Bedford High School Sports Hall of Fame

Seventh Biennial Induction

May 18, 2019

St. Michael Parish Center

Sponsored by the Bedford Athletic Association

Kristen Baratta ’12

Kristen Baratta ’12 has no doubt about the role competitive athletics have played in her life.

“Sports shaped who I am now, my character,” she declared. “They gave me a foundation of knowing how to work with a team, of being a leader, of learning how to work with others. Much of my core reflects on being on a sports team and learning how to deal with losing, and how to win.”

Sports have been part of her life for as long as she can remember. Beginning as a kindergarten pupil, “my parents started signing me up. I was naturally drawn to the team dynamic and working for a larger purpose.”

“From day one I always looked forward to going to practices and games,” she continued. “It never became a burden; it was always the highlight of my day as a kid.” She made travel tems in soccer and basketball. “I had so many coaches and they all influenced me,” Kristen testified. “Their individual teaching and coaching styles have resonated with me.”

From an early age, in the fall it was all soccer, in the winter basketball and in the spring softball – the old- school seasonal sport transitions. “Then in high school I decided to pick up a lacrosse stick, and that worked out really well.”

In grades 10, 11 and 12, Kristen was a varsity starter in three sports for eight seasons, including six as a Dual County League all-star. Her senior year, 2011-12, she was captain of the soccer and basketball teams, and was chosen a Massachusetts All-Scholastic in soccer and first-team Lowell Sun all-star honors in basketball.

She closed out her career with her eighth varsity letter, in lacrosse, and was District A nominee in the Boston Globe’s Richard Phelps Scholar-Athletes All-Scholastics.

As a Bedford High School student-athlete, did she have a favorite sport? “My answer seven years ago was the same as it is today: it depends on the season.”

Among Kristen’s favorite memories is dressing with other junior varsity freshmen for a post-season tournament basketball game in 2009. “This stage is huge,” she remembers thinking. Just a year later, she was back on that stage as a varsity Lady Buc.

“A majority of the teams I was on went to the tournament,” Kristen said. “It never got old. It got more real as time went on -- and it hurt more when we lost.”

Right after high school Kristen played in a co-ed soccer league but once she started school, she stuck to intramurals so she could focus on her academics. Kristen went to Providence College for a year before transferring to Bentley University in Waltham.

She is now pursuing her master’s degree in business administration at Bentley. She also works full time at Epsilon pharmaceuticals in Wakefield, “I’m very busy all the time,” she laughed.

“The ups and downs in high school sports without a doubt shaped me,” Kristen said. “A lot of people say I am very competitive and that never dies.”

Michelle Busa ’83

Michelle Busa doesn’t dwell on recognition she received as a Bedford High School student-athlete. “I know that I made all-league teams and other stuff – I can’t remember it all,” she said.

Well, here’s a sample. As a senior, Michelle led the Dual County League in soccer scoring and was an all- star. In basketball she also was DCL scoring leader and was co-MVP, as the Lady Bucs won the league. And in softball, she led the DCL in hitting and was 7-0 from the mound, leading to another MVP award, Lowell Sun player-of-the-year and a Boston Globe all-scholastic recognition. And that was just one year.

One of Michelle’s earliest memories in sports is playing one-on-one basketball with her neighbor and classmate and future teammate Pam Wetherbee-Metcalf, also a member of the BHS Hall of Fame. The hoop was around the corner in Pam’s driveway.

Michelle was playing recreation basketball and soccer by the time she was in fifth grade. A major influence in those early days was Chris Larsen, Michelle noted. “He was the one who would take me from practice to practice. Without him, I never would have been able to a lot of what I did in developing as a basketball player.”

“When I got into junior high school, I played on the baseball team because there wasn’t girls’ softball,” she recalled. “It was a great learning opportunity for me.” Indeed, when softball was introduced, “I wanted to stay on the baseball team but my parents wouldn’t let me.”

Michelle played on freshman teams, but she never played junior varsity in any sport. She moved from varsity season to varsity season – soccer to basketball to softball – in Grades 10, 11 and 12. “Basketball always was my first love, but I loved them all,” she said.

She pitched and played softball for Helen Gfroerer’s softball team, and blasted more than one line drive off the façade of the school building on the old C Field. “That was a lot of fun,” Michelle laughed. “We had some great teams.” In high school she played U.S. Junior Olympics summer basketball. “Most of the players were college or post-college. It was wonderful – I learned a lot.”

