“A Fantastic Teammate”

Saugus Lions honor Sachem senior Josh Sheehan with “Heisman Award” at Annual Football Meeting and Dinner

By Mark E. Vogler

Saugus High School senior Josh Sheehan missed the entire football season last year after suffering a shoulder injury during the team’s first practice. But Sheehan’s dedication and perseverance enabled him to become a starter on this year’s team and an invaluable player, according to Coach Steve Cummings, who said the 17-year-old Sachem safety “really embodies what it is to be a fantastic teammate.”

“Josh has been a reliable player for us and is one of those guys who figured out what his role was and embraced it every week,” Cummings said in an interview last week after presenting Sheehan with this year’s Saugus Heisman Award at the 53rd Annual Saugus and Peabody Lions Clubs’ Football Meeting and Dinner, which was held last week Gametime sports bar and restaurant in Peabody.

During a short speech honoring Sheehan, Cummings told of how the senior set an example as the type of player that his teammates can look up to. “And we have a young man on our team who, ever since he stepped foot in our program, has done everything anyone has ever asked of him, even when it wasn’t easy,” Cummings said.

“This year, he’s a guy who has learned multiple positions because he knows that at any moment he’s going to go to a position where he’s needed. He’s not the starting quarterback. He’s not the starting running back. But he prepares every single day like he’s going to have to go in and make a big difference in that football game,” Cummings said. “And that’s why I have no doubt that this kid’s going to be a very successful adult. He’s got the ability to figure out where he fits in and how he makes everybody else better. And I couldn’t be more proud to present our 2025 Saugus Heisman Award to Josh Sheehan.”

Sheehan, who is an Honor Roll student, said he hasn’t decided his future goals after graduation. But he’s considering the University of Massachusetts Amherst as one school he would like to attend.

During his talk last week, Coach Cummings congratulated the table full of Saugus and Peabody seniors who broke bread together in a banquet that has become a tradition between the two schools because of the Saugus and Peabody Lions Clubs. “You seniors on both sides, I just want to congratulate you guys on finishing what a lot of people never get to do. A lot of people do not get to experience what you guys have experienced over the past three to four years or for however long you have been involved in the sport. This is a special thing,” Cummings said.

“Being 47 years old, I can still tell you most of the characteristics of my Thanksgiving Day game as a senior in Duxbury. We won 40 to 20. We took the opening kick back for a touchdown. There are so many things about that day that I will remember for the rest of my life,” he said.

Cummings offered some advice to the seniors, who will be playing their final High School game tomorrow. “When you get on the field on Thursday, do yourself a favor: take a minute, look around, recognize some of the faces, take it all in because this is the one sport that you never get to do again,” he said.

“You can play in rec league basketball. You can play in adult league baseball. But you never get to do this again. So, take advantage of it. It’s a special situation. It will get emotional. For most of you, this will be the last time you get to suit up.”

Tomorrow will be the seventh Thanksgiving Day game for Cummings as the Saugus High Coach. “I feel very fortunate to be a part of this rivalry game,” he said.

Peabody Tanners Head Coach Mark Bettencourt told the audience at Gametime sports that he’s a longtime participant in the Lions Club football banquets honoring Saugus and Peabody seniors. He’s attended the banquet for 14 years as the coach.

“It’s nostalgic to think I once sat here. I was the senior. I had to do ‘The Lions’ Roar,’ just like these guys had to do…The tradition of this banquet is really what New England football is all about: the tradition of playing Thanksgiving morning,” Bettencourt said.

“I like to make sure that all the seniors on both teams understand something. Like Coach Cummings says, he remembers his game when he played down on the South Shore.

“I remember my game. I remember my game my senior year when Saugus was 8-1 and Peabody was 9-0. The winner of that game went to the Super Bowl. All the cards were on the table. All the money was pushed in for that Thanksgiving game. They said there were close to 20,000 people at that game. One of the biggest games as far as the Peabody-Saugus rivalry of what was on the line in that game. I remember it like it was yesterday. Yes. Of course, we won. We went to the Super Bowl,” he said.

But the most memorable Thanksgiving game Bettencourt said he played was probably the one in his junior year. Both teams had .500 records and were scheduled to play at the old Stackpole Field in Saugus. “That year there was a blizzard the night before Thanksgiving. We had to push that game to Friday. We played the game on Friday that year. For all intents and purposes, it was a meaningless game. There was no Super Bowl on the line like there was my senior year. It was just a traditional rivalry game. Their quarterback was a kid named Mark Fauci, a phenomenal athlete that went on to play quarterback at Boston University,” Bettencourt said. “They had some really good players on their team. We had some really good players on our team, but the records didn’t reflect anything. And we fought. We fought in the mud at Stackpole Field. Once that snow melted, the entire field turned to mud. You couldn’t read the numbers on our jerseys. I had mud stuck in my ear for a week after that game. We won 14-13. We stopped Mark Fauci on the one-yard line as he went for a two-point conversion to win that game with no time left on the clock.”