Fair Haven’s dual-sport star ready to find his love of the game again
FAIR HAVEN, Vt. (BVM) — Cam Coloutti’s high school athletic career had its ups and downs. From winning a state championship in both football and basketball, to a turbulent senior season, the former Slaters’ quarterback and guard has left quite the legacy at Fair Haven Union High School.
Coloutti was a star on both the football field and the basketball court. Playing on the varsity basketball team since his freshman season and the varsity football team since his sophomore season, Coloutti has always had sports ingrained into his lifestyle.
“I don’t think I ever missed a game in either,” Coloutti said. “I’ve been playing since as long as I can remember, my dad taught me everything I know from like 3-years-old.”
As a junior on the Slaters’ football team, Coloutti threw for 3,039 yards and 35 touchdowns and rushed for 475 yards and nine touchdowns, helping lead Fair Haven Union to a Division II title.
In his senior season, Coloutti would outdo himself, passing for 3,649 yards and 36 TDs while gaining 683 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. His efforts would lead to a repeat chance for a state championship, but would end up falling just short in the Slaters’ final game against Burr & Burton.
Coloutti’s football career produced many signature moments on the field, like a memorable 640-yard, eight touchdown day against U-32 High School, in 2018. Looking back, the former quarterback remembers his special senior night where he would achieve two major milestones in the same game: 10,000 career passing yards and 100 career touchdowns.
Like in football, Coloutti would help lead the Slaters to a Division II basketball state championship his junior season, winning two state titles in the same year. The star guard would average 22.5 points, six rebounds and five assists on the season. With momentum heading into his senior basketball season, Coloutti’s final season at the school wouldn’t go as planned.
After a disagreement with coaches his senior year led to some time away from the game, Coloutti would return to the court after talking with coaches and school administrators later in the season. The Slaters would fall in the playoffs that year by a last second buzzer-beater against Mount Saint Joseph Academy.
Without much of a senior basketball season, Coloutti would take a gap year to see where things would go for his athletic career. The time led to a clearer decision on which of the two sports he would continue playing in the future.
“I wasn’t really in any contact with any schools after my junior year,” Coloutti said. “My senior year wasn’t the greatest, I wasn’t really playing basketball, so that kind of screwed up a lot of scholarships and schools I was talking to, so I took a gap year.
“In that gap year I thought about body-wise, what I would be like health-wise and overall I felt that basketball was the better decision. I think I enjoyed football just as much but body-wise, what I would enjoy most and what I think I benefit from the most, was basketball.”
With the decision, Coloutti decided to play basketball at Northern Vermont University-Lyndon this fall. After not hearing from many coaches after his senior year, this seemed like the best option for him.
“To be honest I wasn’t really in contact with any coaches and I heard that Coach Pasiak was one of the better coaches in the area,” Coloutti said. “A friend of mine got me in touch with Coach Pasiak and from what Coach Pasiak told me and the opportunity that he was giving me, that I wasn’t going to be able to get from other schools, it was a pretty easy choice.”
Now only having to focus on one sport at the next level, the NVU-Lyndon guard will be looking forward to some time off after his first season.
“It’s definitely different, I think it’s a lot easier to be honest,” Coloutti said when talking about being able to focus on just basketball. “Knowing that after this you get a break, not really offseason-wise, but knowing that you’re not going to get the shit kicked out of you next season in football, is kind of relieving.”