Michelle was recruited to play basketball at Springfield College, where she began starting as a freshman and served as captain for two seasons. She was named freshman women athlete-of-the-year. The team’s conference included opponents in eastern Massachusetts, including Bentley and Stonehill. “They were a great four years,” said Michelle, who studied business as well as health and fitness. Michelle scored 1,015 points for Springfield, still 13th on the all-time list.

These days Michelle is immersed in road cycling in and around Raleigh, NC, where she has lived for the past five years. “I do it for fun and for a lot of benefit rides,” she said. “I belong to three cycling clubs. This is a great cycling community, and because of the weather it’s almost a year-round sport.” After college, “I played basketball for quite some time in recreation leagues. Here in Raleigh I would have played but there are no women’s basketball leagues around here.”

She earned a master’s degree in information technology several years ago and now works in the area of clinical child research.

Coach Jim Byrnes

Jim Byrnes was coaching at Middlesex Community College in the early 1990s – including BHS graduates Phil Kohm and Adam Stuart. He knew former BHS Director of Athletics Barry Haley, who called him when the BHS boys’ basketball position opened. Right away he appreciated the difference. At Middlesex, he said, the players were with him for a maximum, of two years – maybe just one for some transfers. With a high school program, “you have four years, and can really work with the younger kids and develop a strong relationship.”

His immediate priority was to overcome “a focus of losing.” The team had missed qualifying for post- season play for five straight seasons. After winning just five games in 1994-1995, Byrnes-coached teams began a run of 15 consecutive seasons of qualifying.

Jim’s career record at Bedford was 253-204, with 24 of those wins coming in the tournament. Beginning in 2002-03, and culminating with the North Sectional championship in 2009-10, the Bucs were 131-49, a winning percentage of more than 72.

During rhe 1990s the Dual County League was unified, and “we had to play the larger school twice each season. Instead of shrinking from that, we always looked at it as a challenge,” the coach said. “We only can put five players on the court at a time, and we can be competitive.” A milestone, he said, was a first- round tournament victory in 1996 at highly-seeded Dom Savio High School in East Boston.

“We had great kids who bought into the program,” Jim said. “We pressed all of the time, so we played more people, and asked them all to just work hard, contribute even a few minutes. Everybody was asked to give up a little bit of himself to become part of something bigger. We always tried to do it the right way. And the players have the rest of their lives to be friends.”

“Our goal every year was: Let’s compete for a state championship. That’s a reachable goal,” Jim continued. “Let’s try to get to those big games in March. We have great kids, and if we play hard and smart the winning will come.” Unfortunately, the Bucs were eliminated by championship-caliber Watertown teams, coached by Byrnes’s good friend Steve Harrington, four years in a row.

Jim joined the BHS physical; education faculty in 1999 and is still there. “Coaching was a year-round responsibility, and I still love to teach so now I can really focus,” he said. Still, last winter Jim took the reins of John Glenn Middle School boys’ basketball for a season. “It was an opportunity to just teach them how to play. It was a rush of adrenaline – I love the game.” Over the years, he also coached other sports in spots – boys’ tennis, girls’ soccer, boys’ junior varsity soccer. He still lives in Medford, where he grew up and played some high school basketball and soccer. He and his wife have two children, ages 33 and 30, and two grandchildren.

Jim noted that he learned coaching style and philosophy from “some very good people,” including Jim O’Brien and Rick Pitino when they were at Boston University. “If you want to learn, talk to people who are good at it at a higher level.” He added that he was blessed with superb assistant coaches, including John Fusco, Joe LeBlanc, Vin McGrath, Dave Boschetto and Jeff McGrath, as well as Gary Hunt with the freshmen. Jeff Eagles ’87

Jeff Eagles’ stellar career in competitive diving began at age eight. “In the summer I belonged to Wedgewood, where there was a swim and dive team. I watched an older girl, Cathy Cuthbert (a member of the BHS Hall of Fame 1975 state champions) diving and I said, ‘Hey, that looks pretty cool. I’d like to try that.’” She became Jeff’s diving coach at Wedgewood. Soon he was diving during the winter as well, at the Woburn YMCA.

