The 1973 CAL Champion Pioneers: Bad News Greets New Season

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first Pioneer team to play in the Cape Ann League, I am taking a week by week look back at the 1973 season.

Wayback Wednesday: The 1973
CAL Champion Pioneers

September 5, 1973 - Over 60 players turned out for the 1973 Pioneers in preparation for their first season in the Cape Ann League.  However the excitement of joining a new league was tempered by some early bad news.

Before the team even began preseason workouts, they were dealt a severe blow when they discovered that they would be without the services of team captain Jim Peterson. Head coach Bill Rodan announced that the standout guard and linebacker would not be able to play his senior year due to a blood clot in his left leg suffered during the summer.

"We hope to have him in a coaching position," Rodan told the Villager, "but the team will miss his leadership."

Even with Peterson unable to play, the Pioneers looked to have a solid core coming back from the 1972 team that went 6-3 in their final year in the Dual County League.

Rodan, who was beginning his fifth year as Pioneer head coach and had compiled a 23-13 mark in his first  four years, noted that only a few players were lost through graduation.

Back for the Pioneers were junior halfback Alan Harrington, junior tackle Gary Wolfe, both starters from the '72 team. Also returning were senior center Jeff Silva, junior running back Steve Celata, senior John Callahan, junior linebacker Dave DiFillipo and seniors John Embrescia, Brian McMahon, Brian Robinson, James Neuman, Larry Mitkus and Brian Rea.

Also back and destined to have a huge impact on the 1973 season were two year starting quarterback Steve Olsen and his receiving sidekick Lindsey Ross.

Olsen came into the season with 10 career touchdown passes, nine as a junior in 1972 which tied Doug Murdock's single season record for most TD's set in 1960. Ross had a pair of TD catches as a junior.

Olsen would go on to become the all time career TD passing leader with 23, a record that would hold up for 38 years until Gino Cohee finally surpassed it in 2010.

Ross has 11 career TD's and that still ranks as the career best by a Pioneer.

The duo would terrorize their new league in 1973.

Rodan was pleased with the early workouts telling the Villager "they look pretty good for the second day of practice. They're working pretty hard."

But the coach, who amassed a 101-52 record in 16 years and is still the winningest coach in Lynnfield High history, would not speculate on how he felt his team would do in 1973.

"I have no idea how the season will go," Rodan said. "It's a new league for us and we really can't make any predictions."

Next: Choosing the new team captain

1973 Flashback

If you want to know how different things were in the 70's, you only need to read the front page article in the Villager this week 39 years ago regarding the town's new alcoholic drinking ordinance. The Board of Selectmen met to discuss the new town ruling - a $20 fine for drinking in public places - which went into effect on July 27.

The meeting was held because of a letter to the editor from two 1973 LHS graduates who were asking the board to repeal the ordinance and instead were looking to have the town approve the South Hall parking lot "as an alternative location for youths to congregate."

The two girls explained that "there is a need for a location for youths to socialize and the that South Hall area is large enough plus there are no houses immediately adjacent to the area eliminating complaints such as those presented to the Selectmen by Oak St residents adjacent to Newhall Park."

The girls agreed that littering fines should be enforced, "but that a greater number of trash barrels be provided, more than the three which are at Newhall Park. They added that the police could check the age of drinkers in the area."

Keep in mind that in 1973, the legal drinking age in Massachusetts was 18.

Selectman Board Chairman Joe Maney said he "didn't think the Board had the authority to set up a drinking place for any age group."

Some other suggestions at the meeting included "building a bar room whose profits would go to lower taxes" and to "build a building where kids could bring their own liquor."

No final action was taken at the meeting.

If you played on or were involved with the 1973 Pioneers and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com.

Knight and Day

When the Pioneers left the field at Triton after a lackluster scrimmage on Wednesday and boarded the buses back to Lynnfield, they probably thought their day was done.

Not quite.

Apparently head coach Neal Weidman had other ideas.

Seems when the boys got off the bus, they were told to take a left to the field rather than a right to the locker room to get a little extra work in.

Rumor has it Weidman appeared to be channeling his inner 1980 Herb Brooks after the Norway game. Here's the scene from the movie Miracle to refresh your memory

"Yea we came back and practiced a little after the scrimmage," Weidman admitted. "They were a little more ready to play today. Much more focused."

