Witch City tourney conjures up memories
A collection of some of the best basketball players on the North Shore gathered at Witchcraft Heights Elementary School in Salem last weekend, suiting up for the competition and the camaraderie, and with the memory of a very special friend in their hearts.
Zach Zegarowski and Tony Mataragas, organizers of the fifth annual Witch City Tournament, were busy from start to finish at the three-day event: keeping score; updating brackets; and greeting players, coaches, parents, politicians, and spectators. Truth be told, they would not have wanted it any other way; they were honoring their friend and teammate at Salem High, Andrew Viglas, who died in a car accident in 1995.
The tourney featured eight men's teams and eight high school teams, playing 22 games over three days in two gymnasiums. The money raised by the tournament goes toward an annual scholarship to a graduating Salem High School boys' basketball player.
The list of players last weekend included former Lynn English star Anthony Anderson (University of Massachusetts at Amherst), former Providence College standout Troy Brown, former Providence College and Liberty University guard Dwight Brewington, of Lynn, along with Sean Connolly (Bishop Fenwick, Providence, then Ohio State University), Kevin Bettencourt (Peabody Veterans Memorial High and Bucknell University) and former NBA guard Rick Brunson of Salem.
The squad from Lynn won the men's bracket for the second straight year, beating Crow's Nest of Gloucester 105-101, while Lowell beat Salem, 65-52, to win the high school division.
As Zegarowski swapped jokes with some of the players from his coaching days at Charlestown High, Mataragas ran in and out of gym doors carrying stacks upon stacks of Witch City T-shirts. The tournament brought folks together through basketball the way basketball brought Andrew, Tony, and Zach together as high school students in Salem more than a decade ago.
"It's about competition, but it's also about friendship," Zegarowski said. "You bring a lot of talent on the court, and it's a lot of fun to watch. But the most important thing is it's about Andrew Viglas and what he gave to Salem, and his legacy. And people who know him outside of basketball really know what type of person he was."
Rosa Viglas remembers her son as the youth who would run to the park every day with a basketball under his arm, ready to shoot hoops until the sun set.
His sister, Alexia Meechin, remembered her brother dragging her along to the park to get his rebounds.
"He loved basketball more than anything," Rosa Viglas said. "He loved anything that was involved with games. Like I say, I'm very proud. The kids, they show me one more time they really love my son, and they really try to give back what he gave to them."
Salem firefighters, police officers, and Town Council members dropped in to show their support.
"It's a whole community effort, which you need," Mataragas said. "We're going to try to keep it going and make it bigger in the sense that we're bringing down the best talent possible."
Zegarowski and Mataragas were mutual friends of Andrew Viglas, but got closer through the tournament.
"When you get older you have your own lives, and you kind of grow apart from people," Meechin said. "But I think this tournament does kind of help people stay closer. You see people that you haven't seen in a long time here, and it makes you feel really good."
Turns out, top parent has regional reach
In last Thursday's notebook, we noted that Jane Durant had been named Massachusetts Youth Soccer's Parent of the Year. We need to clarify, however, that Durant is a Lynnfield resident and that the SF Vikings under-16 girls' soccer team that she manages is based in Beverly, not Saugus. The team is a collection of top players from across the region: Danvers, Salem, Newburyport, West Newbury, Wilmington, Peabody, North Andover, Wakefield, and Middleton.
Her main focus was helping to bring all the players together, as teammates, smoothly.
The SF Vikings is a combination of the former Soccer United of the North Shore and the Force Athletic Club, which merged a couple of years ago.
"The challenge," Durant said, "was that kids were coming over from both clubs, and some of the players and parents didn't know each other. There were kids who had never met before, skilled players who had never played together before."
Durant took it upon herself to ease the transition, throwing an initial get-together, then a cookout, and organizing a sleepover for the girls.
Mike Ryan, a parent and a former coach for a rival soccer team in Salem, lauded Durant's efforts.
"I didn't realize how deep Jane's commitment ran until our daughters ended up playing for the same club team," Ryan said.
"My daughter was made to feel a part of the team immediately, as were the rest of our family. Jane had a lot to do with making sure all of our family was made to feel a part of the group."
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. 