Jeff moved up to area diving teams, including YMCA teams. Indeed, during his senior year, he placed second and third in two YMCA National Championship events. He also won two gold medals in the Bay State Games while in high school. By that time he was also training five days a week at Harvard University with Crimson Coach John Walker.

Jeff was a force on BHS Coach Sandy Maczko’s team for four years, the last two as captain. He was Dual County League diving champion each season, qualifying for the state meet, which he won as a senior after finishing second the previous two years.

He also recalled competing in some swimming events on the high school team so all the lanes could be filled. “I remember being in lane six and knowing I was in last place -- and having the whole team cheering me on,” he laughed, adding, “I did it because that’s what you do when you are part of the team.”

As a high school student, “I grounded my passions in sports and competition,” Jeff related. “They were so important in creating my values.” But he was also a serious art student, and credits those teachers as well.

Jeff was recruited by a number of schools –Tulane, Wisconsin, Maine (where he had trained with a coach). When he visited Penn State, “I felt I was going t be part of a family of divers there. I had been there before at regional competitions.” The university had not yet joined the Big 10 Conference, but Jeff and his teammates faced many major programs around the Northeast.

At Penn State Jeff was an NCAA Division I All-American diver. He qualified for the Nationals in 1991, and was a finalist in the three-meter competition.

Asked about possibly competing in the Olympics, Jeff said, “I don’t think I ever felt I was quite at that level. It would have been amazing if I even qualified to go to the trials. But I competed against guys who went, including a teammate.”

“My wife was on the diving team at Penn State; we went through the same experience,” he noted. “It’s amazing how things aligned.”

Jeff graduated from Penn State with a degree in fine arts and a business minor. Much of his career has been in licensed athletic apparel, beginning in a small shop in State College and climbing to national brands like Adidas. Today Jeff works as an independent consultant, with 25 years of experience in product design and identity branding. He and his wife Amy live in Canton with their three children, ages 15, 12 and 9.

He doesn’t do any recreational diving. “Some sports are easy to continue doing and sort of scale back as you do,” he commented. “But as you scale back diving, there is a risk of injury.” He noted that he still has some residual ailments from his competitive years. “I said that if I can’t do it the way I want to, I think it’s time for me to let go.” Michael Ingram-Rubin ’10 Basketball apparently is part of Mike Ingram-Rubin’s DNA. His father Michael, who excelled as a Tufts Jumbo, is a member of the Massachusetts Basketball Hall of Fame and won four state championships at East Boston High, where he later served as headmaster. But there was no family pressure. As a six-year-old, Mike recalled, “I was actually into computers. My dad always would go to the gym with my brother. They used to ask me, ‘Do you want to go?’ One day I decided to go – and I had a blast. I had an underhand shot that went in every time.” From that time on, Mike said, he was at the gym as much as possible. “I worked on my form, I got stronger, and it just became natural to me.” Mike said he always looked up to his older brother Mikhail, “considered one of the better players in the city. We grew up playing in the same youth leagues, we worked out together and cheered each other on and have each other’s back. I’ve seen my brother do some amazing things. He was so much fun to watch -- watching him made me want to go into the gym.” In fourth grade, Mike began his career in the Bedford schools under the Metco program. When he arrived home each day, he would head to the Hyde Park YMCA. “I was kind of like the young buck over there – first I would shoot around when they were playing pickup, and then the older kids would let me play My game really took off.” Mike began playing on an AAU team in sixth grade, and the next year joined Coach Dave Wilson’s team at John Glenn Middle School. That first year, “there were 25 kids, so I was kind of on the practice squad.” The following year he began getting connected with some of the teammates who ultimately would share a sectional championship. After a year on the junior varsity, he played three varsity seasons. “We had a lot of talent in my high school years, and it was tough in 2010 to make an impact after playing with Gerry (Cohen) and Terrence (Favors) and Ray (Bowen). They were gone; we had one year left and we knew there was a possibility we could do some big things. The chemistry was still there.” The Bucs went on to win the Division 3 North Sectionals and earn their first trip to the Garden since 1974. “We all bought into the system and we had one year to prove it. Everybody payed their roles to the best of their abilities.” After a year at New England College, Mike transferred to Fitchburg State, where he proceded to rewrite the basketball record books. He was the starting point guard for three seasons, scoring around 1,100 points. As a junior he was the conference most valuable player, and Mike was among the top 40 scorers in the NCAA. Despite just three years of eligibility, Mike is in the career top 10 in three-point baskets (fifth), assists (seventh), steals (seventh) and free throws (10th) for Fitchburg. During his senior year at Fitchburg, with his four years of player eligibility exhausted, Mike turned to coaching. That year he was junior varsity coach at Quabbin Regional, then after graduation became the JV coach at East Boston High School, where he is now the varsity coach at age 26. “I have aspirations of coaching at the college level,” said Mike, whose full-time job is Metco coordinator at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. He also has developed a basketball summer training program for kids ages 7-18, and still plays in Boston men’s leagues and summer tournaments. “My father came to all of my games,” Mike said. “He has been able to guide and mentor me. A father who also is an illustrious coach – I had the best of both worlds.”

