Last Thursday, the Stefanskis informed their four kids it was time for bed because it was a school night and the NFL Honours show was running late.
Steve Stefanski claimed he told his children, “One more award.” You get to watch it if Coach of the Year is announced. If not, you’re out of luck. It will be upon you in the morning.
“My spouse was filming,” stated Steve Stefanski. She then stopped recording, though. She became rather alarmed upon hearing the name “Steven.”
After misreading the card, the presenter, actor Justin Hartley, declared “Steven Stefanski” the winner of the Associated Press Coach of the Year. Hartley was promptly informed and Kevin Stefanski’s name was declared. However, it was already too late. The NFL’s Coach of the Year was Steve Stefanski, an assistant CYO basketball coach at Saints Peter and Paul Church in West Chester.
My one son and I were just jumping up and down,” Stefanski said. “I just kept saying, ‘I won. I won.’ Because frankly, I was the winner there.
It didn’t take long for Stefanski’s phone to ring. It was his cousin, who was not at the ceremony in Las Vegas. Kevin Stefanski won the award for the second time, but he had to share the honor this time.
I told him, ‘I did it.’ He had to know first that I was the real winner,” Steve Stefanski said. “I told him, ‘Hard work pays off,’ which he appreciated.
Kevin and Steve Stefanski were born six months apart, spent every summer down the Shore, and are the godfathers of each other’s children. Steve Stefanski grew up in Exton and went to Bishop Shanahan High. Kevin Stefanski, 41, grew up in Wayne and played football at St. Joseph’s Prep and Penn.
Twenty years later, Kevin Stefanski is one of the NFL’s premier coaches. For Steve Stefanski, his cousin will always be the guy he found a different job with every summer in Ocean City, N.J., and shoots only three-pointers in basketball.
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