A Big, Red, Ultra-Successful Family

As I walked into the Berlin High School Athletics Hall of Fame Sunday I was flooded with emotions.

I had ties to so many of the inductees that it was like a homecoming, of sorts, even though I live in Berlin.

So here were some of my thoughts as I walked around and interviewed the honorees.

Mauro Gozzo was a three-sport teammate of mine. He was the quarterback to my tight end; he was the forward to my guard and the shortstop to my second base. We were inseparable.

I played football on a dare from my friends. All 6-foot-2 and 155 pounds of me played freshmen football Coach Jim Day and we went 0-8. Mauro got hurt, then our two top running backs got hurt, then another. I was one of the few who made it through the season.

As a sophomore, I had a chance to play varsity and did. My first play, Coach Al Pelligrinelli gave me the play, “Wing right, 26-jet Pass,” As I ran into the huddle to give Mauro the play it hit m that this was a pass play to me. I caught it for 28-yard touchdown against Farmington. My first play, touchdown, this game was easy. Boy did I learn it wasn’t.

I gained a reputation as a kid who could catch the ball but didn’t like to hit or get hit and blocking was a must.

My junior year I was up to 162 pounds and worked harder on blocking. We played at Bristol Eastern in a scrimmage and we threw a little swing pass to one of our running backs. I ran in front of the running back and blocked the defensive back into the end one and we scored. Coach Day ran along the sidelines with me as I was blocking and was screaming, “hold that block” when the play was done and we had scored, he jumped into my arms and started slapping me on the helmet. He was happier than I was. But that kind of sums up Coach Day, the successful end result will come from great effort and he taught all of us and his wrestlers that.

I played three years for coach P. and in all that time I saw him get upset once. A couple players got into a fight my junior year with Bloomfield and that was everything that Coach P. despised. He stood for discipline and pride and fighting, losing that discipline was not what he wanted his team to be about.

“God Bless America, what are we doing out here,” he yelled.

By the way, the same 0-8 freshmen team went 8-2 our senior year, just missing the playoffs.

I have so many memories with Mauro I really couldn’t even pick one. Playing behind him when he pitched was like a day at the beach because the other team hardly ever hit the ball. We played for the state championship but came up short. The best times with the guys were on the bus and in the locker room. One highlight I remember was Mauro dove for a line drive over the middle, caught it, threw to me to double off the runner and then I tagged the runner from first for a triple play. That was pretty cool.

Coach Parciak, our basketball coach and a surefire Hall of Famer soon, used to say our team had the best fast break ever for a bunch of slow guys. Our senior basketball year we went 15-5 and made it to the quarterfinals before losing to rival Aquinas in three overtimes.

My father-in-law Dean Boissoneau was a freshman on the 1958 state championship baseball team that was inducted into the Hall. He told me stories about how Gary Waslewski threw really hard and big John Drummond was a big lefty who threw all junk.

My sports writing career began in 1989 so I covered athletes like Monica Earley, Forrest Conoly, Lindsey Pulito and Dave Swanson on a regular basis.

When I talked to Earley Sunday, I told her we used to call The New Britain Herald, the Monica Earley News, because every game she topped herself. We used to come into the newsroom and joke “Monica Earley is having soup for lunch,” because everything she did was news.

I covered Pulito and the girls soccer state championship team through to the title game.

I remember writing a story about the immense Forrest Conoly and his diminutive teammate Tommy Coccomo and how they were best friends. Coccomo was there on Sunday to honor his buddy.

To watch Dave Swanson pitch at Percival Field was a treat. He would strike out so many batters on his split finger it was crazy. The ball would be in the dirt and the batters would swing wildly. I covered the state championship when he lost his first game of his career. He had this lost look on his face. He didn’t know how to act.

Rocky Urso was a little younger than I was, he graduated with my wife, but I saw him wrestle many times. Tall and athletic, he had great leverage. He was also involved in many school activities and was Class President. Now a physical therapist just like my wife, I have been able to stay in contact with him and see him often.

Ken Pera was a senior wrestler my first year covering high school sports. He flat-out outsmarted his opponents; a cerebral assassin.

Bob McCann is the father of one of my good friends, Mike McCann, who played football himself at Berlin and CCSU. Mike’s father was a standout in football in the 50s.

Lastly, I covered wrestling and football when I was a sportswriter, so I go be share more of their coaching philosophies with Coach P. and Coach Day.

I walked out of the Hall of Fame ceremony feeling like a Hall of Famer myself. The reason is because Berlin High School Athletics are so special that if you participated in any way, you feel intertwined. You are part of the tradition and intertwined with all the athletes who came before and after you.  Like being part of a family.

A family. A big red ultra-successful family.