THE SPORTS WIRE: Taking a Look Around Our Region in Sports; Closeups and Views from the Spyglass Looks like the Crimson Tide Football squad might not be easing up on the gas pedal this year

By Steve Freker

They did do that; they really played a game in Florida. We are talking about the Catholic Memorial (CM) varsity football team, they of the two consecutive Division 2 State Championships and the formerly state-best 30-game win streak.  Well, the win streak disappeared in a cavalcade of mishaps, a 35-2 loss Friday including – apparently – losing three key players in the battle, according to CM Head Coach John DiBiaso Jr., the former Everett High icon football boss in news accounts.

So why did they go all the way to Florida for a regular season game? “We needed the game,” Coach “Dibs” told Boston Herald sports scribe Matty Feld, apparently in reference to what we assume is that no one wants to play CM.

Or, as the green-bedecked guard at the gate of the Wizard’s digs said in “The Wizard of Oz,” “No Way, No How!” That’s what potential non-league opponents used to say to Coach Dibs when he tried to schedule non-league games when he formerly coached Everett High from 1992-2018, winning a raucous 12 Super Bowls for the Crimson Tide. Why go and probably get smoked by Everett (now CM) when there are plenty of other teams to play?

So, what did Coach Dibs do instead at Everett? He went out and scheduled basically an all-Catholic Conference non-league slate, drawing massive crowds (and massive gates!) to Everett Memorial Stadium on the regular.

He can’t do that anymore, though. He’s in the Catholic Conference. Thus, the trip to play Cardinal Newman in the Palm Beach area of Florida.

This week CM is hosting another out-of-state opponent, St. Francis, of Hamburg, N.Y. St. Francis, which wears the same “SF Giants” logo and colors of the NFL team, is off to a rocky start at 0-3. Don’t matter. CM will absolutely stuff this place this weekend – they scheduled the game on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 12:00 noon.

What do you think Coach Dibs’ record is after a loss? Hmmm. Probably something like 12-0 or 13-0. That’s how few games his teams have lost through the years! Stay awake, CM scoreboard operator, Saturday, this one could get ugly in a hurry.

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Does the home opening 59-0 win over Somerville mean Everett is not taking its foot off the gas pedal this season?

1. Everett High Football dropped a game to Xaverian in Week One to one of the Division 1 State preseason favorites – Xaverian – but roared back with a 59-0 win over Greater Boston League (GBL) opponent Somerville on Friday in the Crimson Tide’s home opener. A historic win on a couple of fronts:
2. A) It was a win for new Head Coach Justin Flores in his home and GBL opener.
3. B) It was the first time an Everett team had surpassed the 50-point scoring mark versus a GBL opponent since 2013, only the second time since 1992.
4. C) It was the most one-sided GBL win for an Everett team in about 40 years… maybe ever!

Not that Everett could not have passed 50 points against a GBL opponent many, many times in the past. Quite frankly, there was a stretch when former Coach John DiBiaso Jr. was Head Coach when the Tide played, basically, “Name Your Score” football with both GBL opponents, and some non-league opponents as well.

But Coach DiBiaso chose not to pass into the 50-point scoring range. What happened a lot was a 5 or 6 touchdown lead at halftime and then taking the foot off the gas pedal. Everett would take the air out of the football and let the clock pass on their way to something in the 40s. A 42-0 or 49-0 win were frequent numbers.

Not Friday. The same kid who scored Everett’s second touchdown in the first quarter scored the last one… in the fourth quarter. Granted, Everett was ahead 30-0 after the first quarter and 47-0 at halftime and probably could have scored many more points than 59, but it was a big number.

The coaches who succeeded DiBiaso, Theluxon Pierre and Rob DiLoreto, also never went into the 50s.

The last time Everett scored 50 points or more in a GBL game was on October 5, 2013, when the Tide defeated Cambridge Rindge and Latin, 51-30, in Everett, under Coach Dibs.

It needed those points, however, to keep the Falcons from getting close. That happened to be Cambridge’s final year in the GBL before heading to the Dual County League. They finished 7-4 that year, their best record in decades.

Before that? No times did Coach Dibs’ Everett teams score 50 against a fellow GBL team. Not once, from 1992-2013. Looks like those days may be over.

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Former Revere High 3-sport star Calvin Boudreau gets his feet wet coaching in Catholic Conference

This one’s a curveball… even for a guy who used to play Baseball (among other sports) for the RHS Patriots. Former three-sport Revere High standout (Football, Basketball, Baseball) Calvin Boudreau (Class of 2021), who served as an assistant coach on the Patriots football staff under his own former head man Lou Cicatelli last season, is now coaching in the Catholic Conference. Boudreau this year joined the coaching staff of the Malden Catholic Lancers, under Head Coach Joe Gaff, where he assists second-year Offensive Coordinator Paul Norton with offensive planning and quarterback coaching.

Norton was OC under Cicatelli at Revere High when the 6-3 Boudreau had several standout seasons as QB for the Patriots.

Freshman Football looks like it’s extinct in the GBL… and for other leagues as well

Freshman football looks like a thing of the past for local teams, especially those in the Greater Boston League. The numbers are just not there, particularly since the emergence of “No Weight Restriction” Pop Warner Football. This year, in particular, it appears that a lot of ninth-graders from GBL communities like Malden, Somerville, Revere and others have migrated to those Pop Warner programs.

