WORCESTER, Mass. - When the Army-Navy Game kicks off Saturday at Gillette Stadium, the Navy players will be urged on by the booming, raspy voice of their strength coach Jim Kiritsy.

Kiritsy was a star for the Northbridge High School football team, and is in his first year at the Naval Academy. 

"It's a dream, it's amazing," Kiritsy said. "I'm working with the best kids we've got here. It's an Ivy league education with mandatory military service, so you're getting special kids." 

Saturday will be a special day for Kiritsy. It's his first Army-Navy game and it's in his own backyard. 

"The fact that it's happening at home, being from Mass. and the first time it's happening in Mass. is crazy," Kiritsy said. "I've admired the game from afar for years, played college football and then coached it so, I've never had the chance to attend one." 

When Navy goes out to put it on the line in "America's Game," Kiritsy's fingerprints will be on the foundation they have built and that the Midshipmen will take with them on the field.