Of the Whalers, Red Sox and Ireland, too
Some thoughts while riding out the post-tryptophan haze and anticipating the start of winter sports
Independent Sports Editor
So the football season has ended for Nantucket, with West Bridgewater and its 9-1 regular season record poised to represent the Mayflower Small in the Super Bowl for the second straight year - depending how they performed in yesterday's playoff against Pope John of Everett, of course. How times have changed. Last year's Wildcat win over Nantucket was WeeBee's first in 30 years and helped propel them to their first Super Bowl win. West Bridgewater made it two in a row over Nantucket with this year's 34-6 victory. And while Nantucket for years could make the claim of being the smallest football playing school in the state, West Bridgewater, with only 6,000 residents, can probably make a good case for claiming that distinction today.

by Steve Sheppard

With 293 wins, Vito Capizzo remains the winningest active football coach in Massachusetts and ranks third all-time in state history. The winningest coach remains Archbishop Williams's and Brockton High School's Armand Colombo, who racked up 322 wins over his career at both schools. (The winningest active coach in New England, by the way, is Rod Wotton of New Hampshire's St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Wotton passed Colombo in October with his 323rd career win.) Colombo's son, Peter, is now coaching the Boxers as Brockton prepares for yet another Super Bowl appearance.

Quiz question: Who holds the record for most Super Bowl wins since the championships began in 1972? (Answer below.)

Mr. Touchdown. With basketball season looming, boys' head coach Beau Almodobar is preparing his charges for another run at the state tournament. In Massachusetts football history Almodobar still ranks 11th all-time in single-season scoring with his 204 points scored for the Whalers in 1979. To put his accomplishment in perspective, the entire team scored 79 points this year.

Another quick quiz? How many Super Bowls has Nantucket won?

Speaking of touchdowns, all the hoopla over the Patriots running up the score (before Sunday night's reality check by Philadelphia) got me thinking about baseball and how nobody ever complains if one team beats another by 10 runs or so. Heck, they don't even gripe if they're outscored by 27 runs! When the Texas Rangers beat the Orioles 30-3 last August 23, people were more amazed over the new record set by Texas than they were about the run differential. What did Orioles manager Dave Trembley say after the lopsided loss? According to ESPN.com, he said, "You have a real short memory and you let it go." The 30 runs scored by the Rangers beat the old record of 29 held by the Red Sox (vs. the St. Louis Browns on June 8, 1950) and the White Sox (vs. the Philadelphia Athletics on April 23, 1955). The Red Sox still hold the record for most runs scored in an inning with 17 runs in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers on June 18, 1953. Hitters will hit and the Patriots, thank goodness, seem quite capable of scoring touchdowns. Don't believe the Patriots will touch the single game NFLscoring record - 72 points by the Redskins vs. the Giants on Nov. 27, 1966 (again according to ESPN.com) - but you never know.

The Red Sox' second World Series victory in four years has long-suffering fans happily dazed and still pinching themselves over the team's sudden change in fortunes. I missed both championships while playing music in Ireland, as did my wife and fellow bandmate, Tony Medeiros. For the 2004 victory, we couldn't find a pub, hotel, or house that aired any of the games. That year we flew back into Logan the day after the historic sweep and couldn't believe how eerily quiet Boston was - until we realized that everyone was spent and sleeping it off after the night-long celebrations. This year, fortunately, my friend in Ireland got the games via satellite and we were able to catch some of Game Three and all of Game Four on tape delay the next morning. Over Thanksgiving, friends said: "The Red Sox should pay your flight to Ireland every year." To which we say: Anything for the cause. If the Red Sox win, and you're not there, the Red Sox still win. We'll sacrifice future trips to Ireland if that's what it takes.

My grandfather was also in Europe when the Red Sox won their last World Championship before 2004. He wasn't there on a pleasure trip - it was 1918 and he was in France serving in WWI. In a letter dated Sept. 16 of that year he wrote home to my grandmother: "I read some time ago how the World Series was to be played off around the first of September, and it was only this morning that I inquired who won the championship. Of course, THE RED SOX - Why not?"

Quiz answers: The Brockton Boxers have won 11 Super Bowls to date, and Nantucket's Super Bowl record is also impressive: nine Super Bowl appearances, with a 3-6 record overall. More impressive is their stand in the '90s, when the Whalers went to the championship game six times from 1990-'98, including four straight trips from '93 to '96 that were capped off with back-to-back wins. (See accompanying

chart.) I

NANTUCKER SUPER BOWL APPEARANCES

1980 - vs. Christopher Columbus, won 44-20
1982 - vs. Manchester, lost 28-6
1983 - vs. West Roxbury, lost 14-0
1990 - vs. Greater Lowell, lost 22-14
1993 - vs. Boston English, lost 16-7
1994 - vs. Tyngsboro, lost 31-7
1995 - vs. East Boston, won 40-6
1996 - vs. Boston English, won 48-15
(played on Nantucket)
1998 - vs. Greater Lawrence, lost 20-14