Olivia Jameson ’13

Olivia Jameson’s early entrée into competitive swimming was incentivized. “When I was five, they asked me to join the Wedgewood Club swim team. They told me if you compete in three meets you get a trophy, and I said OK. When I was nine, I realized I could really be good at this if I did it more.”

That was when she affiliated with the North Shore Swim Club, which trains and hosts competitions for all ages of children, using a number of pools in the region, including Hanscom Air Force Base. “I became more interested in the sport, though I wasn’t good enough to go to travel meets for several years.”

As she worked her way through different levels of club meets, Olivia said she realized that “in swimming it’s very clear who is good because it’s timed. So every time I qualified for the next level of meets, I said, ‘OK I might be pretty good at this.’ I liked that clear part of the sport.”

Olivia credited her club team coach, Tony Padvaiskas, as a major influence. “He was very good with me at a young age, making swimming fun and looking forward to going to practice,” she said. “Then he gave constructive feedback, helping me understand that I had a lot of potential and could do big things.”

In high school competition, Olivia rewrote several records: Dual County League 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle, and BHS 50-yard, 100-yard, 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, and the 200-yard medley relay. As a senior she won the state championship in the 200-yard freestyle, and was an all-scholastic in both Boston newspapers and The Lowell Sun.

“The middle-distance freestyles were always my best events, but I also liked all of the other ones. I loved being on relays; they were always one of the best parts of swimming for me.” Swimming took a lot of her time in high school. “In order to be really good at a sport, you have to stick with it – not just meets and practice but also weight training,” Olivia said.

“I committed to Yale the day after my recruiting trip. My four years there were incredible. It was far enough away (from Bedford) for me to have my own college experience, but close enough so my parents could come to my home meets,” Olivia said. Among her achievements at Yale were second, third and fifth place finishes in the 2017 all-league meet; Ivy League all-star honors as a junior and senior; and Scholar All-America honorable mention twice.

As a junior, Olivia qualified for the Olympics trials in the 200-meter backstroke – “the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and biggest accomplishment in my entire life.” She said she achieved the required time on the seventh attempt, over a span of almost one year, and just weeks before the trials. “It was literally my last shot.”

“By that point I wasn’t there to try to make the Olympics team. My whole goal was to get to the trials, and therefore I really got to enjoy the experience more,” she related.

Olivia works for Kraft Foods in marketing, and she doesn’t swim for fun. “It’s tough to go from being really good at something to doing it recreationally,” she explained. “In competitive swimming, you can’t take a day off because it takes to days to get back to where you were. So I go to the gym and do a lot of other stuff. Classes at the gym are best for me because I don’t have something that I am working toward – I’m not doing extended cardio to make myself better in swimming. Once I lost that competitive environment, it was hard to motivate myself for reasons of health. I still need that exercise outlet but it’s just not in the pool.” Tom McManus ’76

You’d think Tom McManus would have learned the game of golf at the old Bedford Country Club, After all, it was literally across Old Billerica Road from his childhood home.

But his roots are at the Lexington Golf Club, where he started as a caddy in the early 1970s. “Caddies were allowed to play on Mondays,” he recalled. And one summer, “when I was 13 or 14, I was a 20- handicapper at beginning of the season and at end of the season I was a five-handicapper. I got good really quick.” The legendary Peter Manning Sr. was the professional there and “he was very supportive,” Tom said. “I started working at the pro shop for him.” (Mr. Manning’s great-grandson Nick has been a BHS varsity golfer for the past four seasons.)

