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Season Preview: Football team hoping to compete for a league championship

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Senior captains (left to right): Evan Casey, Maddox Colclough, Cam Burrows and Will Frazier

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team’s head coach has lofty goals as he aims to put it all together in Year No. 2.

Are you ready for some football?

Second-year head coach Zack Botelho and his Whitman-Hanson Regional High squad certainly are. 

“The excitement level is super high,” Botelho said. “We to play physical football and compete for a league championship this year.” 

Whitman-Hanson hasn’t won the Patriot League crown since 2001 (that’s 21 years ago for those keeping track). If it’s going to end that drought this fall, Botelho knows getting off on the right foot is crucial. 

“We want to start strong. We didn’t last year,” Botelho, whose team finished 2-9 last season in his first year at the help said, said. “But just having been in the league for a year, I’ve seen it and am able to game plan better.”

It’s always key when you can return your quarterback, and the Panthers do in senior captain Cam Burrows. 

“He’s been outstanding so far,” Botelho said. “He’s explosive.”

Behind Burrows, the Panthers also bring back senior captain and running back Will Frazier, who will be joined by fellow senior captain Evan Casey and classmate Trevor Googins in the backfield. 

Seniors Pat Dolan, Braden Kain, Sam Pace and Matt Phelps all have some experience under their belts at wide receiver, giving Burrows some solid options to pass to. 

Senior captain Maddox Colclough will anchor the offensive line. He will play both ways up front along with classmates Noah Hopkins and Connor Sottak. 

Casey returns at linebacker, while Phelps, a safety, and cornerbacks Frazier, Googins, Kain and senior Chris Currier hold down the fort in the secondary. 

W-H opens its season Friday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. at home against Pembroke. That will be followed by a tough five-game stretch that features road games against Foxboro (Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.), Rockland (Sept. 23 at 7 p.m.) and Hingham (Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.) before returning home to face Silver Lake (Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.) and Marshfield (Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.). 

You think Botelho will find out what his team is made of after the first month? 

“Definitely,” he said. “We just want to compete for a full four quarters from whistle to whistle.” 

Season Preview: At Whitman-Hanson, football is all about family

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First-year head coach Zack Botelho is building a family atmosphere. / Photo by: Sue Moss

The football team is looking to use its family atmosphere to its advantage amid a tough stretch of games.

Hanover, Foxboro, Rockland, Hingham, Silver Lake, Marshfield, Plymouth North, Duxbury and Abington.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team’s schedule is tough.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about what you make of it — and football is the ultimate team sport.

“They like playing the underdog role a little bit,” said first-year head coach Zack Botelho, who takes over for Mike Driscoll. “They’re like, ‘We’re in this together, we believe in us more than anyone else does.’ They’ve developed our little saying this year: only the family.”

Senior captain Will Stafford is no doubt the vocal leader of the Panthers.

“He doesn’t miss the weight room, he’s at everything — he’s the perfect kind of energy guy that we need,” Botelho said of his running back. “I had an opposing coach say during our passing league that he was the best leader of all the teams there because kids actually follow him.”

And with a new coach, comes a new playbook, but the Panthers still plan to be a run-first team. And why not when you have backs like Stafford, junior Will Frazier and senior Andrew Cloutman?

“We’re going to sprinkle in the passing game when we can,” Botelho said. “Spread it out when we can, take what the defense gives us in the passing game and we’ll dial up a few shots.”

Junior Cam Burrows is back under center and has plenty of additional targets at his disposal, including seniors Collin Briggs, Jake Guiliani and Bobby Hunter and juniors Evan Casey and Braden Kain.

Seniors Malcom Alcorn-Crowder, Rocco Ruffini and junior Maddox Colclough anchor the offensive line.

And while Botelho comes to W-H after a stop as Old Colony’s offensive coordinator, he believes the defense will be his new team’s calling card — at least for now.

“We’re playing a simple, not a lot of thinking, a whole lot of playing sort of defense,” Botelho said. “We’re going to attack and make big plays.”

Alcorn-Crowder (34 tackles, 11 for loss and four sacks last season), a lineman, and linebackers Casey and Guiliani and Cloutman, a safety, key the defense.

