When Hewlett High School’s Dominick Lord and the Bulldogs suit up for varsity football games, they sometimes wear blue camouflage jerseys with customized nameplates on the back. Lord’s reads “Toughness.”
That quality helped the high school senior win USA Football’s Week Two 2026 Heart of a Giant award. At the end of the season, Lord will be recognized as a 2026 finalist in the program.
The Heart of a Giant award, presented by the New York Giants and the Hospital for Special Surgery, recognizes students from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut who demonstrate an unparalleled work ethic and passion for the game of football. The honorees receive $1,000 equipment grants for their schools’ football program.
From the time he was 5, Lord, who’s now 17, has loved football. His late grandfather George Fox would drive him from his home in Oceanside to Valley Stream Green Hornets youth football practices, where Fox coached.
“At first I was more of a hockey kid,” Lord said. “But then I really got more into football.”
In 2020, his father, Charles Lord, died at age 38, of a heart attack, and Dominick, his two brothers, Logan, then 8, and Alex, a newborn, and their mother, Christina, moved in with Christina’s mother, Debra Fox, in Hewlett.
Like his grandfather, Dominick said, his father was a Hornets coach, and helped spark his love for football. His family, he said, was a mix of Giants, Jets and, now, Las Vegas Raiders fan.
He was 11 when his father died, and he recalled a challenging transition. “It was kind of rough,” he said of dealing with both the loss and the coronavirus pandemic. “Trying to make friends and everything was also a bit of a struggle.”
In eighth grade, Lord got involved in the football program at Hewlett High, and has been a starter on the varsity squad for the past three years. One of four captains on the team, he plays right tackle on the offensive line and nose guard on defense — the interior of the defensive line.
Head Coach John Palladino, a health and phys. ed. teacher at the high school, said Lord personifies the Heart of a Giant award.
“He’s always had to deal with something along the way,” Palladino said. “And despite all that, he comes to school every day with a smile on his face. He leads by example, he’s vocal, and he’s a really good football player, too.”
In the locker room or on the field, Palladino said, Lord is a leader, explaining formations and potential plays, and reminding his fellow lineman of their blocking assignments. When practices aren’t going well, Palladino said, Lord refocuses the players.
“When Dom speaks, guys listen,” he said.
Lord has many friends on the team and in the classroom. Junior classmate and teammate John “Buddy” Amitrano, who plays right guard, met Lord playing lacrosse five years ago, and said they have become closer ever since.
“Dom’s my best friend,” Amitrano said, adding that they spend time together outside school. “He’s a loving and caring kid who’s always there for you.”
In winter and spring, Lord competes in track, in the shot put, weight throw and discus. And he excels in the classroom. He has a weighted grade point average of 100, and as a junior and senior, he has taken seven Advanced Placement classes and three college-level classes. He studies every day, he said, and attributes most of his academic success to his father.
“He taught me the importance of being a student athlete and to make sure your grades are always in check,” Lord said, noting that his father didn’t attend college. “He didn’t want me following in his footsteps, and always pushed me to be my best. He knew what I was capable of.”
At home, Lord has stepped up by helping his mother care for his brothers. He helps Logan, now 14, with his schoolwork and drives him to and from Hewlett High. He also serves, he says, as a father figure to Alex.
As he looks toward the future, Lord said he wants to continue playing football at the college level. He has attended football camps at schools including Long Island University in Brookville, and said that has pushed him to work harder — along with his mother’s recent bout with breast cancer.
“I’ve been through so much that I couldn’t form the thought of being without her,” Lord said. “So I try to do the best I can on my part, be there for my family, get my grades up, and perform on the field — so that I can make her proud.”
