Walpole has hoop success double-teamed

Ode to Walpole.

Is it the school lunches at Walpole High? The water? Something special in the soft drinks at Finnegan's Wake downtown? What is it about the cozy hamlet near the home of the Super Bowl champs? How does it consistently turn out so many winners?

Who knows? All we know is that yesterday at the New Garden, the Walpole boys and girls won state championships. The boys overwhelmed previously unbeaten Groton-Dunstable, 64-49. The girls beat Hampshire Regional, 48-43. Two Division 2 state championships. One school.

"Both teams left their hearts on the court at the end and it paid off," said Walpole senior Matt DiCalogero (12 points).

Joe Morgan summed it up back in 1988. Old Tollway Joe was managing the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series when he told the world, "If you don't live in Walpole, you're just camping out."

There was a time when Walpole was the home of three of Boston's four professional coaches. Morgan was in the corner office at Fenway, Mike Milbury was running the Bruins, and Jimmy Rodgers was coaching the Celtics. Rodgers's son was quarterback for Walpole and later played in the Rose Bowl.

Walpole long has been famous for the Rebel football team, coached by John Lee, then Chuck Grant. The Porkers of field hockey fame are generally better than the US Olympic team, and softball and baseball are other Walpole specialties.

Boys' basketball wasn't strong when coach John Johannessen took over five years ago. When Tim Clifford and DiCalogero were freshmen starters, the Rebels went 1-19. They beat Holliston. The next year they were 8-12. Last year they were 16-4, but lost in the first round of the tournament. This year they ran the table, going 25-0. They beat Brookline. They beat East Boston. They beat Newton North. They beat Groton-Dunstable. They beat everyone in their path.

"We didn't want to lose a game and we knew we didn't have to," said 6-foot-10-inch center Clifford, who is bound for Holy Cross. "Right from the preseason we were on a mission. Matt and I were both there for 1-19 and there were definitely some payback games."

Walpole trailed East Boston by 9 in the state semifinal at the FleetCenter Tuesday but never worried. It had trailed Newton North by as many as 17 in the first half earlier in the season.

The Rebels don't panic. They have perhaps a half-dozen Division 1 college athletes on their roster, including Clifford (22 points) and Matt Wolff (16), who will play for his dad at Boston University next year. And don't forget 6-6 Brian Mandeville, who will play football, and Tyler Thornton, who'll play baseball, both at Northeastern.

Groton-Dunstable, making its first appearance at the New/Old Garden, led, 5-4, in the opening minutes. But Walpole ran off 10 straight points and never was threatened thereafter. Groton-Dunstable's wonderful guard, Greg Twomey, made a series of drives to the basket, but Walpole simply had too many good players, especially at the defensive end.

"They're not just big, they're skilled," said Crusader coach Keith Woods. "They're No. 1 in the state for a reason."

"This is amazing," said Thornton, the baseball dude. "Ninety-nine percent of high school teams never get to play here and we played here twice." Thornton's sister, Molly, scored 3 points in the Walpole girls' win. They are one of two Walpole basketball brother-sister combos. Jake and Kerianne Murphy are the other sibling state champs.

"We were able to watch some of their game in the TV room," said Thornton. "My sister made a big shot in the second half."

When the boys' game ended, the girls came back for a two-team championship photo on the parquet floor.

Rebel sophomore Tahtianna Tate, who scored 15 points against Hampshire, said, "I'm speechless. Both teams supported each other all year. Now we're going to drive around town in our bus and celebrate."

The Walpole cheerleaders worked the doubleheader. None of them put in for overtime. Senior captain Leslie Coleman said, "This was great, cheering for our friends and classmates at the FleetCenter."

Bound for Route 1 South, the buses full of champions hit the road late in the afternoon while the Andover and Minnechaug girls played for the Division 1 title. By the time Brookline played Springfield Commerce in the boys' Division 1 final, just about everybody in Walpole was at Finnegan's Wake.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.