Despite the daunting schedule, W-H plans to hang tough this season.

“I want them to know that, when the going gets tough, they can lean on each other and if they compete, good things are going to happen so really just nonstop competing ness from kickoff to final whistle,” Botelho said.

W-H returns to the field Friday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. when it hosts Rockland.

“We’re going to play with outstanding effort, excellent attitudes,” Botelho said. “It’s one of our goals to be playing our best football at the end of the seasons. We’re building for something, we’re going to get better every single time.”

Driscoll steps down as Whitman-Hanson football coach

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Driscoll with his family after a win on Thanksgiving over Abington. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Mike Driscoll has stepped down as Whitman-Hanson Regional High’s football coach.

Ever since Mike Driscoll was putting on the pads himself at Whitman-Hanson Regional High 30 years ago, he knew one thing.

“I wanted to become the head football coach,” said Driscoll, who graduated from W-H in 1991 and was part of its Super Bowl-winning team in 1989. “This is where I went to school and this was my dream job.”

After 10 years of living out his dream, Driscoll has stepped down as the Panthers’ head coach. A move he began to ponder this past fall when for the first time in 22 years, he didn’t have football games and practices clogging up his calendar.

“My kids are 10 and 12 years old, so they’re at the prime of their sports careers,” Driscoll said. “I realized there’s much more to life than just football and I need to spend more time with them. I’m sick of missing all of their things.”

Driscoll began his coaching career in 1998 as a volunteer freshman coach at W-H and would then move up the ladder. He also had brief stops at Scituate (one year) and Pembroke (two years) before returning to his alma mater to take over the reins of the Panthers in 2011.

“I knew all the guys who coached here,” Driscoll said. “I wanted to keep the Panther tradition alive. This is about character and class. My goal from Day 1 was to make sure every kid that came through this program left a better person and I know we achieved that goal.”

Ryan Trongone, who graduated in 2019, was a two-way, two-year starter for Driscoll. He now plays at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

“He inspired us all to be the best we could both on and off the field,” Trongone said. “He wasn’t just a coach to us. On the field, yes, he was our coach, but off the field, he was our friend. He was always there when we needed him.”

Under Driscoll, W-H posted five winning seasons and compiled a 51-51-1 record punctuated by a season-ending win over Hingham, 17-7, on Friday, April 9 in Driscoll’s final game as head coach.

“It really didn’t hit me until the end of the third and fourth quarters [it was my last game], and then it really got to me after the game,” Driscoll said. “I was just so focused on the game. We worked so hard on the game plan this week and the kids brought it.”

Driscoll said he’s going to miss most aspects of his high school coaching duties.

“I love Friday nights,” he said. “There’s nothing better than seeing this placed packed. And just that overall feeling when you’re in school that day and how cool it feels on a big game day. I also love the comradery with the coaching staff and preparing and moving on to the next game giving Saturday a day you take a deep breath and Sunday you’re right back at it watching film – hours and hours of it. I’ll miss that part of it. I’m sure I’ll still be watching some film, just not as much.”

Paul Scarpelli coached with Driscoll for 10 years and enjoyed each year of it.

“Mike created a family-like atmosphere for his coaching staff,” Scarpelli said. “I felt like he allowed me to grow as a coach and had confidence in my knowledge. Being the only member of the staff not graduating from W-H, he always made me feel like an honorary Panther. Mike wore his heart on his sleeve and his love for football and respect for the coaches that came before him.”

Driscoll said he has three memories that come to mind first when he looks back on his tenure with the Panthers. 

“My first year, second game we played Rockland at home,” he said. “W-H and Rockland hadn’t played in years and the place was absolutely packed. We had about 2,500 to 3,000 people at the game from both towns. We won. We played amazing that night.

“My second year we traveled over to Foxboro,” Driscoll said. “We were both undefeated. It was the ESPN Game of the Week and we beat them by a point, and the place was just cool. They had the best band I’d ever heard. They had 100 kids and we walked in there and we beat them.

