DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Tom Cillo works out with his Lycoming College football team mates. Cillo of Williamsport, a 58-year-old freshman at Lycoming College, is excited for the season to start his college football career.

Fifty-eight-year-old Tom Cillo of Williamsport says he has always loved competition.

“I’ve played sports since I was little,” said Cillo.

That love of sports and competition will see the 6-foot, 227-lb Cillo suiting up to play football for the Lycoming College Warriors this season.

Since graduating high school 41 years ago, he has run half-marathons, done competitive power lifting as well as a strongman event

“The spirit of competition has never left me,” said Cillo.

Cillo was out with his good friend and trainer when the topic of him going back to school came up.

Cillo never attended college after high school.

“I said I think I can do it, and he strongly encouraged me to give it a shot,” shared Cillo.

“I would say probably in the past, I could come up with about 137 reasons not to do it and just walk away,” he added.

“I feel like I reached a point where I need to start finding reasons to say,’you know, how can I do it and why should I do it?’ and I’ve gone down that path,” said Cillo.

That path will see him begin classes as a freshman at Lycoming College this month, majoring in Criminal Justice as well as playing on the defensive line of the Warriors.

“At a dinner one of our trustees mentioned, ‘hey Tommy Cillo wants to play football,” said Mike Clark, Lycoming College head football coach.

“I had no doubt when I met him that he was totally serious about it,” said Clark.

” He’s really well respected and liked in the community,” added Clark of Cillo.

This summer Cillo resigned from his job as equipment manager at Williamsport Area High School, where Cillo graduated in 1984, to be a full-time student at Lycoming College this fall semester.

Lycoming College has always felt like home to him, growing up two blocks from the campus.

“When I was a young lad, I would walk through there every day to get to the YMCA,” said Cillo.

“I’ve just always had an affection for the college and that’s one of the reasons I want to make it work there,” he added.

‘I’m excited, I’m ready,” he said.

Not that he hasn’t had his share of stress from his decision.

“Going through all the application process and the paperwork and applying for grants, and you know what’s this going to cost? What is that going to cost? What’s my schedule going to look like?” shared Cillo.

“I already joked they’ll probably have to assign a tutor to my tutor,” he said with a laugh.

“So yeah, I’m stressed academically, you know 40 plus years out of a classroom, I had to get acclimated,” he said.

“In the past I’d have probably pulled the plug or I would have looked for reasons to pull the plug, but now I’m looking for reasons to make this work,” said Cillo.

The support he receives at Lycoming College has driven home the reasons he chose the college and hasn’t pulled the plug.

“There’ve been a number of people on campus that have been incredibly helpful and I just feel like they’ve helped reinforce to me that I made the right decision and they want me to succeed,” added Cillo about the staff at Lycoming College.

He has also received support, some expected and some unexpected from people in the community.

“I have found that people are definitely inspired by what I’m attempting to do, but it’s also reciprocal,” he shared.

“It’s incredible I have not just one age group or demographic, per se. I have people in high school all the way up to in their 70s and 80s are reaching out to me,” said Cillo of the response to his social media posts following his journey to go to college and prepare for playing on the football team.

He looks forward to being part of the team.

“I’m ready to grind together. I’m just excited to be a part of this and part of a team setting and because football, you can make the argument it is the ultimate team sport,” said Cillo.

Cillo has spent some preseason time getting to know some of his younger teammates.

“I met a teammate at the college in the weight room and we worked out together. What a wonderful young man, like incredible, just very kind, well spoken, very encouraging,” shared Cillo.

That encouragement will go both ways according to Clark.

“He hasn’t played a ton of football, he is incredibly strong, but I think there will be some incredible value in things Tom Cillo can bring to the football team. He’ll have awesome life experiences. He’ll be outrageous in the weight room. I think there is some instant credibility in leadership and those sort of things and he’ll make our teams better,” said Clark.

His teammates that have seen his work ethic agree.

“He is not your average 58-year-old. He’s out running sprints at 5 in the morning,” said Mario Samony, Lycoming College defensive back.

“I think as soon as he gets here, he’ll set a standard not just for the year, but upcoming years, that this is how bad you have to want it. If we can get everyone to work like Tom, be as disciplined as Tom, we will be a really good group,” added Samony.

“Is it going to be easy? No, definitely not. It’ll be one of my greatest challenges in my life, but I’m prepared to meet the challenge and give it everything I got,” said Cillo.

Sport Editor Jon Gerardi contributed to this article.