Catching Up With QB Velocity Coach Rob Orell: O-Line Advice, Recruiting and Arena Football

The other day, QB Velocity was lucky enough to be able to interview Coach Robert Orell. He is the offensive line coach for both Nichols college and the Mass Pirates. He is also now a coach for QB Velocity! We asked him some questions, if you would like to know more about Coach Orell, feel free to take a look at his Bio’s on the Nichols and Mass Pirates websites. Now let’s dive in to this interview with the former Nichols college Bison!

1. What made you play Football?

So Holy Name was a very small school, so everyone played sports. Well, being one of the bigger guys in the grade my 8th grade year my friends pretty much forced me to play. Very happy they did.

2. Were you born and raised in Worcester? What made you go to Holy Name?

Yup, born and raised in Worcester Mass.

I didn’t really have a choice my mom told me I was going no matter if I liked it or not. My brother had just recently graduated as well.

3. You said you thought you’d be a teacher what subject would you have been?

I wanted to be an English teacher coming out of High School, mainly for two reasons. One being that I had a great English teacher in High School, who really cared about all of his students, which I loved. He made an impact as a teacher and a coach in a lot of lives and I felt like that’s something I could do.

The second reason being I always struggled in school. Having learning disabilities made school hard and throughout life I’m not sure every teacher/professor I had really was aware of my struggles or cared enough to work with me through them. I want to be someone that can help those kids and at the time I thought being an English teacher would be a great way.

4. Can you take us through that phone call that you got to coach at Nichols?

For sure. I had just graduated from Nichols, where I played on the team for 4 years and was getting ready to go down to South Carolina to play my first season of arena ball. I was hanging out at my house when I received a call from Coach Sullivan (former Nichols defensive coordinator). He congratulated me on graduation and talked a little about my plans.

Finally, he asked if I’d be interested in GA’ing (Graduate Assistant) for the team.

At the time SUPER conflicted because I was really excited about playing down in SC but how could anyone turn down a Masters? Especially a kid that not everyone expected to get his Undergrad. After probably about an hour thinking about it I called him back and accepted the offer. Will always be thankful for that call.

5. Tell me about your Arena Football career.

I first played for the Myrtle Beach Masters, an arena team in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was awesome to get my first real taste of arena in one of my favorite places. Then when I came back for coaching the New England Bobcats started up.

I tried out for them and was fortunately asked to join the team. That’s when I won my first championship. The next season the team folded during the season but that was a blessing in disguise because that’s when I got the call about the Pirates.

6. Why did Billy Savary ask you to be the Mass Pirates O-Line coach?

Because he’s a great person and coach. He was my head coach when I played for the New England Bobcats the first season and also was coaching for the Mass Pirates. He gave me a call about half way through the Pirates season and asked me if I would be interested in coaching with the Pirates.

After introducing me to the Pres