“The Thanksgiving comeback (against Abington in 2016) was a cool game,” Driscoll added. “That was a great, great game.”

While Driscoll’s time throwing on the headset at Dennis M. O’Brien Stadium is over, his time rooting on the Panthers is far from finished.

“My kid is going to be up here in two years,” Driscoll said. “He plays football, so I’ll be at the games. My daughter won’t let me not be at the games. She’s probably W-H’s No. 1 fan. She told me even if she has to walk to the games, she’s gonna go. I’m a Panther for life. I’m not going anywhere.”

Sevieri making his mark on the world

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Former boys’ basketball team manager and football player Anthony Sevieri has found a passion.

Anthony Sevieri had a bird’s eye view of the boys’ basketball games during his time at Whitman-Hanson Regional High.

He could usually be found either way up in the stands or up above on the walking track filming the game. His position was team manager.

“I was just chilling in Mr. [Bob] Rodgers’ room before the Scituate (playoff game), and he out of nowhere asked if anyone wanted to film the game and get in for free,” Sevieri said, “so I said, ‘Why not?’ It became my role from there.”

In the fall, he suited up for the football team. They called him Big Tony.

He also developed a passion for music in high school.

“Freshman year, I had gone through a bit of a mess-up situation and the best way I figured I could cope with that was writing music and it kind of became my thing,” said the 2018 W-H graduate. “I would write music for how I was feeling pretty much.

“My nickname on the football team was Big Tony and I kind of went with that for my stage name, and in 2018 I put out my first couple of songs and figured at some point I wanted to make merchandise to promote that and promote that anyone can pretty much do anything if they put their mind to it.”

Fitting for what Sevieri’s been going through.

“It was a day in September and I was with my trainer and I noticed my breathing wasn’t right,” he said. “It was feeling very different than how it felt before.”

So he alerted his mother about it.

“She said I had a doctor’s appointment that Wednesday, so I went in and explained how I was feeling,” Sevieri explained. “Despite there not being any signs on any scans or anything she ordered the X-ray and they found a 15-by-11 centimeter mass in my chest.”

Additional tests down the road revealed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He finished his final chemotherapy treatment last month.

And while he wasn’t able to socialize with his friends during that period, Sevieri found other ways to pass the time. He began to expand his brand, unveiling Big Tony Brand T-shirts in February.

“I haven’t been able to go out much, so it’s given me a lot of time to figure out internal things I can do, such as making the brand he said.

At last count — in early March — there’s about 100 floating around.

“I definitely want it to be a brand people will like and a brand people will see on shelves and see say ‘I like it, I’ll buy it,’” Sevieri said.

“Everything I make just helps me refund the company.”

To buy one: search @bigtonybrandofficial on Instagram.

Football team runs past Silver Lake to kick off season

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The football team rolled past Silver Lake in its opener.

It was worth the wait.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team legged its way to a season-opening win.

The Panthers rushed for 280 yards and three touchdowns to kick off the season with a 24-9 victory over Silver Lake.

Senior Cam Cummings (19 carries for 85 yards, 2 TDs) and junior Will Stafford (13 carries for 85 yards) ran for 85 yards apiece.

Senior captain Jason Murphy got W-H on the board first when found paydirt from 12 yards out. 

Silver Lake cut it to 6-3 on a field goal before Cummings bowled his way into the endzone from 1 yard out in the second quarter.

Sophomore Cam Burrows hooked up with senior Declan Hanaphy on a 2-yard score to give the Panthers an 18-3 lead at the half.

Cummings capped W-H’s scoring in the third quarter with his second touchdown of the game — this time from 2 yards out. 

The Panthers (1-0) are back in action next Friday, March 19, hosting Marshfield at 6 p.m. 

Season Preview: Football team ‘extremely happy’ to be back together

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The field on Day 1. / Courtesy photo (@coachscarps)

The football team is finally back on the field.

There’s definitely a different feeling in the air, but at the end of the day football is still football.

After being apart for nearly 15 months, the Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team is back on the field — and it isn’t taking it for granted.

