Turkey and pigskin. Family and friends. Community and camaraderie. Joy and sorrow. Wins and loss.
This is a Thanksgiving story.
Boston College High School's varsity football team is 10-0, ready to face Catholic Memorial tomorrow morning in West Roxbury. The basketball and hockey teams are defending state champs, and more than 750 young men participate in 16 athletic programs at the Morrissey Boulevard campus.
"It's an exciting time to be at BC High," says Billy Miller, a fresh-faced, impeccably mannered senior football captain who gets up at 6 a.m. every day to make the commute from Bourne.
Exciting. And unprecedented. No Massachusetts high school ever won the Super 8 in hockey and the Division 1 basketball title in the same winter. And now the football team is downright Patriot-like, playing one of the toughest schedules in Eastern Massachusetts and beating teams by an average score of 30-8.
You might think it's a pretty good time to be the school's athletic director. And you would be right.
For all the wrong reasons.
Jon Bartlett will be there when the Eagles try to make it 11-0 at the Baker Street field tomorrow. He'll take some satisfaction in seeing the young men he coached three years ago when they were too young to shave. But the best part will be after the game, driving to his parents' home on the Cape to be with his wife, Julie.
"Just to have her home for Thanksgiving makes all the difference in the world to me right now," the 38-year-old Bartlett says. "It puts everything else on the back burner. Yes, I have a great job. Yes, I love what I do. But when it's all said and done, being home with my wife and daughter is what means the most to me."
Julie wasn't home last Thanksgiving. She was in an induced coma at Massachusetts General Hospital, fighting for her life after an early November car accident. The crash broke her back, took her right arm, damaged nerves in her left arm, and ended the life of the baby boy she was about to deliver.
It did something else. It mobilized an army of family, friends, colleagues, and members of the BC High community - all committed to demonstrating their love and support for Julie, Jon, and their toddler, Bridget.
The vaunted Mother's Guild at BC High - a team more formidable than any gridiron state champ - swung into action. Same with Jon's high school friends and the folks at her employer, Allen & Gerritsen, the Boston advertising firm. Meals were prepared. Rides were furnished. Day care was supplied. Leave was arranged. Money was raised. Prayers were offered. And all the while the earnest boys on the BC High teams played their games with heavy hearts, ever-wondering how Mr. Bartlett and his wife were doing.
"As times got worse, we got stronger as a community," says senior center Geoff Gottbrecht of Hanover. "It showed how strong we can be. We had prayer services where the entire soccer, basketball, football teams were all over in the chapel. I hope that we helped him get through such a tough time."
The mid-March fund-raiser was a whopper, drawing 1,500 to BC High's McNeice Pavilion, enabling Julie and Jon to equip themselves for life after the accident when Julie came home from more than three months at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
"It was a small-town event in the big city," says Rebecca Sullivan, who is married to Brendan Sullivan, a BC High classmate of Jon's. "We're all connected in so many ways."
"I really haven't seen anything like it in my 30 years here," says BC High vice principal Mike McGonagle.
"Something like this strikes and you realize how blessed you are," says Julie Bartlett. "People we don't even know have been amazing. Make sure you say 'thank you' to everyone. The amount of support that we've gotten . . . I can't say 'thank you' enough."
'A very giving community'
Jon Bartlett grew up in Hingham and went to BC High, where he played football and basketball and ran track. He graduated from Colby in 1991, and was hired as an assistant to the vice principal at BC High when he was 22. Eight years ago, he succeeded the legendary Jim Cotter as athletic director.Julie grew up in Concord and played field hockey at Concord-Carlisle Regional (Class of '86) before going to Hartwick College. She was working at Allen & Gerritsen when she met the handsome young athletic director of Boston College High School. They married in August 2003 and Bridget was born two days before Christmas in 2004.
It's not always easy being the wife of the athletic director. The AD works a lot of nights and weekends. He knows it's important to go to freshman games and JV games; important to go to soccer games and track meets as well as high school Super Bowls; important to let the kids and the parents know you care. And it's not something Bartlett had to fake. Especially at BC High, where he once wore the standard khaki pants and shirts with collars, and did the traditional sophomore Good Friday Walk to Southie and Dorchester churches.
"The nights and weekends are worthwhile because of the kids and coaches involved in the games," he says. "The big thing I learned from BC High is that no one is above anyone else. That's very important. We try to eliminate cliques. It's a very giving community. There's a big imprint left on the kids when they graduate. We need to be in service, give to others and help others."
In 2004 and 2005, he put his football skills to use, coaching the BC High freshmen for two seasons. Those freshmen are today's seniors and juniors on the 10-0 team.
"Freshman football? That was the best time of my life," remembers senior tight end Tom Conley of Quincy.
"I remember our first game that year," adds linebacker/fullback Mitch McClure. "We were playing Bridgewater-Raynham and we were nervous because they'd always beaten BC High. But we won by something like 40 points and that's when we realized we had something special going."
It's been the same with this group for four years, and now varsity coach Ron St. George has his team ranked third by the Globe in Eastern Massachusetts. There was a huge win at Brockton to start the season. The most recent victory was a 24-0 thrashing of St. John's Prep. They blanked Durfee, 41-0, and Malden Catholic, 35-0.
"It's a very talented class, and the big thing is the type of young men they are," says Bartlett. "Outstanding, respectful young men. At BC High, you're here for academics and to become a better human being. No. 3 is everything else.
"The big thing we talk about is humility. Humility and unselfishness go hand in hand. I think our kids buy into that and I think it leads to quality teams, and that leads to championships."
Unconditional support
Everyone wants to know how Julie is doing."I'm doing good," she says over the phone after a short pause. "I'd like to be back to who I was and doing what I was doing, having a full, active life. I'm going through the course of rehab right now and I'll get a right prosthetic arm and eventually get use of my left hand again.
"I've got incredible family and friends around here. That, plus a husband who is incredibly optimistic and supportive. Jon has been so unconditional in terms of his support. It makes it a little easier. You know you're going to get up and continue to fight.
"Bridget makes us laugh. When things get tough, she's there with some silly comment. So I've got two people in front of me who make me realize there's only one way to go and that's forward."
A day after Jon Bartlett was interviewed for this story, the phone rings in the Globe sports department. Bartlett, reluctant to talk much about his private life, has one thing he wants to add.
"Could you just put in that I'm inspired by Julie's strength and courage?" he asks. "That would mean a lot."
Julie calls, too, and leaves a message. Just one more thing.
"I'm so proud of him," she says. "What he stands for and his commitment to the kids. His overall passion. It makes it easier for me when he's not around because I know he's doing what he loves."
Julie will be waiting with Bridget when Jon comes through the door this afternoon with news of the BC High-CM game. It makes for a big win on Thanksgiving day.
Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.