Tom actually began his athletic career as a tennis player, learning at Wedgewood Club. His father Art, original athletic director at the high school and a charter member of the BHS Hall of Fame, was the manger there.

After a year at Shawsheen Tech, Tom entered BHS as a sophomore in 1974 and put golf on the high school’s sports map. Bedford won the Dual County League championship in 1974 and 1975, and Tom also won the league individual title as a junior and senior, when he was also third in the state individual championships. He was named one of six Boston Globe all-scholastics in golf (they were interviewed by a young reporter named Dan Shaughnessy).

Terry Bane was the coach at BHS. “We had a hell of a team – myself, Billy Lynch, Eric Johnson, who had just transferred in. I don’t think I lost over the last two years,” Tom recalled.

During his high school years, Tom also played twice in the World Junior tournaments at the breathtaking Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. He also won the New England Juniors at Ponkapoag in Canton as well as the Catholic Youth Organization tournament. “Those were great experiences,” he stated.

Right out of high school, Tom set his sights on a professional golf career. “I went to Naples, Florida, and worked in the bag room at the country club there,” he recounted. “I practiced a lot, and I turned pro in 1978 and tried to play the tour.”

“One of my first tournament was the Massachusetts State Open in 1978, and I finished second, playing against all the best professionals and amateurs,” Tom said. “I made my first check. It was $1,500, but it was like $15 million to me.” Later he won the Cape Cod PGA championship.

After several years on the tour, Tom became a PGA professional for a number of golf clubs. “I got my amateur status back in 1997, and the following year I qualified for the U.S. Amateurs,” he said. “Matt Kuchar won it. Tiger had just turned pro; he had won the previous three.”

Tom has lived in Florida for the past several years. He sells software for the golf course industry and us a member of the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club. “I play about once a week,” he said. “Still a five-handicap.”

Steven Mead ’91

Steve Mead said his initial interest in sports was fostered at the former Belle Isle rink on Loomis Street when he was six or seven. He also played youth baseball.

As a skater with Lexington-Bedford Youth Hockey in the 1980s, Steve remembers that the leadership was “mostly Lexington dads.”

At Bedford High Steve skated with the Buccaneers for four varsity seasons. He was a Dual County League hockey all-star for three years, a two-year captain and was a Lowell Sun all-star junior and senior years. He also played varsity football, as well as baseball as a freshman and sophomore.

Steve played hockey at the next level at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. After making the transition to NCAA Division 3, he had an outstanding career, including two seasons as team captain. Steve still participates in the college’s annual alumni game.

He received his degree, came home to work for a summer, and then traveled to Europe in September 1995. “All the European teams were allowed three foreign-born payers per roster,” he explained. “This guy recruited a bunch of Division 3 graduates, put a team together and played exhibition games against teams looking for players.”

He was based in Leuven, Belgium, a college town near Brussels. “For a year, I basically got enough money to eat.”

In retrospect, “it has been phenomenal to go from a sleepy town like Bedford to Saratoga Springs to some truly eye-opening distinct cultures – Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg.”

Two years after returning from Europe, Steve began his coaching experience. Head Coach Mike McGrath reached out, and Steve became assistant boys’ hockey coach at BHS for four years. Then it “got to the point where both of my kids picked up hockey. Once they started up, I have coached all of their hockey teams, up until now.”

The key to coaching kids, he laughed, is: “Stay out of the way and they’ll have a lot of fun.”

Later, he became involved with youth sports leadership, serving as president of Bedford Babe Ruth Baseball and Softball for a few years. When his children began playing hockey seriously, Steve joined the board of Lexington-Bedford Youth Hockey. Today he is the volunteer director of coaching, “helping the younger coaches figure out what it’s really all about.” One of his first lessons is: “No one should know who your kid is.”

These days Steve is in charge of the commercial real estate group for Cambridge Trust Co. He and his wife Tammy and their son, grade 9, and daughter, grade 7, live in Bedford. “The community is fantastic,” he said. “I’m so happy to be back.”

A lot of his success at every level, Steve said, has been emotional. “The biggest driver is desire within.”

Herman Rice ’87

Herman Rice doesn’t recall exactly when he became involved in sports, but it was “definitely at a young age.” He played recreation baseball in third and fourth grade, and although he liked football, there were no organized options.