“It felt pretty good to be running around with the kids,” said head coach Mike Driscoll, who is entering his 10th year on the Panthers sideline. “We’re very, very fortunate and we’re extremely happy to be playing football. We’re very blessed to be out there — it feels great.”

The Panthers began practice on Feb. 22 and their first game is scheduled for March 12. That’s less than three weeks to prepare.

“It’s definitely different,” Driscoll said. “In the summer, normally we have our 7-on-7s and our workouts and everything leading up to it and you kind of know what you have.”

W-H has taken a few different approaches to account for missed time.

“We can’t have our usual meetings inside, so we’ve slowed things down,” Driscoll said. “We’re going to do what we can do. We’ve limited our playbook and we’re going to teach to our best ability and get ready to go out there and compete every Friday.”

The Panthers, who are looking to bounce back from a 2-10 campaign in 2019, will have a new-look offense this season.

“We’ve made a lot of changes to our scheme and we’re hoping that scheme fits our build better than in the past where we’ve had some really good running quarterbacks,” Driscoll said. “We don’t really have that right now so we’ve gone to more of a Wing-T-type set and we’re hoping that helps us out.”

The Panthers quarterback is still to be determined, at the time. Driscoll said there are five kids battling it out. That’s because senior captain Jason Murphy, a returning Patriot League All-Star, converted back to running back after he was thrust under center last year due to an injury.

“Jason is a great kid,” Driscoll said. “He has a great work ethic and is a real leader of the football team.”

Fellow senior captain Nik Dolan could take some snaps at quarterback.

“He’s gonna play all over for us,” Driscoll said. “You could see him lineup at wingback, you could see him at wideout, you could see him at quarterback, he’s gonna play one of those positions. Defensively, he’s gonna be our safety back there and he’s gonna be running the show.”

Griffin Mountcastle, a two-year starter up front, is another senior captain.

“We expect big things out of him as well on the line,” Driscoll said.

Senior Declan Hanaphy and juniors Malcolm Alcorn-Crowder, Hunter Baker, Zach Boisjolie, and Will Stafford will also play key roles this season.

W-H is scheduled to kick off its five-game schedule at home on March 12 at 6 p.m. against Silver Lake.

“The goal is to get five games in without having any interruptions,” Driscoll said. “We’re going to be competitive every week. This team is better than any team we’ve ever had in a few years. Athletically — it’s probably the most athletes we’ve ever had. But as a unit they have a long way to go as far as jelling that together.”

No football, cheerleading this fall

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Football and cheerleading have been pushed off from this fall to a “sandwich” season in February.

There won’t be any Friday night lights or Thanksgiving Day football this coming fall.

The MIAA Board of Directors has moved football and fall cheerleading back to the spring in a season it’s calling “Fall II,” that will run from Feb. 22 to April 25. Both are deemed high-risk sports.

“It is the best case scenario for our players and our seniors to get a season in,” said Whitman-Hanson Regional High football head coach Mike Driscoll. “Obviously, we would like life to be normal and have a regular fall season, but that is not the case right now. We will make the best out of the current situation and our guys will be hungry and ready to go come the end of February.”

W-H cheerleading head coach Alyssa Pietrasik also understands the move.

“We are disappointed that we won’t have our fall season, there’s something special and unique about those Friday nights under the lights and the extreme competitiveness of fall cheer,” she said. “But in reality, our day will come when the world is a safer place. Right now we need to buckle down and keep our distance so that we can get to business come February. But I will say that I can’t wait for that day to come.”

The regular fall season, which will include soccer, gymnastics, cross country, field hockey, girls’ volleyball, and boys’ golf, will start on Sept. 18.

The Patriot League will play its games in a bubble, which means schools will only play games against teams in their respective division (Keenan or Fisher). W-H is in the Keenan Division with Duxbury, Marshfield Plymouth North Silver Lake and Quincy. However, there are a few executions: boys’ soccer will face North Quincy, while field hockey and girls soccer’ and girls’ volleyball will play one game against Notre Dame Academy (of Hingham). The league will conclude play with the Patriot Cup, which will end no later than Nov. 20. There won’t be a state tournament.

