From a young age, as early as the inaugural Wolfpack Youth Football camp before fifth grade, he was pegged to be the high school’s signal caller alongside a pretty impressive group of skill players.

And on Friday, Catanese will play his final game for the Wolfpack in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D final against Burke Catholic at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.

It’s been quite a ride for C/S/P head coach Ty Harper, who was first introduced to Catanese at that youth camp seven years ago.

“For a young kid to be able to throw the ball as well as he did at that age — he was a baseball kid as well — I heard lots of stories about him when he was a kid,” Harper said Tuesday following the Wolfpack’s practice inside the old gym at Panama Central School. “Seeing him out there at youth camp for the first time, it was pretty obvious that we would probably have a pretty good team a few years down the road.”

Tate Catanese P-J file photo by Tim Frank

Catanese has gotten better every year as the starting quarterback, with this fall being his best performance. To date, he has completed 158 of 257 passes for 2,205 yards and 30 touchdowns compared to just 10 interceptions. On the ground, Catanese has rushed for 577 yards and 12 touchdowns.

His performance has earned him a nod as a finalist for the Connolly Cup, awarded annually to the best high school football player in Western New York. That honor will be given out Monday at Ilio DiPaolo’s Restaurant in Blasdell.

“Now, we’re at a point where I feel really, really confident in him telling me what he’s seeing. I’m going to call plays based on what they are seeing on the field,” Harper said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to say, ‘We’re going to run this concept because I like this concept.’ If Tate comes off the field and says ‘This is open,’ that’s what we’re going to do.”

Catanese echoed the sentiments of his coach after practice.

“I think we have a strong relationship. I can kind of tell him and pick his brain on a few things. I tell him, ‘I think we should do this,'” he said. “I think it’s important for us to have that kind of relationship where I can tell him I don’t like something or I can tell him I do like something and he’ll run it. It’s definitely grown stronger over the years just because of our on-the-field experiences.”

Catanese has been around football his whole life. His dad, Pat, was a standout player for Coach Jack Keeney’s Panama sectional championship teams in the early 1980s.

His brother, Braden Cook, was the backup quarterback on the Wolfpack’s 2018 state championship team and the starting tight end on the 2019 title winner.

“Tate’s family has obviously been very supportive and they wanted him to be successful,” Harper said. “They’ve taken him to developmental trainings with Jon Kinder, who I think is an excellent quarterback coach in the area. They encouraged him to put work in during the winter months.”

“They’ve meant a lot,” Catanese added of his brother and dad. “They’ve been helping out and have been very supportive. They watch film with me and tell me what to look for out there.”

As a freshman, Catanese began developing a relationship with Harper.

“He started coming over to the house quite a bit as a freshman. He’s just really easy to be around. He’s a big baseball fan, so we’d watch Yankees games in the living room and I’d periodically work in a short conversation about football. I’d say, ‘Hey man, we’re going to install this concept and these will be your progressions.’ He’d always pay attention, nod along and humor me,” said Harper, whose daughter Tanleigh was dating Catanese. ” … Getting to know Tate when he was still playing on the jayvee team, it was pretty apparent early on that he was going to be a really special player for us.”

A year later, Catanese was the starting quarterback on the varsity team that went 7-3 before losing to Randolph in a sectional semifinal. In his first season, Catanese went 122 of 201 for 1,471 yards and nine touchdowns along with eight interceptions.

“I would say that our relationship definitely extends off the field,” Harper said. “I thought he made a tremendous jump from his sophomore to his junior year.”

In 2023, the Wolfpack went 11-1, beating Wilson in the Section VI Class D championship game and Canisteo-Greenwood in the Far West Regional before falling to eventual state-champion Tioga in the state semifinals. Catanese was the Section VI Class D Player of the Year after completing 137 of 212 passes for 1,760 yards and 25 touchdowns compared to just six interceptions.

But even after that stellar season, Catanese has taken the Wolfpack to a new level this year. In just his past two games — a 48-14 Far West Regional win over Avon and a 43-14 West Semifinal win over Dolgeville — he has completed 33 of 44 passes for 446 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions.

“I always fall back on the success of our program being a result of a lot of hard work that most people don’t see,” Harper said. “Tate is certainly a prime example of that.”

Catanese holds Clymer/Sherman/Panama career records for completions (417), yards (5,436) and touchdowns (64) surpassing two-time state champion Gerrit Hinsdale in all three categories.

But one thing Catanese doesn’t have that the older Hinsdale does: a state championship ring.

Catanese hopes to earn his Friday.

“We’re practicing for a state championship game. It’s hard for me to think about it being my last week, just because the goal is in sight,” Catanese said Tuesday. “The game we’re about to play is what we did it all for. We need to show up and play well in that game for all of our work to pay off, honestly. I think we’re almost there. Our work is about to show.”