Watertown High School Athletic Hall of Fame - A Night to Remember
May 12, 2006
Submitted by Mark Benson

John Marini, still spry for a Watertown High School graduate from the class of 1954, stepped on the stage in the Hellenic Cultural Center last Friday night to accept a plaque signifying his induction into his high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

"No award means as much to me as this award I am receiving," said Marini before he explained how extra special this award and award ceremony were to him.

"I’m not a speaker, but I’m gonna try. I feel like I’m at home, and if I say the wrong thing, I’m not going to worry because we’re all friends."

Indeed, it was a gathering of friends – friends, families, and members of a community that takes great pride in its student athletes past and present, evident from start to finish at the 10th Watertown High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Marini was the third of eight new members of the Hall whom Bob Norton, a Watertown native and longtime voice of ESPN radio hockey, announced to an audience of hundreds.

The first was Bob O’Neil, Class of 1944. O’Neil, a star on the Raiders Fall 1943 football team and a World War II veteran, was introduced by an extra special guest – Thomas J. Hudner, former Korean War Navy pilot and Lieutenant who received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" in his efforts to save downed pilot Ensign Jessie Brown, the first African-American Naval aviator.

Hudner spoke of the great privilege of introducing O’Neil after learning about his dedication to his sport, his country and his family, and felt especially grateful and welcomed by everyone in the Hellenic Cultural Center, since, as he noted, he was born in Massachusetts but not in Watertown, and served in a different war.

Next was Jack Charshoodian, Class of 1950. According to Norton, "everybody knew when I was a kid that 'Choo-Choo' Charshoodian was faster than everyone around." Charshoodian was a double inductee on Friday night, as he was an integral part of the 1949 football team enshrined later in the evening.

Charshoodian’s co-captain on that 1949 team, Phil Renzi, was picked to speak on its behalf, but kiddingly thanked the audience "for coming out and seeing me," then quickly acknowledged the other deserving team members sharing the stage with him, including Charshoodian, Nick Avtges, Rich Goggin, Jimmy Lopez, Paul Myers, Gene Renzi, Phil Stackpole, John Vlachos and John Zona, all awarded commemorative Hall of Fame hats by Hall Chairman Bob Kaprelian.

After watching the video tribute prepared for the 8-1 Raiders, Phil Renzi joked that the team’s one loss that year, a lopsided 32-0 defeat to Arlington, "is a little bit misleading. The final score might have been a five touchdown shutout, but, I was there, and it really could have gone either way."

Marini’s induction followed Charshoodian’s and Marini had the crowd roaring in laughter as he told stories about his relationship with football and his mother, an Italian immigrant more familiar with work on the farm that a game on a gridiron.

"My mother, she was 170 pounds, wore her hair in a bun, and had two handkerchiefs tied to her dress straps, one for her money, the other for her keys, and she came running onto Victory Field in the middle of our practice before my sophomore year. She started hollering at the coaches in Italian, saying, ‘You bums! Get a job! Go to work!’ Then she yelled at the team. Then she took me back home to work on the farm."

Eventually, Marini’s mother relented, and her son became a Hall of Fame caliber lineman by his graduation from Watertown High.

Marini, like every other new member of the Watertown High Athletic Hall of Fame, owed a debt to Sal Ciccarelli, a special inductee into the Hall this year, who has made celebrations like Friday’s possible.

As Norton said, "Sal is popular, popular because he cares about people, children, and community, and he is recognized for his great heart."

Ciccarelli has been a positive force over the past two decades for ensuring that the top senior boy and girl athlete at Watertown High receive a Hall of fame scholarship. This years winners are Alex Garbier, star at baseball and track, who will attend the University of Chicago, and Susan Bedrossian, a three sport athlete who plans to attend Bridgewater State and major in Criminal Justice.

Norton announced that these two scholarships will be Norma Ciccarelli Memorial Scholarships from here on, a tribute to Ciccarelli’s late wife Norma, a longtime advocate for Watertown athletics and education who passed away this year from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Cherished friendships were what the next inductee, Joe Antonellis, emphasized in his acceptance speech.
After Antonellis received his Hall of Fame plaque from his former football coach, John Barbati, Antonellis emphasized how Coach Barbati made a great impact upon him as a football player and a person.

Antonellis also thanked his friends, the "big four," of Dom Lalli, Rich Merullo and Mike Santoian, who were close in high school and have become closer over time. These relationships, Antonellis said, were possible due to Watertown, "providing me with the environment that so shaped my life."

Field hockey players coached by Eileen Donahue were also among the eight honorees – Kerry Lessard, Class of 1995, and the Fall 1987 Field Hockey Team.

After graciously congratulating the other inductees into the Hall, Lessard recognized the talents of her senior co-captain Bethany Rogers, and all of her other teammates over the years.

"You and the other players I played with are the reason why I am standing here today," said Lessard, whose words were greeted with a round of applause from the audience watching her at the podium. "I remember the whole experience – the bus rides, the pasta dinners, the laughing fits, the closeness."

Warm memories continued to be called to mind when the members of the 1987 field hockey team took the stage for the final presentation of the evening. As Norton explained, this was a team that had to defend the first Raiders State Title after most of that team was lost to graduation.

Yet, co-captains Lauren Hegarty and Julie Mandile developed into great leaders and skilled players, part of a gritty, determined team that won the first Middlesex League title for Watertown in field hockey.

"As I look over the names on that roster, I see a lot of names of a lot of players who worked very hard," said Watertown High Athletic Director Elaine Paradis in an interview before the ceremony. Paradis and Watertown High's Jane Jackson arranged for every member of the 1987 team in attendence to have her own special commemorative Hall of Fame jersey.

"We want to thank our coaching staff on that team – Coach Donahue, Coach Nugent and Coach DeGugliemo," said Haggerty, of whom Donahue often praised for being a role model and leader by example as the Raiders won 16 and tied 3 in 1987.

Hagerty, taking a cue from Marini, and showing the same intelligence and poise that she shares with her teammates on that 1987 squad, offered a special thank you to all of the mothers in the audience and who supported them, especially appropriate given that Mother’s Day was celebrated last Sunday.