“This  isn’t really about championships, it’s not about banners in the gym,” said W-H athletic director Bob Rodgers at last Friday’s school committee meeting. “It’s about giving kids participation — allowing them to be part of something.”

Season Review: Football team shows strength in adversity

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Quarterback Jason Murphy runs away from the Hingham defender. / Photo by: Sue Moss

The Panthers lost their starting quarterback in the first game of the season en route to a 2-10 campaign.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team came out strong in it its season opener, putting up 21 points in the first half against Concord-Carlisle.

Then, the Panthers lost their starting quarterback, sophomore Conor Meehan, later in the game to a season-ending injury, throwing an immediate wrench into their plans.

“That was huge,” said ninth-year head coach Mike Driscoll. “We come out in that first game on fire and played exceptional, so now when he goes down, we had to move receivers to running back and a running back to quarterback. It was a challenge.”

It was the second straight year Driscoll lost his starting signal-caller.

“We had the eye in the system, so it definitely helped us a little bit,” Driscoll explained.

The injury to Meehan thrust junior Jason Murphy under center, a position he had experience playing, but he came into the season prepared to be W-H’s lead running back.

“Jason is a runner type, which we’ve had, we’ve had runners at quarterbacks recently, and Conor was a passer who could also run,” Driscoll said. “Conor was more of a dual threat, so teams started playing us a little different. We had to change our style back for a running quarterback and completing some short stuff.”

The Panthers dropped their opener and following two games, before the offense finally clicked, as they routed Silver Lake, 34-14, and ran past Plymouth North, 35-14. However, those were their only two wins, as they finished the year 2-10.

“We prepared every week — the will to win was there every week,” Driscoll said. “They prepared like they wanted to win and sometimes it’s tough — you got to maintain the mental side of things. It just wasn’t one of those seasons where things went our way.”

Murphy ended up being tabbed a league all-star for his play at safety and on offense.

“Jason is a great player,” Driscoll said. “He knows how to play the game, he’s physical and he’s a great student — which is huge for us.”

Behind Murphy, senior captain C.J. Giuliani rushed for a team-high 689 yards. Also a starting linebacker, he recorded 65 tackles and five sacks en route to league all-star status.

“C.J. was the heart and soul of our football team — both sides of the ball,” Driscoll said. “He’s a great player, student of the game, and a tough, hard-nose, gritty football player.”

Another two-way player, senior Devin Coulstring was named a league all-star. The Panthers starting fullback, Coulstring helped pave the way for a rushing attack than ran for 141 yards a game. At cornerback, he tallied 12 pass breakups.

“I talked to him about how impressed I was with him,” Driscoll said. “He worked hard and waited his time out behind some really good players he had a great year for us.”

Starting center Declan Meehan was also key in the run game. The senior started on the defensive line as well and was named a Patriot League All-Star.

“I’m so happy for him,” Driscoll said. “He’s someone who works really hard and linemen don’t always get recognized, but he’s in there playing both ways for us and really grinding it out for us every week.”

With Meehan and Murphy keying the Panthers’ returnees next fall, they also return a steady diet out of the backfield, which includes the likes of: sophomore Will Stafford and junior Nik Dolan.

“It’s a great core coming back,” said the coach. “We have up to seven or eight guys that started on that defense this year and that’s same on offense. The kids are already in the weight room.”

W-H football gobbled up by Abington

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Junior Nik Dolan. / Photo by: Sue Moss

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team dropped its 109th Thanksgiving Day game with Abington, 27-14.

For Abington High football head coach Jim Kelilher, there is no bigger game than Thanksgiving.

This is his 52nd season as a part of the Green Wave’s Turkey Day game against Whitman-Hanson. The rivalry turned 109 this season.

So, despite punching their ticket to the Div. 7 Super Bowl, there was no way Kelliher was going to sit his starters, as some other Super Bowl-bound coaches did across the state. He had too much respect for the rivalry.

“It’s a football game and we play our starters each and every Friday or Saturday,” Kelliher said. “We weren’t going to do any different today. You’ll remember this one (game) the most.”

