passionate.
“It was and is still important to Dr. Tomeo that each volunteer understands we are building our youth to be the future generations that become leaders of Bradenton and Manatee County.”
A parade of 1980s and 90s team photos mounted on oak plaques and ringed with gold line a long hallway at Tomeo’s Bradenton office. Tomeo smiles, and his eyes crinkle as he points out proud moments and kids who have touched his heart. Wide, toothy grins, and freckled cheeks stare back from the faded photographs. Many of these kids now lead and shape their communities as doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, and real estate brokers.
“I was twelve, in the fall of 1987, and that’s when I fell in love with playing football,” said Bradenton resident Chris Smith, a mortgage loan originator for Homebridge. “Coach Tomeo talked me into playing for the Wildcats, and I’m forever grateful. Coach was good to our crew, but he made us work. Those were some of the best times I ever had on the field. I played for the next ten years, but I started as a Wildcat.”
Former Manatee High School football star and college player Blake Keller shared Tomeo instilled in his players more than technique on the field.
“Coach Tomeo was a great influence on my life as a kid,” Keller said. “Looking back, all my teammates and I were lucky having someone as successful as him be our head coach for so many years. He tried to shape us into having a winning mentality and competitive drive on and off the field. He taught us lessons along the way that had nothing to do with football but everything to do with life. And for that reason, I will always appreciate the time and dedication Coach Tomeo put towards my life.”
For many kids growing up across Manatee County, consistent Saturdays on the field bred comfort and structure and a coveted chance to connect with role models and friends.
“I remember Doc always telling the team that these would be the best days of our lives – playing football with friends,” said Auburn Tigers quarterback and former minor league baseball player Cord Sandberg. “He was right. Saturdays playing football for the Wildcats were some of my favorite childhood memories.”
While filling a burning need to reach community kids who lacked support, the idea for a sports program hatched from Tomeo’s desire to see his own children play each week while he juggled a swelling and successful maxillofacial and oral surgery business.
“I knew if I were ever going to see my kids play sports, I would need to be the head coach – the one making the schedules up,” said Tomeo with a chuckle. “I left the office every day to make it to one of their practices or games.”
Searching the bleachers during her softball games, Elena Cassella – Tomeo’s oldest daughter and now executive director for the Foundation for Dreams – could always spot her dad in the crowd encouraging and motivating her. Cassella knew just seeing him out of the corner of her eye boosted courage to keep going when the game proved tough.
“He knew what sports did for him,” said Cassella, who cherishes memories of weekday evenings when she and her dad would hit ball after ball practicing at GT Bray. “There was no way we were not playing sports. He teaches core values to all the players through sports. He’s still out there coaching, still talking to kids and teaching them they have unlimited potential. When they are huddled together on the field, they are learning latch key lessons that resonate so easily with them and are transferable.”
While it is not uncommon for Tomeo to purchase shoes and equipment for players in need or wrap an arm around a kid struggling on the field, he insists the kindness and giving nature is the Wildcats true culture and breeds throughout the entire organization.
“We’re all in it for the right reasons,” said Tomeo, who coaches alongside his son, stepson, and sons-in-law and chooses to include the Wildcats under the Pop Warner umbrella in 1986 in order to provide more competition for his players and to stress the national organization’s values of God, family, and good grades. “No one in my organization makes even one penny.”
Beaming during an office visit break, Tomeo proudly points out newspaper clippings and photographs of his seven children who have all excelled in both sports and career journeys. He pauses to hold up a framed picture of him and his son, Charles C. Tomeo – who is also a maxillofacial and oral surgeon. The two men, dressed in blue scrubs, hover side-by-side over a patient while performing surgery together.
“That’s my son and I working on a patient together,” said Tomeo, his face bursting with love and pride. “My family and I have really had a great run.”
That run now transcends into a new generation, as a sprawling family tree of grandkids run, kick, cheer and tackle as proud Wildcats. The very same fields where Tomeo logged countless hours coaching his own children and waves of players for decades now welcome his grandkids like a replay reel churning out new memories. Creating their unique journeys, Tomeo noted there is not a week that rolls by without one of his grandkids chiming in to give him a sports update.
“One of the reasons I’m still doing this – still out there coaching – is for my grandkids,” said Tomeo, who can rattle off every sport they excel in on the fields. “When they are all out there and playing, it’s a great feeling to watch them.”
From time to time, Tomeo’s thoughts will wander to his school counselor’s harsh words so many years ago. Despite his inarguable success, Tomeo shies away from accolades. However, a handful of years ago, the love for a man who has mentored and poured thousands of his own dollars into the youth of Manatee County swelled on the fields one evening. Past faces of players and coaches lined the field in support and honor of Tomeo during the game, where he decided to pass the torch of league president to Pagnotta.
“I think it was then on that night,” said Tomeo. “That was when I looked out in the crowd and saw all these past players and coaches from different decades who showed up that I thought I guess I had really done something.”
