Peter Supino

Class

1994
Honors

Football (1990-1994)

Miramonte High School Football ('94)
Williams College Football (1994-1997)

MAYBE IT WAS HIS MOVIE-STAR good looks or the fact that he was from California; every time Peter Supino quarterbacked the Ephs on TV he shone. An ECAC Game of the Week and two Williams-Amherst telecasts on NESN stand as proof. At Middlebury as a sophomore Supino connected on his first 11 passes (a school record), and the Ephs rolled to a 35-3 win over the Panthers in a game televised throughout the northeast. Supino said afterward, "I just felt comfortable. It wasn't muddy, and the game plan was perfect; all we had to do was throw the ball and catch the ball.” As a student at Miramonte High School in Orinda, Calif., Supino had narrowed his college choices to Williams and Amherst. He visited Williams the night before the Ephs beat Amherst 31-2 in 1993. His plan was to then go visit Amherst on Saturday evening into Sunday. When the Williams coaches checked in with Supino after his visits he told the Ephs that Amherst had promised he would start from day one. Williams could say the same thing, they told him, but it wouldn’t be true. Supino was impressed by the candor of the Eph coaching staff, respected head coach Dick Farley, and the recommendation of football alum Choppy Rheinfrank ’62. He selected Williams. Decided underdogs at Amherst in 1996, the Ephs found themselves lining up against the nation’s top NCAA Division III defense. Williams took an early lead 6-0 on a 24-yard TD pass from Supino to Matt Sigrist, but failed on the extra-point attempt, and then Amherst drove 90 yards to take a 7-6 lead. Amherst increased its lead to 10-6 with a third-quarter field goal, but the Ephs took the lead back when Supino found senior WR Mark Kossick with a 26-yard pass. Again the Ephs failed to convert the extra point, but led 12-10 heading into the fourth quarter. An early fourth-quarter field goal gave Amherst a 13-12 lead. The home stands at Amherst’s Pratt Field rocked with delight when a Lord Jeff punt rolled dead at the Williams 1-yard line with under four minutes remaining. The Ephs eschewed the conservative approach, and Supino hit WR Matt Sigrist with a 35-yard pass on the first play, throwing from deep in his own end zone. A key third-down pass hauled in by Kossick got the Ephs soundly into Amherst territory. With 40 seconds left and the Ephs on the Amherst 2-yard line, Supino handed the ball to fullback Mike McAdam who ran it into the end zone to set up a Williams a 19-13 win and deny Amherst a perfect season. That win merely set the stage for Supino’s greatest game, his intercollegiate finale in 1997, also versus Amherst. That year’s Lord Jeffs team was 7-0 and had out scored opponents 172-45. Supino made every big play required in the 111th game between Williams and Amherst, a classic contest that many have called the best ever in the most-played series in NCAA Division III football. With just under 11 minutes left in the first quarter Supino called a running play from the Amherst 10-yard line and inexplicably turned the wrong way. Not able to hand the ball to the Eph running back he headed for the end zone himself, and, untouched, score the game’s first TD. In the third quarter after just one Eph offensive series Sean Keenan replaced Supino at QB, which was a tactic the Ephs had used throughout the season. Keenan was sacked and inured trying to throw a pass, so Supino re-entered and promptly connected on a 50-yard strike down the middle to Sigrist. Amherst had out scored Williams 17-0 in the third quarter to take 31-24 lead. Supino’s bomb to Sigrist was the highlight of a drive that found Supino scoring his second TD early in the fourth on a 2-yard run. That Supino score re-energized the Ephs and they then built a 45-31 lead only to see Amherst score twice in less than three minutes late in the fourth quarter and with a 2-point conversion after their final TD, Amherst led 46-45. Facing fourth and 15 from his own 20-yard line with less than a minute to play, Supino under pressure found Sigrist streaking across the field. The Sigrist catch not only secured the first down, but also resulted in a 45-yard gain. When Sigrist was tackled at midfield an Amherst player was whistled for a late hit and the ball was placed at the Amherst 35-yard line. On one play the Ephs had gone from desperation to elation. Needing to get the ball closer for freshman kicker Collin Vataha, Supino dropped back to pass. Seeing no one open Supino rambled 22 yards up the middle to the Amherst 13-yard line. Three plays later Vataha nailed a 27-yard field goal for the 48-46 win with four seconds left on the clock. Not known as a running threat, that day Supino earned 49 yards rushing and scored two TDs on 11 carries. He connected on 18 of 37 passes for 269 yards and one TD. He was not intercepted. Supino entered the investment world in New York after graduation, joining Allen & Co. Next Supino spent four years at Weitz Investment in Omaha, Neb., before returning to the west coast to join Passport Capital in San Francisco One thing Supino says he learned at Williams that he has taken into his professional life is that “excellence is a mindset borne of daily decisions and reinforced by consequent successes.” Supino and his wife Shawna and their children, Lilah, Brennan, and Sawyer, live in San Rafael, CA.

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