|
Leo
Harrington
Dick Crowley, known as "Coach" around Watertown
for his many years of work with the ~tecreation Department
and'Kids in Common' program recalls leo Harrington from theirjoint
service as the perfect Marine." Leo might also be called
the perfect coach; and the two are not unrelated.
Indeed, leo's formula for success both in life and on the
field is based on his Marine Corps training. Championship
teams, he notes, must have strong discipline, accountability
for individual actions and a strong ethos of mutual responsibility.
They must be motivated and intelligent. They must have an
almost joyful morale grounded in real camaraderie. In short,
the whole must add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Doing that math has been the crux of Leo's long career at
Watertown High School. As of the 1999 season, he has served
as assistant coach to the football team for thirty-one years.
Over that time, he's seen four Middlesex League championship
squads come and go. More than the wins and losses, though
- and there have been a lot of both - leo has had the chance
to teach and mentor literally hundreds of student-athletes.
Over time, his style has shifted to emphasize that part of
his role. His coaching style at the outset belied his congenial
manner, bearing a close resemblance to Parris Island drill
instruction. But an assistant coach is unique, building relationships
and bonding with players in a way sometimes denied the head
coach. So while the military discipline remains - one can't
learn without order he stresses - Leo's individual style of
coaching is now truer to himself: teaching, building confidence,
rapport, bringing out the very best in the athletes he works
with. It's been a winning formula, and Leo has executed it
superbly.
Leo's own athletic prowess lies at the heart of that success.
Born and raised in Arlington, Leo went to Matignon High School
and played football all four years before graduating in 1960.
Clint Knight, a Matignon classmate and now executive director
of the Watertown-Belmont Chamber of Commerce, recalls Leo
as "truly talented and motivated - the best athlete of
his class."
He had some great examples to look to in that regard. Leo
recalls a memorable game against Watertown High in the fall
of 1958, when fellow Hall inductee Bob Norton was a sophomore.
Three things stood out. First, Matignon garnered twenty-one
first downs to Watertown's one- but lost, 14-8. Second, there
were no fewer than five future National Football League players
on the field that day. For WHS, Bob Cappadona and Dave 0'Brien
suited up; for Matignon, the lineup included future Patriots
Artie Graham and Don MacKinnon, along with Jack Concannon
(later the Bears' number one draft pick).
Third, though, despite this array of talent, the best players
on the field that day were Matignon QB Jackie Daley and star
of the game Richie Green, who singlehandedly accounted for
the Raiders' scoring by returning both a kickoff return and
an intercepted pass for touchdowns.
After Matignon, Leo served in the Marine Corps reserves for
six years, graduating from Boston State in 1969 with a degree
in elementary education. He has worked in the Arlington Public
Schools ever since, as an elementary physical education teache~
And he has coached for even longer, returning to Matignon
in 1964 to coach the freshman football team. In 1967 he became
assistant varsity coach at Don Bosco in Boston; then, in 1969
he came to Watertown with new head coach John Barbati.
Watertown was coming off an 0-9 season. But over time the
new staff rebuilt the program. Leo still remembers a small
but crucial turning point: during a practice, Dom Lalli was
blocking the pads held by Leo and, charged up, knocked Leo
head over heels with a single vicious block. It lifted the
practice and, Leo recalls, the team's whole attitude - suddenly
Watertown's traditional toughness had returned. And four league
championships (in 1973, 1976, 1977, and 1983) would follow.
The Hall of Fame 1977 squad, led by Tom Tracy and Sparky Lyle,
went 10-0, WHS's first undefeated and untied season since
1918. In 1978, Leo was honored as the Massachusetts Assistant
Football Coach of theYear by the Massachusetts High School
Football Association.
A lot of memories spring from those years. Leo recalls that
seeing Hall of Famers Orazio Lattanzi and Mark Roopenian pitted
against each other in practice was worth the price of game
admission in itself. He won't name favorites - for a coach
of his tenure that would be like picking a favorite child
- but does admit that in all his time at WHS he has seen no
finer athlete than three sport star Cathy Guden. For his players'
part, they are happy to have learned from one of the best.
Lalli, for example, credits Leo with not only guiding his
skills, but inspiring his confidencefor getting him, and the
team, to believe that they could succeed.
Over the years, Leo has also taken great pride in watching
his wife, two daughters, and son take part in athletics. Indeed,
his wife Carolyn is a member of the Boston University and
the Massachusetts High School Softball Coaches Halls of Fame
in her own right. Cindy, Kelly, and Mike, after yeoman service
as "water people" for the WHS football squad in
their younger years, went on to participate in high school
and collegiate sports. The two girls were also part of the
lexington Gaels, a Junior Olympic women's softball team coached
by Leo and named after his late sister who succumbed to breast
cancer The Gaels placed 17t" in the national tournament,
the best finish ever for a team from New England.
"Our parents are our first coaches," Leo notes.
"We always seem to get our best players when those first
coaches did their job." He's absolutely right, of course.
It helps, though, to have other coaches do their jobs, too,
and for over three decades leo has done just that and more.
It is that longstanding, and outstanding, service that the
Hall is proud to honor this year
|
|