And the Green Wave’s starters shone. Senior captain Will Klein scored two of his three touchdowns in the second quarter to give the Green Wave a 14-0 lead en route to a 27-14 victory.

A 57-yard pitch and catch from Colby Augusta to Drew Donovan pushed the Abington (10-2) lead to 21-0 before the half. For a team that lost its starting quarterback in its first game of the season, the Panthers (2-10) proved to be scrappy, pulling within 21-7 right before halftime on a 60-yard touchdown run by Nik Dolan.

Klein was just too much, though, scoring his third touchdown of the game in the third, ballooning Abington’s advantage to 27-7. W-H countered late with a 40-yard strike from Andrew Cloutman to senior Colby Garden, but it wasn’t enough.

W-H still leads the all-time series with Abington, 60-46-3.

Curry’s Villanueva develops new appreciation for football: ‘I missed it more than anything.’

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Nick Villanueva. / Courtesy photo: SportsPix

Nick Villanueva is an “all-around” leader for the Colonels.

As he sat in his dorm room at the University of Rhode Island in the fall of 2015, Nick Villanueva couldn’t help but think about one thing — football.

For the first time since third grade, there were no shoulder pads to put on, cleats to tie or playbook to study. He was out of the game. 

“I missed it more than anything,” Villanueva, a Hanson resident said. “At that time, all I could really do was follow the Patriots. I was watching football every day.”

Villanueva opted to attend URI in order to pursue a degree in engineering despite being recruited by colleges to play football, after hauling in 31 passes for 538 yards and two touchdowns in his senior season at Whitman-Hanson Regional High in 2014. He quickly realized URI wasn’t the place for him.

“I started missing the game and everybody because I saw the football team there playing and everyone preparing for the season,” Villanueva said. “It was the first time I hadn’t had to go through camp and everything.”

It wasn’t completely lost time for Villanueva, though. He pushed himself to the limit in the weight room, with a mission of getting back into the game the following year. After transferring to Curry College, he was one step closer.

“I had a coach who coached at W-H and coached at Curry, coach [Steve] Scott, and he told me a lot about Curry and the program and I should give it a shot,” Villanueva said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been waiting,’ and I kind of made my decision really quick.”

His next step was to pick up the phone and call Curry head coach Skip Bandini.

“I told him who I was and that I was interested in playing football,” Villanueva said. “I had to almost ask to play.”

Bandini let Villanueva come to camp. He caught the coach’s attention right away.

“I saw a kid that was very well mannered,” Bandini said. “He’s very articulate. Coach Scott said that this is a kid that we want on our team and coach Scott was right.”

Since making the team, Villanueva has blossomed into Curry’s go-to offensive weapon at wide receiver, earning Second-Team All-Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Football Offensive selection in 2017 and Second-Team All-CCC honors last season. But his biggest achievement came heading into this season: being voted as team captain.

“It’s a great honor,” Villanueva said. “To have my teammates think of me as a leader for them makes me feel incredible. I just want to be a member of the team and not only lead by example but make sure everyone’s on the same page.”

Bandini called Villanueva an “all-around leader.”

“Any company would love to hire this kid,” he said. “We have players speak in front of recruits all the time and their parents. He gets up there and is very articulate, passionate about what he talks about, clear and concise and he certainly delivers a great message, so I think that makes him stand out above the other people.”

Last season, Villanueva ranked in the top five in the conference in receptions (50, third), receptions per game (5.0, second), receiving yards (655, fourth), receiving yards per game (6.5, third) and yards per reception (13.1, third).

“The system is great and practicing every day and just being part of the system kind of made it happen,” Villanueva said. “My teammates make me that much better, I just happened to be the one in the right place at the right time.”

Villanueva said he has a new appreciation for the game of football now, after going a year without it.

“Coming to Curry changed my whole life,” Villanueva said. “It was probably the greatest decision I’ve ever made. Whether I have anything going on in my personal life or school, once I step foot between those sidelines and get on the field, all that goes out the window and it’s a whole new life. I loved the game my whole life but having that time off made me realize it’s not always going to be there for me so I have to take advantage of it while I have it.”