Elementary tournament ties run deep

LYNN – The Lynn Elementary Baseball Tournament will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year which means a lot of people who grew up in this city at some point spent an afternoon or two in mid-March jammed into the Pickering/Sisson gym either playing or cheering someone on in what has become a rite of spring in Lynn.Although the price to watch a slate of games has doubled over the course of nearly four decades (going from 50 cents to $1), it’s the best bang you’re going to get for your buck while you wait for the warm weather to arrive.For some of the people involved, the tournament is a family affair. Retired Sisson principal John Morris was in on the ground floor, helping found the tournament with now retired Lincoln-Thomson principal Bob Thomson. In subsequent years, Morris wore a number of hats, coaching teams in the tournament, officiating in it and running it for 10 years until turning over the job to his son Sean, who has kept it going strong with lots of help from Chris Miller, another long-time volunteer.John Morris still helps out where needed, whether taking tickets or officiating games. His youngest son, Brendan, and daughter, Abby, both played in it several years back and now help out as well. Morris’ wife, Kelly, coaches the Drewicz girls team.?What’s nice for me is that kids I had in school are now coming back with their kids,” Morris said. “The kids have a lot of fun and the coaches are good.”Sean Morris, who is an elementary school teacher in Lynn, didn’t get to play in the tournament as a youngster because he went to St. Pius and the tournament is for the public schools. That didn’t stop him from getting involved. He was helping out back with Thomson and Jack Gaudet were running the show and he took over for his father four years ago.Although parents and siblings typically jam the stands for every game, the fan base also includes a lot of teachers who take the time to come and cheer on their students and even administrators. Superintendent of Schools Catherine Latham was in the bleachers Friday afternoon catching the action.Latham is no stranger to the tournament, having coached her daughter’s Sisson team back in the day.?When I was a parent, I worked the table, sold the tickets, coached. I love the tournament. It’s so much fun,” Latham said.Even many of the referees have long-standing ties with the tournament. Friday’s Lynn Woods-Washington girls game had a couple of veteran officials running the court. Greater Lynn Babe Ruth President Jim Beliveau and English High teacher and assistant athletic director Dick Newton kept the game moving.Beliveau said his son, Ryan, and daughter, Tori, now both in their early 20s, both played when the were in elementary school and he’s been involved as an official for six or seven years.?It’s a lot of fun,” Beliveau said, noting that many of the players involved will never pick up a basketball after elementary school, but they still have great memories of playing in the tournament.St. Mary’s boys basketball coach Dave Brown, who just took his team to the Division 4 North final in his first year at the Spartan helm, will be in the stands with the rest of the fans today when his daughter, Eliza’s, Sewell-Anderson team plays Lynn Woods in the championship game. Brown, who had a great high school career at St. Mary’s before going on to star at Westfield State College, remembers playing in the tournament when he was a fourth grader at Cobbet Elementary School. “It’s a great tournament,” Brown said. “Everyone’s down her. The kids root each other on.”Brown said a lot of the players know each other from CYO basketball, or football, or other sports.?It’s competitive, but they’re good. I think it teaches them good sportsmanship.”Today’s schedule will feature championship games in all the divisions with the action set to start at 10 a.m.. The games continue on the hour with the final game at 3 p.m. Next weekend there will be boys and girls all-star games. It will be East Lynn vs. W