They know how to score with their constituents
Mayor, senator find time to coach
With election talk everywhere, it's great to know there's a place you can go to get away from politics: the football field, where Xs and Os replace Republicans and Democrats.
Make that "mostly away" for Cambridge and Somerville, though. In both cities, elected officials help coach the football team.
A few years after the end of a demoralizing winless streak and the rocky one-year tenure of coach John Hannah, Somerville has embraced football again. The stands roared Oct. 24 as the Highlanders, under head coach Harry Marchetti, romped to a 26-6 win over the Medford Mustangs.
With youth tickets only $3, the teen contingent was out in force, screeching whenever Somerville scored.
"I've never seen crowds like this!" said Natalie Vieira, 61, a Highlander parent since her son Matty started playing in 1993. The record-setting girls' soccer team was there to give support, she said.
The national-champion cheerleading team hoisted girls perilously on one leg. Next to them performed the equally spirited though less acrobatically inclined flag-twirlers. The drum line pounded away as the band blared "Sweet Caroline."
The night also debuted kilt-clad mascot "Harry the Highlander," who hadn't quite figured out how to hug without his huge rubber nose getting in the way.
Vieira attributed the excitement in part to the rehabbed Dilboy Stadium, which reopened in 2006. Not only has it "prompted more pride," she said, the old field had no lights for night games.
There might be another piston driving the school spirit engine as well: the involvement of volunteer assistant coach Joe Curtatone, a.k.a. the mayor.
Curtatone began coaching sports in 1986 and joined the Highlanders in 1998. He spends hours on the gridiron each year despite having four sons under the age of 6.
He could count on his beleaguered wife's support, he said: "We actually met when I was coaching in Medford years ago." (She was the coach's daughter's best friend.)
Charlie Stevenson, president of the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Association didn't have statistics but said many police and fire officials participated. Indeed, Somerville's new police chief, Anthony Holloway, has (literally) gotten into the game. "I can't recall a situation where I ever heard [of] a mayor on the gridiron," said Somerville High headmaster Tony Ciccariello.
But Curtatone does have company - and a rival - next door: Democratic state Senator Anthony Galluccio, of Cambridge, who is a strength/conditioning coach for Cambridge Rindge and Latin football.
"Joe pretends to know a lot more about football than I pretend to know!" Galluccio said. "Up to two weeks before the Cambridge-Somerville game we talk a lot."
(He noted that Cambridge's city treasurer, Lou DePasquale, has "coached Little League forever . . . he's been an icon in youth sports." Budget director David Kale is also a Little League coach.)
Both men cited personal benefits - Curtatone said he found coaching relaxing; Galluccio said it helped him keep abreast of what's happening in the city - but the motivation was getting to know the youngsters.
"You can really have a big impact," Curtatone said late Sunday evening, held up in part by a football meeting. "I want to be a big brother."
He was about to call Somerville alumnus Gosder Cherilus, a first-round draft pick for the Detroit Lions (who could probably use an encouraging word: he'd been benched).
"They have my cellphone number," Galluccio said. "In the old days they'd know me as a guy in a suit."
Athletes come for help off the field. Curtatone has brought students to his mother's home for a meal, and passed them a few bucks for food (on the condition they don't buy junk).
Galluccio has taken kids to college interviews, which makes universities "take a second look at the kid."
Does officials' involvement give the sports program a leg up? Possibly. Curtatone has a vote on the School Committee and prioritized making sports and the arts affordable for children.
Though the economy makes that a challenge, Curtatone said, "we're committed not to go backwards."
However, coaching isn't always politically expedient.
Galluccio, who also represents Everett and a small piece of Somerville, called the Cambridge-Everett game "the most trying moment of my political career outside of real crisis."
He said, "Just when they started to really accept me, I run out in a Cambridge coaching uniform on Thanksgiving on their home field."
Fortunately, "they've given me a pass so far - but then again we haven't beaten them yet."
Will Somerville do the same? It's about time for these coaches to stop talking: Somerville and Cambridge face off at Dilboy Stadium on Nov. 14. 