The 'today' the coach was referring to was Saturday morning in Wakefield where the Pioneers played their last game type scrimmage against the Northeast Golden Knights.

And the difference, as they say, was like night and day.

The Pioneer varsity had five possessions and they scored on four of them. They rolled for 172 yards on the ground and 40 passing for 212 yards in 31 plays.

Quarterback captain Mike Karavetsos was 7 for 8 but the real damage was done on the ground. Junior Kyle McGah was a human battering ram, scoring three touchdowns of 1, 4 and 28 yards. Captain Tyler Palumbo capped the opening 67 yard, nine play drive with a 28 yard TD run.

The varsity defense led by captains D. J. DeGeorge and Andrew Kibarian stifled the Knight offense, holding them to 43 yards on the ground and 7 passing in four possessions. They also forced turnovers on the first two Northeast drives with A. J. Gallo and Anthony Costa coming up with fumble recoveries.

Their day's work done, the varsity defense didn't see the field in the second half.

The Northeast varsity managed three second half scores against the Pioneers second and third team defenses, but this one was over by halftime.

It was a quantum leap from Wednesday in Byfield.

"We had a lot of material in for the offense," Weidman said. "But we pared it down for this scrimmage. We had way too much going on. We took out a lot of things and the offense responded to it. We didn't run very many different things today."

"As we get into the season we'll have specific game plan things," the coach continued. "We need to get good at some things. We started that process (against Northeast).

So for those scoring at home, the Pioneers finished the preseason 2-0-1 in scrimmages, but the battles start for real on Friday night. Check out my full preview article in the Villager on Wednesday.

New Look Villager
As you all may have noticed, the Villager is now under new ownership. I have worked for the Sylvia family who started the paper in 1973 for 35 years and they did a great job bringing a locally focused newspaper to Lynnfield with the Villager and in North Reading where they operated the Transcript since 1956.

Fortunately, the paper will remain under local ownership since it was purchased by the Wakefield Item whose publisher is Lynnfield's own Glenn Dolbeare. You can be sure the Villager will continue to be focused on local news including sports which will now feature photos, including mine, in full color.

If you haven't seen the new layout, this would be a good week to pick up a copy of the Villager. It's also a good time to sign up for a subscription so you'll catch all of my game stories and photos all season. There is a link on the left side of the blog that you can click on and it will get you to a subscription form. Just fill it out and mail it in. It's a great deal for only $19 per year.

As an aside, Dolbeare is a former Lynnfield High running back who played on the Pioneers' 1973 CAL champion team and was the team's second leading scorer in 1974.

Young Standouts
The coaching staff was able to get everyone into the scrimmage, no small feat considering the size of the squad. It was tough to pick out many individual efforts without out numbered jerseys, but a few plays did stand out. The junior varsity and freshmen teams played well. Ricky Johnson and John Knee both had interceptions and Adam Buchanan made a number of nice plays from his linebacker spot.

"We have some blossoming athleticism at the younger level," praised Weidman. "We still have a long way to go but we have some underclassmen that are going to become some pretty good players.

Giving Back
It was great to see that 2010 captain Jeff Gannon and John Bossi, members of the 2009 championship team, will be working with the younger players this season. Bossi also helped out last season. That type of continuity is the way a successful program is built.

In Memoriam

A special thank you to Lisa and Dwight DeGeorge, who made a generous donation to the Gridblog in memory of Lisa's dad John J. Kelleher, who passed away in 2010. Lisa related that her dad was always at the games for the boys and is missed tremendously.

Mr. Kelleher is also the father of Jay Kelleher who played on the 1986 Pioneer football team.

Heard on the Sideline
And speaking of the DeGeorge's, here's a snippet of conversation I overheard during the Northeast scrimmage.

"Who made that play?"
"That was little DeGeorge"

I guess everything is relative.

"Little" DeGeorge is captain D. J.'s freshman brother Cam who will be sharing time at offensive tackle on the varsity this season. However when I stood next to "Little" Cam on the sideline, I discovered he is only slightly smaller than his older brother who is 6' 3" 225 lbs.

"Little" probably isn't the adjective I would have used.

That's it for now but check back on Wednesday for my next post on the 1973 Pioneers and then on Thursday when I'll be posting a preview of Friday night's Newburyport game.