Meet Tom Cillo, the 58-year-old retired freshman playing on the Lycoming College football team

During the first meeting of the season, Lycoming College football coach Michael Clark asked each of the first-year students to stand up and introduce themselves. Each player went down the line:

Adrian Alena, Hackensack High School, Class of 2025 …

Christon-Mitchell Brown, Archbishop Ryan High School, Class of 2025 …

Tom Cillo, Williamsport Area High School, Class of 1984.

It’s still hard for some of the staff to believe there’s a 58-year-old defensive lineman roaming the campus. When players go to the dining hall, workers typically have them scan their student IDs with each meal. But when Cillo first arrived, they handed him a chart used by the coaches to sign in.

“They would hold the chart out for me and I would say, ‘I’m a player.’ And one woman said, ‘Oh, come on, stop,’” Cillo told The Inquirer. “I think some people are still getting accustomed to the idea of this guy” playing football.

Cillo graduated over four decades ago from Williamsport Area High School, where he played football as a freshman. But his playing career was short-lived. He ended up quitting during his first year after he started using drugs and alcohol.

“Honestly, I would have liked to have done this right out of high school, but the indiscretions of my youth prevented that,” Cillo said.

Cillo went on to work 33 years for the city of Williamsport’s streets and parks department before retiring and returning to his alma mater, where he worked as the high school’s equipment manager for seven months. Now, he is ready to fulfill his dream of playing college football while pursuing a degree in criminal justice.

And he plans to make the most of his second chance.

The first time Cillo’s name was brought up in conversation was during graduation weekend at the Williamsport college. A Lycoming football alumnus, Mark Sitler, approached Clark, 54, about the idea of Cillo joining the team. As an NCAA Division III school, Lycoming does not face an age limit on student athletes, only a limit on how much time a student is enrolled.

Clark conceded that he didn’t know how to react at the time — knowing that this would be the first player he would coach who was older than him.

After learning more about the father of three, Clark agreed to a meeting.

“My standard kind of joke is that, if he looked like the 58-year-old version of me, I would never let him play,” Clark said. “But he’s legitimately strong and he’s taking really good care of his body. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for him, but his desire to do it was really strong. …

“He wants to chase the dream. And even if he doesn’t play a significant number of plays for us, I do think there’s awesome value in what he can help teach the guys on our team.”

Cillo, who is listed at 6-foot and 227 pounds, has long been athletic — competing in half-marathons, bodybuilding, power lifting, and strongman competitions. Last year, he broke the Pennsylvania state deadlift record (580 pounds) for the 55-59 age group. A year before that, he was pulling a 30,000-pound fire truck in a strongman competition.

When it comes to the weight room, Cillo believes he can hold his own against teammates who are decades younger. His biggest challenge in training camp came on the actual football side of things, from learning the terminology to putting it to use.

“[Recently], we ran some plays and I probably had my ‘welcome to college football’ moment,” Cillo said. “Two linemen double-teamed me. They probably go about 270 [pounds] each, and I came to the sideline and I thought, ‘There’s two guys that each outweigh me by about 40 pounds apiece and they’re 40 years younger than me.’ I thought, ‘Boy, that wasn’t a fair fight.’ But that’s football.”

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Cillo acknowledges that there were moments in camp when he found himself struggling to catch his breath, sweat rolling down his face, and he began to question whether this is what he really wants. Once that doubt starts to appear, he tells himself one thing: Be unbreakable.

“A friend of mine said, ‘Tom, you have to be unbreakable,’” Cillo recalled. “And I kind of keep that word in the back of my mind, because there have been a couple moments in camp where self-doubt started to creep in and rear its ugly head and say, ‘Just let it go. Just don’t do this.’ But that’s not the way I’m wired. …

“I’m not naive enough to think I’m going to step on the field for 30, 40 plays or whatever. There might be times I don’t play at all. But I do want to see the field.”

As Cillo continues his journey from Williamsport Area High School equipment manager to college athlete, he has been documenting every step on social media. Ahead of training camp, he put himself through his own workouts — building up endurance, speed, and agility.

However, with age comes more aches and pains.

“Stacking days together, it’s hard,” Cillo said. “It’s been hard on some of the younger guys. They’ve cramped up and got injured and they’re tired. So, it’s definitely hard on me. Recovery time is challenging.”

But one of Cillo’s biggest worries joining the team wasn’t the physical aspect of the game — or even learning some of the more complex schemes. It was whether he would be accepted by his teammates, something he quickly discovered wouldn’t be an issue.

As soon as he committed to Lycoming, several players reached out to him on social media, encouraging him ahead of the season. And through the team’s big brother system, he has learned a lot from his (much younger) big brother, Mike Sipps.

But it’s not a one-sided relationship; Cillo believes his teammates can learn a lot from him, too.

“Not to overstate the obvious, but [I bring] some life experience that they have not gone through yet,” Cillo said. “And that’s not something I’ll force on them, but I think it’s important for us to build up a rapport and let them get comfortable with me. And then if something does come up in their life, I’m more than happy to talk about it. Not to mention, I’ve already been a help to a number of the guys in the weight room.”

As thousands of fans — including his children: Shawn, 32, Nicole, 28, and Ryan, 21 — follow Cillo on social media, he hopes that his journey will inspire others to chase their dreams.

“There are so many talented people in this world and sometimes it’s their own doing, their own self-doubt, that holds them back from trying something,” Cillo said. “You can do anything if you put your mind to it. If it’s something that falls within your own personal ability or framework, then don’t hold yourself back. Don’t let somebody else hold you back. Don’t let negative thoughts hold you back. Just go for it. Just take that leap of faith.”

Clark added: “It’s never too late to chase your dreams, to set goals. It’s good to be goal-oriented and work toward those goals. I hope people take away that it requires discipline and commitment to doing things the right way.”

When Cillo suits up this season, he won’t be the oldest player in college football history — but he’s close. That title belongs to Vietnam veteran Alan Moore, who was 61 in 2011 when he successfully converted an extra point for Alabama’s Faulkner University after his college career was cut short by that war. In 2007, 59-year-old linebacker Mike Flynt became the oldest position player in college football history to see any considerable action when he played nine snaps in a game for Sul Ross State in Texas.

The Lycoming College Warriors’ first game will be against The College of New Jersey on Sept. 6 at David Person Field at Girardi Stadium in Williamsport.

“They have been wonderful, and it just reinforces to me that they do want me to succeed,” Cillo said. “And I can’t thank the college enough for that.”