“Remember during high school football games there was always a kids’ pickup game in the corner? I was always playing in one of those games,” Herman said.

As he got older, “People used to ask my mother: Are you going to let him play football?’”

He first put on a uniform at the beginning of ninth grade. “I just had fun – I was learning, but it just came naturally,” he said.

Herman and his close friend Keith Tassinari both dressed as freshmen but didn’t see varsity action. “I was just happy to be out there playing with friends,” he said. As a varsity running back and defensive back for three years, “my overall memory is enjoyment.” Football, Herman said, “was easy. It was fun. I never thought about how hard it could be.”

As a junior, Herman returned back-to-back kickoffs for touchdowns at Acton-Boxborough. He was a Dual County League all-star that year and the next, and as a senior captain, Herman was a Division 3 all-star, a Lowell Sun all-star and was selected to play in both the Eastern Massachusetts Shriners All-Star Game and the Harry Agganis All-Star Game.

Assistant Coach Bob Petrillo was particularly instrumental in his success with the program, Herman said. “He always was my number one fan. He never told me what I couldn’t do; he told me what I could do.”

Herman didn’t try lacrosse until he was a sophomore at BHS, after playing baseball as a freshman. He said he liked the speed and physical nature of his new sport. Col. Ed Campbell was the coach – he was also an assistant football coach, and “he loved to have us out there.”

Football at Springfield College was “definitely a good experience,” Herman said. Right away he found himself playing with fifth-year seniors. He began in the offensive backfield, but “they ran the wishbone and two weeks in I switched to defense. I wasn’t big enough to block linebackers, so I played cornerback. I made a lot of good connections there. I still talk with them today.”

Herman was inscribed in the NCAA record book during his first year at Springfield. A new rule provided for a two-point score if a failed two-point conversion attempt was returned by the defense to the endzone. Herman recovered a fumble against Worcester Polytech and raced 80 yards. “We had practiced the play. I knew it was going to be two points, but I didn’t know I was the first person to do it” he said, adding, “Some people still ask me about it.”

Regarding people who had an impact on his life in sports, Herman named his high school football teammates. “Mike Johnson, Tom Bauman, Todd Tyer, Mark Sullivan, Barclay Scheck, Scott Birmingham, and all of the other guys who never quit. I knew they would always be there. They made it fun for me.”

Injury-free throughout his athletic career, Herman stays in shape through his job with UPS. He and his wife Tara and their 13-year-old son live in Nashua. The 1979 Sectional Champion Boys’ Soccer Team

The 1979 boys’ soccer team – Bedford High School’s first sectional champion – was “a very passionate team that was filled with a lot of courage – scrappy guys who wound up realizing the things for which they had been building,” according to Head Coach Joe Patuleia.

Varsity soccer’s debut at BHS was in 1972; Patuleia arrived a year later. There was no youth program in the early years, but by 1976 “a group of whippersnappers came along as freshmen, with tremendous spirit. Some of them made varsity as sophomores.”

The championship season began with a flourish: wins over Lincoln-Sudbury, Weston and Newton South. After tying Acton-Boxborough, the Bucs went on a roll before losing to nemesis Wayland 2-0 and the rematch with L-S. “We came back in the second game against Wayland for a 1-1 tie, and it took everything we had to get that,” Patuleia said.

Bedford finished the regular season 12-5-3, and in second place in the Dual County League. The team had four shutouts and qualified for its first post-season tournament “Fifteen players were involved in scoring, but more important, our defense was really good,” Patuleia said.

Bedford played North Reading in the opening round – the Hornets had beaten the Bucs 1-0 in the last game of the regular season. “We all said, ‘Let’s go for it – we have nothing to lose,’ and we came from behind and won 2-1. Now we were on cloud nine,” Patuleia recounted.

In the quarterfinals, Bedford traveled to powerhouse Masconomet Regional. “They had all the hype, a band, cheerleaders, like a football atmosphere. We said we aren’t even supposed to be here. This is all fun,” the coach continued. “We won that game 3-2, again coming from behind to win.”

Top-seeded and undefeated Lexington Christian Academy was the draw in the semifinals. “They played in a weak league,” the coach noted, and Bedford won convincingly. “Then we found out that for the championship, we had to play Wayland – a team we hadn’t beaten in five years.”

