Still the one

EVERETT -- His success over the past decade is unparalleled. Everett football coach John DiBiaso has brought home a Greater Boston League championship in each year (12 in a row, overall) and six Division 1 Super Bowl titles. It's enough to make you wonder if he still feels the same motivation for a new season.

"Oh, absolutely, I still get excited for opening day," said DiBiaso. "Each year is a new senior class and one that wants to go out as winners. They want to accomplish all the things that those previous classes achieved, and it's fun to be along for that ride."

There it is, confirmation that opening day is still Christmas morning for DiBiaso. No matter how old he gets nor how much success he achieves, there's the unbridled joy of the season's first kickoff.

His troops, who debut at No. 1 on the Boston Globe's preseason Top 20 poll today, gathered at Everett Stadium yesterday for their own version of Christmas Eve. There was one last run through the game plan (they have it memorized like the Night Before Christmas) before tonight's tilt from visiting Leominster before DiBiaso distributed gifts to his players: new red Nike home game jerseys and fresh "E" stickers for their helmets.

The Crimson Tide will deliver their gift to DiBiaso over the next 12 weeks. The players' biggest problem: What do you get the coach that has everything?

Spoiled by the overwhelming success of the program, it's as if past teams found a way to bestow the season's hottest gift upon their leader. The Super Bowl title in 2006? Minds well have been a PlayStation 3. The trio of Super Bowls from 2001-2003? Let's call them Pokemon, the Furbee and the Tickle Me Elmo.

You can't top those gifts, just hope to equal them. And that means anything less than a trip to the Super Bowl minds well be a pair of socks.

Those are lofty expectations, the kind that would fill Santa's sack. But if there's pressure on this year's squad to uncover that perfect present, they certainly don't show it. Maybe it's because the coaching staff won't let them.

"Our coaches have a way of making sure we forget about everything that happened in the past," said senior offensive lineman Doug Hanlon. "They also make sure we don't look ahead, so all we can do is focus on each game."

And that's all DiBiaso wants this year. Super Bowl titles don't mean so much to him any more. He said as much last year.

"I don't have to win another championship," DiBiaso told the Globe before last year's Super Bowl with Brockton. "I'm 50 years old. I don't need a ring or a trophy. I don't carry trophies around. I don't wear the rings or anything. I want this for my seniors and the kids on the team that have worked so hard. I really, really want this for them. They've been such good kids, no problems. Very mature, very goal-oriented. They're great kids, no headaches. Not one kid has come up to me and said, 'I should carry the ball more.'

"It's really recharged me that this year these kids have been so great."

Brining back 15 starters overall, most of whom are seniors, maybe it's not surprising that DiBiaso is particularly excited for the new campaign. This batch of seniors has already laid the foundation for their legacy with its exploits last season in which the Tide posted a spotless 12-0 record and captured the Super Bowl title with a 35-6 thrashing of Brockton.

Senior running back Isaac Johnson called last year's squad the greatest Everett team in program history, which is quite the compliment when you consider the school's undefeated national championship squad from 1914. Asked if the 2007 squad could be even better, Johnson nodded with his typical quiet confidence.

"I think so," said the Boston College-bound back. "It would take a lot of hard work, but we can get there."

DiBiaso says it's impossible to pick his best or favorite team from the squads he's coached through the years. But he knows it's not the 2007 squad... not yet anyhow.

"This year's team really hasn't done anything yet, so they can't have a spot yet," said DiBiaso. "I don't think you can get caught up in that, though. We just want to be 1-0 after (tonight). It might not seem that exciting, but that's exactly what these guys have to think. We want to be 1-0 walking off that field after playing a strong Leominster team and that'll get us off on the right foot. If we do that every game, the legacy will take care of itself."

What's more definitive is that this year's Everett ensemble boasts plenty of talent. Given the team's vaunted double-wing offense, it starts in the trenches, where there's size and experience. The Tide return the interior of their line with senior guards Hanlon (6-0, 260) and Pat McGrath (6-2, 245), along with junior center Ralph Faia (5-11, 255). Senior Danny Izzo (6-1, 255) is back at tackle, while junior Dan McFarland will slide in on the other side of the line.

Tight end Joe Baldacchino, one of team's four captains along with Johnson, McGrath, and Nick Cristiano, also returns, but will miss the season opener due to injury, leaving a spot to fill on both lines (coaches anticipate Baldacchino will return next week).

Those big bodies will block for a backfield that features junior Joe Conti at quarterback with bulldozer Nick Brown as the up-man and Johnson and junior John Forte at wingbacks. Forte, who anticipates sharing snaps with Conti this season, will begin the year at halfback with the position limited due to injuries.

"Conti has been taking most of the snaps as we've moved John to halfback due to injuries," said DiBiaso. "I'm not saying he won't play QB, he'll just be at halfback (tonight). It's nice to have the flexibility. Both performed well in teh preseason. And both are going to be on the field."

Jesus Crawford and Justin Spinelli provide the quarterbacks with sure-handed targets on the outside.

Defensively, it stats up front again where Cristiano and sophomore Alan Dancewicz hold down the tackle spots, with Peter Chiarello and Baldachino at ends. The linebacking corps features junior Brian Nuzzo (younger brother of former standouts, Frank and Matt, who played pivotal roles on the 2001-2003 squads), McGrath, and sophomore Michael LaRochelle.

"Michael is taking over for (All-Scholastic) Walter Fallas," said DiBiaso. "He's a very good player. There are not a lot of sophomores that start here, so that speaks volumes about this kid."

Johnson will see time in the secondary opposite another college-lusted corner in junior Jim Noel (6-4, 185). Those two are a prime reason why DiBiaso called this possibly "the fastest team I've ever had here."

The Tide plan to utilize that speed. During Thursday's practice, they shuttled bodies on and off the field like a track relay as Everett worked on a no-huddle offense that marched down the field in 5-yard increments. Remember the team's multi-quarterback, no-huddle offense circa 2004? Now imagine that with different units of personnel shuttling on and off. Defenses should be burning timeouts left and right trying to slow the Everett Express.

Unfortunately for opponents, nothing seems to stem the Tide in recent years. Everett averaged 38.8 points per game last season (while allowing just 11.4). Especially tough to coral is Johnson, a Globe All-Scholastic who piled up 1,350 all-purpose yards and scored 19 touchdowns last fall.

"(Johnson) just has unbelievable quickness," said Hanlon. "He has great vision and makes the quickest cuts. It's easy for us to block for him. He makes us look very good."

Eavesdropping nearby, Johnson interrupts Hanlon and, slightly embarrassed, heaps all the praise back on his offensive line. Yes, on this festive day, everyone is spreading Yuletide cheer.

Everyone except Everett's opponents.

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@boston.com