Post by timholycross on Nov 25, 2020 15:14:20 GMT -5
Coach at Bridgewater for 27 years. Also AD for quite a few of those.
Believe he was Class of 83 or 84 at HC? I'm sure he played for Rick Carter.
Also, unless he gave it up the last couple years, he's been a solid hs basketball official for a long time.
Some excerpts from a Boston Globe article:
And a strange, unfamiliar setting for those who’ve been coaching them for most of their lives, ones like Kelliher, who has always spent the night before the game on a couch in the locker room, or Buron, who as Bridgewater-Raynham’s athletic director would be overseeing a week’s worth of activities, including a senior dinner with opponent Brockton and a full-school rally prior to the game.
Now, they’ll be pacing the floors or watching the oven, driving themselves — and those around them — just a little bit crazy.
“Oh, I’ll go out of my mind,” says Martinelli. “I’ve raked the leaves and mowed the lawn so many times. But I can’t be late for Thanksgiving anymore. I have no excuse.”
No excuse not to help out either, right?
“Oh, he’s helping with the cooking,” Maureen DiBiaso says from the background, as John insists he’s pretty good at chopping vegetables.
“For the first time ever, I volunteered to help with the stuffing,” he says.
Not everyone did the same.
“I usually don’t get involved with what’s on the table, so no, I’m not cooking anything,” Conway says with a laugh. “If it was me, it would be hot dogs and cheeseburgers. I think we’re going to try deep-frying a turkey, though.”
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As Conway said, the upside of the pandemic is having more time to spend with family, and he is grateful for that. For many years, all four DiBiasos would be at the games, when John coached Everett across 30 dominant years, when Maureen was coaching their daughter Kristina on cheer and John was coaching son Jonathan in football. Even their late dog Lola was a local celebrity.
This year, with Kristina living in California, it’s mom, dad, Jonathan (a graduate assistant at Boston College), dog Ellie, and cat Baby for dinner.
Like all of us, these coaches are trying to make the best of it.
“You have to try to get through it,” DiBiaso says. “I tell the kids in school all the time: This is a once-in-a-100-year event, since the last pandemic, the Spanish flu. It’s terrible for them.
“But if you look back in history, during World War II, the kids were leaving high school to go fight in the Pacific or Europe against the Nazis. These kids are still home and hopefully still healthy.
“We will get through this, and as I tell the kids, we’re going to come out better and stronger for it.”
And yet they suffer. Look at Buron, whose planned retirement in the spring means this was his last football season. Even if the MIAA somehow pulls off a belated spring season, Thanksgiving is gone.
“I have thought about it — probably for the first time in 27 years, even longer when I was an assistant coach, so well over 30 years I was at a game,” he says. “I don’t know what I’m going to do on Thanksgiving. It was always mapped out for me. There’s an empty feeling.
“There’s a big emptiness for everybody in the community. I’ve talked to many people, and they don’t know what they’re going to do on Thursday without a football game.
“I think I went to my first when I was 5 years old with my father, and I don’t think I missed one since. It’s like another homecoming. The people I really feel for the most are the seniors. Anybody that’s ever been in a locker room on Thanksgiving knows what I’m talking about.”
Kelliher hasn’t just coached Abington for the past 47 years, he spent four years playing for the team, too.
“My head is spinning because I can do something on Thursday because we don’t have a game,” he says.
He is not alone.
“I’ll probably have to get involved in the food part of Thanksgiving,” Martinelli says. “All I had to do before was eat it.”
Believe he was Class of 83 or 84 at HC? I'm sure he played for Rick Carter.
Also, unless he gave it up the last couple years, he's been a solid hs basketball official for a long time.
Some excerpts from a Boston Globe article:
And a strange, unfamiliar setting for those who’ve been coaching them for most of their lives, ones like Kelliher, who has always spent the night before the game on a couch in the locker room, or Buron, who as Bridgewater-Raynham’s athletic director would be overseeing a week’s worth of activities, including a senior dinner with opponent Brockton and a full-school rally prior to the game.
Now, they’ll be pacing the floors or watching the oven, driving themselves — and those around them — just a little bit crazy.
“Oh, I’ll go out of my mind,” says Martinelli. “I’ve raked the leaves and mowed the lawn so many times. But I can’t be late for Thanksgiving anymore. I have no excuse.”
No excuse not to help out either, right?
“Oh, he’s helping with the cooking,” Maureen DiBiaso says from the background, as John insists he’s pretty good at chopping vegetables.
“For the first time ever, I volunteered to help with the stuffing,” he says.
Not everyone did the same.
“I usually don’t get involved with what’s on the table, so no, I’m not cooking anything,” Conway says with a laugh. “If it was me, it would be hot dogs and cheeseburgers. I think we’re going to try deep-frying a turkey, though.”
Advertisement
As Conway said, the upside of the pandemic is having more time to spend with family, and he is grateful for that. For many years, all four DiBiasos would be at the games, when John coached Everett across 30 dominant years, when Maureen was coaching their daughter Kristina on cheer and John was coaching son Jonathan in football. Even their late dog Lola was a local celebrity.
This year, with Kristina living in California, it’s mom, dad, Jonathan (a graduate assistant at Boston College), dog Ellie, and cat Baby for dinner.
Like all of us, these coaches are trying to make the best of it.
“You have to try to get through it,” DiBiaso says. “I tell the kids in school all the time: This is a once-in-a-100-year event, since the last pandemic, the Spanish flu. It’s terrible for them.
“But if you look back in history, during World War II, the kids were leaving high school to go fight in the Pacific or Europe against the Nazis. These kids are still home and hopefully still healthy.
“We will get through this, and as I tell the kids, we’re going to come out better and stronger for it.”
And yet they suffer. Look at Buron, whose planned retirement in the spring means this was his last football season. Even if the MIAA somehow pulls off a belated spring season, Thanksgiving is gone.
“I have thought about it — probably for the first time in 27 years, even longer when I was an assistant coach, so well over 30 years I was at a game,” he says. “I don’t know what I’m going to do on Thanksgiving. It was always mapped out for me. There’s an empty feeling.
“There’s a big emptiness for everybody in the community. I’ve talked to many people, and they don’t know what they’re going to do on Thursday without a football game.
“I think I went to my first when I was 5 years old with my father, and I don’t think I missed one since. It’s like another homecoming. The people I really feel for the most are the seniors. Anybody that’s ever been in a locker room on Thanksgiving knows what I’m talking about.”
Kelliher hasn’t just coached Abington for the past 47 years, he spent four years playing for the team, too.
“My head is spinning because I can do something on Thursday because we don’t have a game,” he says.
He is not alone.
“I’ll probably have to get involved in the food part of Thanksgiving,” Martinelli says. “All I had to do before was eat it.”
