Armata answers the call for undermanned Savio

Savio Prep alumnus and first-year football head coach Mike Armata remembers his senior season as if it were yesterday. Although it still stings, a 21-16 Super Bowl loss to Middleboro in 1979 provided the coach with some of his fondest high school memories. His desire to give those same opportunities to current Savio students led him to take matters personally when the 2006 campaign was put in jeopardy.

``Last year's team graduated 12 seniors, lost its head coach, and was coming off a season where there were only 22 kids on the roster," Armata said. ``It just didn't seem possible that we could keep the great tradition of Savio Prep football alive."

After head coach Bill Snow resigned last year following a 3-8 season, school board members deliberated all summer to decide a way to keep the program afloat. Whether to accept the full-time job was no easy decision for Armata, but he realized it might be the last chance to keep his high school team from folding.

By mid- August, when other schools were beginning training camp, the Spartans' roster was far from complete. The coach was handed a list of students at the school and he began making calls. He contacted nearly every student and parent seeking enough recruits to field a team.

What transpired became a statement about the spirit of the school's close-nit community.

Thanks to the response, the Spartans will take the field this morning for their season opener at home against Dorchester with a roster of nearly 30 players. A sign in the athletic office reads ``the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender," which should be a constant reminder as to where the coach's priorities lie.

``There is something special about this little school in East Boston, and even though our number of students has declined in recent years, those who do choose to attend end up thankful they did not go anywhere else," Armata said. ``When you walk through these halls a little bit of magic rubs off on you that stays for life."