Sports

CANARSIE COACH NOT SHORT ON OPTIMISM

Mike Camardese was about 12 years old when his mother took him to get a physical so he could start playing football.

“He [the doctor] told me I was too small and I should find something else to do,” the 5-foot-5 Camardese said. “I’ll never forget it. I was going to punch him in the face.”

He didn’t, but neither Camardese nor his mother listened to the doctor’s advice and Camardese eventually played high-school ball at Canarsie and then at Brooklyn College before returning to join the Canarsie coaching staff.

And although he was an assistant in 1981, the last time the Chiefs won the PSAL title, Camardese is still looking for his first championship since becoming head coach two years later.

“It would mean the world to me,” said Camardese, who gets another shot at the crown on Sunday, when his third-seeded team meets No. 1 Curtis at noon at Midwood.

It’s Canarsie’s first trip to the finals since 2003, while Curtis lost there to Fort Hamilton a year ago.

“We’ve gotten close, but not all the way there,” Camardese said. “It’s been frustrating.”

This year’s team includes QB Sha-Tim Pratt and RB Brandon Jones, both seniors who would like to win not just for themselves, but for Camardese.

“That would be a major deal for us, to finally get him one,” Pratt said at a press conference in Queens yesterday.

For Jones, who lost in the semis in each of the previous two years, it might mean even more.

“I almost went to Fort Hamilton and they’ve won a lot lately,” Jones said of the defending champions. “I want to get one before I leave.”

The same could be said for Camardese, who is still only 5-5.

“People probably say I’m too short to coach,” Camardese said with a laugh.

“Who knows? Maybe they say I can’t win the big one. Hopefully they won’t be able to say that anymore.”

dan.martin@nypost.com