Craig Stone Closing In On Historic Milestone, National Honor

Some coaches credit their players. Some hard work. And many say impressive wins totals come to those who simply survive. But ask Craig Stone about his career spanning almost 5 decades in Lynnfield and credit goes right where it should, to his mom. If not for Dorothy, who knows where he'd be.

"When I was at Springfield [College] student teaching, my co-op teacher was Archie Allen," explained Stone, who attended Pilgrim High School in Warwick (RI), Springfield College, and got his masters in physical education at Oregon.

"He was friendly with Dr. Bernard Huntley who was the superintendent of schools in Lynnfield. Dr. Huntley called Archie Allen wondering if he knew of a student who would be interested in a physical education job in Lynnfield. So Archie Allen called my mother in Rhode Island. My mother called me out in Oregon and said, 'you got a job yet?' I said no I don't. It was the end of the school year, I came home on a Saturday, had an interview in Lynnfield on Tuesday, and got hired on Thursday."

That was the spring of 1972 when he was hired as a physical education teacher at the Summer Street School. With two wins this spring, Stone now has 1,095 career wins, spread between coaching the Lynnfield wrestling team and the girls' tennis team. But the start to his coaching career was first delayed, then not-so-impressive.

"My first year at Lynnfield the boys' tennis job opened up. I applied for the position but being an elementary teacher and also being only 23 years old there were some concerns that it might be a little bit too early in my career to accept that kind of responsibility," said Stone, who lives in North Reading with Patty, his wife of 39 years.

"Three years later about 20 students at Lynnfield High School signed a petition that they wanted to start a wrestling team. They posted the position. I applied. I was the only applicant, and they gave me the job. We had a club team in 1974-75 and did a lot of JV stuff. That following year, 1975-76, we had our first varsity season."

It didn't go quite as planned. Lynnfield tied Methuen, 36-36, in its first varsity match, then lost 11 straight, four in which the Pioneers were shut out. Despite the 0-11-1 start, he returned for his second year and things improved.

It's was Craig's list, long before there was a Craig's List. Pages upon pages of records, with plenty of wins (528 in wrestling, 567 in tennis), fewer losses (323 wrestling, 84 tennis), and even a tie here or there. When he records five more wins this spring with the tennis team, he'll become one of three coaches in state history to win more than 1,100 games. The other two are Frontier's Vi Goodnow (1,224) and Leominster's Emile Johnson (1,250).

With the wins come titles, including 22 Cape Ann League titles, 16 North Sectional titles, and 5 state tennis titles. He's been named the Boston Globe's Coach of the Year six times and earlier this month at the Lynnfield Board of Selectmen meeting he was honored by the board as well as the Massachusetts Legislature.

Among the many honors, Stone's greatest is just days away. Next Saturday, April 29, he'll be inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Gillette Stadium. Also being inducted are Natick's Bob Anniballi, Canton's Tom Bartosek, and Norton's Pat Coleman.

"It's nice to be recognized by your peers," said Stone. "It's also very humbling. To be associated with the past inductees is very special. I'm honored and humbled at the same time."

What do milestones and honors mean to Stone?

"I always tell people, just think of the number of practices that went along with it. There's a quote that I like to use. 'It's not about the destiny, it's the journey.' What I think most about it is the student-athletes that I've been involved with, the parents, the community, the administration, all those have been integral parts of the program being successful. That's more important to me than the milestones that have occurred along the way.

"I tell people if you hang in there and coach for 35-40 years, and fortunate to be in a situation in a community like I've been and again, it basically came down to a phone call, I think that opportunity can exist. But obviously longevity is a key and you have to have those integral parts I mentioned."

Of course the most important parts to success are talented athletes. But wrestling and tennis seem worlds apart, and not just because of the sports. Stone isn't so sure.

"What's nice about both sports is that they're team sports but they have an individual emphasis. You're working with a team concept but also working with individual athletes with skills, with technique, with strategy. Not to mention the entire psychological element that comes in with coaching. When you look at it that way, there's relatively not a whole lot of difference between boys and girls when you approach it from the sport."

But when it comes to teenage boys and girls, Stone sees differences. He also picks his words carefully.

"What's the biggest difference? There might be different emotional approaches that they take to it. We can be drilling, working as hard as we can, and [the girls] are talking with their friends about a social event that's coming up or something that happened. While the boys tend to be a little more ... not as social. They're a little bit more ... how do I want to put this ... the boys might be a little bit more concerned with the moment than the past or the future, while the girls will tend to drift a little bit more. But as far as being on task, and driven, there's relatively little difference."

Well said. And he's also noticed that kids have changed.

"A couple years ago we're on the bus, going up to Triton for a big wrestling match. It was for the league championship. I said boy the bus is really quiet. They're really concentrating. I turn around and they're all on their phones or they've got their headsets on listening to their music. It definitely didn't happen in the '70s."

When a coach remembers the 1970s, the retirement question isn't a surprise.

"As I tell everybody, I go one year at a time." There are times, just like any athlete during a season, maybe things come up that have led to a little adversity during the season and you say, gee, I don't know much longer ... then you turn around the next day and you have a great win or an athlete comes up and tells you about a successful experience that they've had and you say, this is great, I can go on and do this forever. Time will tell."