The Division 3 North sectional title game was on a Saturday morning at Boston University -- on synthetic turf. “We never had played on that before,” the coach said, Wayland players engaged in a pre-game “silent psych. Gordy Guay said to me, ‘Do we have to be quiet?’ So we went crazy, hooting and hollering and enthusiastic like always.”

Jim Stepchew’s goal gave Bedford a 1-0 lead after the first half. “They got a lucky goal near the beginning of the second half,” Patuleia related, “but about halfway through, Peter Colonero passed straight across to the top of the penalty area and his brother Darren buried the ball.” As the Bucs continued to attack, fullbacks Chris Pruyn and Guay drove goal kicks past midfield, and “we got a lot of relief from that.” Patuleia said the Wayland coach came over to congratulate him with about a minute-and-a-half remaining, but he replied, “I’m not falling for that.”

In the state semifinals, Bedford lost 3-2 to Nauset. “We had a couple of goals called back,” Patuleia said. “I’m still mad about it.” (The following season, Bedford was sectional runner-up.)

Other players were Todd Bunner, Eppy Busch, Jim Concannon, Richie Davidson, Steve Davidson, Paul D’Entremont, Svein Gjelsvik, Don Hamann, Mike McEachern, Jim Morris, Steve Morris, Ferenc Nagy, Don Naugler and Neal Ward. Ben Maxwell was junior varsity coach, Mike Dorey coached the freshman team and former Assistant Coach George Gauthier also helped out. “Billy Carter was our manager, and he showed dressed as a buccaneer with an eye patch and a papier-mache parrot on his shoulder,” laughed Patuleia. “It was our good-luck charm the whole time.”

“In those days man of the kids had never seen a real soccer game, let alone a World Cup-type game,” Patuleia related. “So I bought silent Super 8 film of the World Cup, and we showed these videos every Friday night,” accompanied by the soundtrack of the 1969 film Z. Those sessions became legendary.

The 2012 State Champion Girls’ Tennis Team

To the casual observer, the 2012 BHS girls’ tennis regular season record did not suggest a deep run in the MIAA tournament. The Lady Bucs finished with nine wins and seven losses.

But this was against Dual County League competition – the premier interscholastic tennis league in Massachusetts. Indeed, in the spring of 2012, four of the MIAA six state champions – girls and boys – across all three divisions were DCL teams.

“We were definitely totally cognizant of the difficulty of the DCL, and that actually helped us in the long run,” recalled Co-Capt. Sidney Arsenault. “Each week the excitement got us through.” In the post-season, she acknowledged, most of the competition was less intense.

Bedford dispatched Notre Dame of Tyngsboro in the opening round of the tournament, 5-0, in a match that took less than 40 minutes. Then came what turned out to be the closest contest in the North sectionals: a 3-2 win over a good Manchester-Essex squad in the quarterfinals.

In the sectional semifinals Bedford defeated Lynnfield, 4-1. Wet weather moved the sectional finals to indoor courts, but that didn’t deter the Lady Bucs. They took home the trophy, winning against their third straight Cape Ann League opponent, Ipswich. The score was 4-1.

The state semifinals, held at Newton North High School, was the biggest battle of the tournament. It took about two hours, but Bedford emerged victorious over South champion Cohasset, 3-2. The Lady Bucs then completed their championship run with a 30-minute 5-0 blanking of the Central Massachusetts champion, Bromfield School of Harvard.

Sidney was the team’s lead singles player all season. Second singles was Co-Capt. Sarita Biswas. Hannah Mandini played third singles.

The first doubles pair was Maya Biswas and Sarah Cowles. There were two second-doubles pairs: Melissa Landman and Allegra Scharff, and Dottie Arsenault and Hailey Millar. Tess Gong also saw action during the campaign. The only seniors on the team were the co-captains and Allegra.

Sidney pointed out that in the tournament, the singles players “had big battles on their hands, facing some of the top players in the state. We really relied in the strength and depth of our doubles.”

The players still keep in touch with Coach Monika Drabkova, who is living in the Czech Republic (and is scheduled to be married the same weekend as the Hall of Fame induction).

Sidney went on to play four years for NCAA tennis at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, NY. Sarita also played intercollegiate tennis, for Brandeis University.