According to Malden High School football people, that is fine with them, since the Malden “A” Squad now practices at Macdonald Stadium on Pearl Street and has developed a bond between the MHS Tornados and the Pop Warner Cyclones, like “back in the day.”

Get it? “Tornados”? “Cyclones (smaller Tornados)”? With all the weather terms rolling around, it makes a lot of sense.

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Andre Chiefs win the 2023 Intercity League Championship

Congratulations to the Andre Chiefs – whose home field is Maplewood Park in Malden – of the local semiprofessional Intercity League (ICL) for winning their 7th ICL Championship since they were brought back in 1989… and 25th overall, since their inception way back in 1957.

The Chiefs were reinstituted by “owner” Chuck Andre in 1989 after being out of the league for a few years (1984-1988). The team’s first coaches when they were put back into the ICL by Andre in 1989 and 1990 were Shawn Brickman and Steve Freker, who were coaching the Malden High School Golden Tornados team at the same time in the spring. The Chiefs won the first of seven ICL titles in the “new era” in 1990.

Naturally, some of the best-ever players from Malden High School gravitated to the Chiefs, including the winningest pitcher in ICL history, righthander Dave Marsters, a 1986 Malden High School graduate and one of the top hitters in ICL history, Michael Langston, a 1989 Malden High grad. Both of those former Chiefs are Malden High Golden Tornado Club Hall of Famers. Looks like Malden High is still supplying players to help keep the Chiefs winning. One of the Chiefs’ and the ICL’s top sluggers is ICL veteran Andrew Caufield, a 2016 Malden High grad. Caulfield hit .390 this season, clubbing a league-leading 38 RBIs. Another former Tornado, Shai Cohen, is a relief pitcher for the Chiefs and a 2022 MHS grad. Another Malden High Hall of Famer, Dave Caiazzo, is the Chiefs’ pitching coach.

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Leave it to Coach Prime to pull off this marketing genius move; where there’s a dollar, there’s a way!

This isn’t from our region, but it’s interesting.

Never one to shy away to make Benjamins (who would?), it was announced Friday that Colorado Buffs football Head Coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders has unveiled a new line of sunglasses. This, from Tiney Ricciardi of the Denver Post: “Why throw shade at CU Buffs coach Deion Sanders when you could wear a pair of shades he helped inspire?

On Friday, San Diego-based Blenders Eyewear company revealed a new line of sunglasses created in partnership with “Coach Prime.” The limited-edition style combines Blenders’ Millenia X2 silhouette with the company’s sleek Pure Blend Polar Lens, “bringing a fusion of style, sports, and spirit to fans across the nation,” per a statement. The design is available for preorder today in the Buffs’ signature gold and black colors. They go on sale Oct. 12 and each pair costs $67.

News about the shades came as the University of Colorado and Colorado State University football teams were to face off on the field Saturday night in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. The rivalry became national news last week when, during the week before the game, Colorado State coach Jay Norvell chirped Coach Prime’s style during press conferences, stating, “When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and my glasses off.”

Coach Prime, in a subsequent press conference – wearing a hat and sunglasses – said that Norvell’s words only added fuel to the fire in pumping up his team Saturday night. “Why would you want to talk about us when we don’t talk about nobody? All we do is go out here, work our butts off and do our job on Saturday,” Coach Prime said.

‘Nuff said, Coach Prime. I’m buying the sunglasses, too. Anyone else?

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Some stuff noticed along the way…

—Here’s a trivia question for you: Malden High freshman quarterback Ryan Bowdridge – on his first-ever varsity football pass attempt – threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to junior captain Gabriel Vargas Cardoso in an eventual 20-14 loss to Lynn Tech in the season opener for both teams on September 9. Has any other Malden quarterback ever done that before?

—Look who’s 2-0! Go get ’em, Sachems of Saugus High, who are off to their best start in 10 years. One of the assistant coaches on the defensive side of the ball is Coach “Blue” (Greg Bluestein), who is an Everett High teacher and a longtime former Tide assistant under all three of the former field bosses: DiBiaso, Pierre and DiLoreto.

—When Cardinal Newman hosted (and defeated) CM Friday night, it was the first time that school ever played an out-of-state opponent!

—The team that’s coming to play CM this weekend from New York – St. Francis – lost their second game of the year by a – get this – 78-72 Final! In six overtimes!!

—No, it is not the highest scoring game combined in high school history. That honor for the highest-scoring game was in 1927 when Haven (Kansas) beat Sylvia 256-0, according to MaxPreps.

—It still may be the only time in high school football history where a team scored 72 points… and lost!

—Here’s another trivia question for you: Malden High senior Zeke Noelsaint comes into this year as the captain of two varsity sports: Baseball and Boys Basketball. He also served as captain of Malden High Baseball his junior season, last spring. Any other two-sports captains recently at Malden High?

—Don’t confuse the name of Malden Catholic Offensive Coordinator Paul Norton with the Paul “Flash” Norton, a former longtime assistant coach in the 1980s who has been an assistant with the Tewksbury High football program for over 20 years now.