A Letter from Mike Rosenberg

I am grateful to the selection committee and the Bedford High School sports family for inclusion in the Sports Hall of Fame, and for the privilege of sustaining and strengthening high school sports in the town for 45 years. I was never a good athlete and I never had the physical or mental toughness to become one. But I love the culture of competitive sports. I believe they build trust, integrity and community. And I think I’m a pretty good writer, so since 11th grade I have found a niche in the sports universe. At various times since 1974 I have sold ads and taken pictures for the BHS fall sports program; covered games and seasons for The Minuteman and The Lowell Sun; announced football plays from the press box; planned pubic celebrations for state championship teams; advocated as an elected official for sports programs and facilities; and coached Babe Ruth baseball for 17 years, I was president of the BAA for a few years in the 1980s and in 2006 the association endorsed my ideas for a Sports Hall of Fame. I have met and befriended hundreds of wonderful people of all ages and backgrounds along the way, and those relationships are the greatest gift.

Presenters for the Inductees

Kristen Barrata…………………………………………………………………………………Mike Dirrane Coach Jim Byrnes……………………………….…………………………………………….Keith Mangan Michelle Busa………………………………………………………………….Pam Wetherbee-Metcalf ’83 Jeff Eagles………………………………………………………………………………Coach John Walker Mike Ingram-Rubin………………………………………………………………..…Coach.Michael Rubin Olivia Jameson………………………………………………………………………………….Ed Jameson Tom McManus……………………………………………………………………………Coach Terry Bane Steven Mead…………………………………………………………………………………Peter Dion ‘88 Herman Rice……………………………………………………………………………….To be announced Mike Rosenberg………………………………………...……………………………………Amy Hamilton

2012 State Champion Girls’ Tennis Team……………………………………………………Keith Mangan Sectional Champion 1979 Boys’ Soccer team……………………………...……………Coach Joe Patuleia

Selection Committee

Wayne Braverman, sportswriter and editor Michael Dirrane, former BAA president Amy Hamilton ‘80, Bedford director of recreation Mike Rosenberg, sportswriter and editor, former BAA president Mark Sullivan, former Bedford Babe Ruth president

Keith Mangan, BHS Director of Athletics, ex-officio.

THE BEDFORD HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS HLL OF FAME, 2006-2017

Individuals Vin McGrath ’98 David Ahern ’06 Coach Art McManus Dr. Neil Amidon ’86 Carla Inferrera Monte ’95 Chuck Axtell ’95 Jen Hanson Naylor ’93 Dr. Elisa Banner ’96 Jim O’Shaughnessy ’85 Dotty Sparks Blake ’75 Coach Bob Petrillo Dan Callahan ’89 Kim Ginder Ratcliffe ’79 Donn Campbell ’88 Todd Russell ’80 Kevin Cangiano ’10 Coach Armand Sabourin Kristen Cangiano ’10 Bob Schwelm ’77 Jennifer Champney ’06 Steve Shea ’60 Jerry Cohen ’08 Joe Sickles ’78 Sarah Collins ’01 Kip Sternberg ’75 Doug Coombs ’75 Colleen Strachan ’08 Caitlin Hurley DeSanti ’93 Coach Jake Sullivan Joe Dooley ’72 Dennis Taylor ’90 Kevin Paul Dupont ’71 Alan Tomczykowski ’01 Mike Elias ’74 Rich Tomczykowski ’01 Rob Emerson ’81 Carol Ward ’82 Yvonne Busa Ethridge ’80 Pam Wetherbee-Metcalf ’83 Terrance Favors ’08 Coach Dave Wilson Ryan Friend ’99 Bruce Winslow ’64 Jonathan Gault ’09 Steven Wood ’71 Christine Geilfuss ’96 Kerry McGovern Yaceshyn ’85 Mike Genetti ’79 Coach Helen Gfroerer Teams Lian Hurley ’90 1958 baseball John Isnor Sr. ’82 1974 girls’ cross-country Lois Farrell Koering ’82 1974 girls’ swim Joe LaDow ’71 1990 boys’ winter track Mark Lane ’72 1990 softball Kim Alcaide Lohnes ‘88 2000 boys’ soccer Kristin Dougherty Maskalenko ’86 2002 boys’ tennis