ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Saugus’ Jimmy Alcott brings a sense of community pride to the Sachems baseball team.
By STEVE KRAUSE
SAUGUS — Saugus High’s Jimmy Alcott is what you could call a true blue Saugonian — even if the school’s color is bright red.
Alcott was a star player on Saugus American Little League’s last district champion all-star team, back in 2012. He came through the ranks of various youth hockey programs. Yet unlike other aspiring athletes with stars in their eyes, Alcott was only interested in being a Sachem, as opposed to going to any number of private schools that surround the town.
“I never thought about going to any other school except Saugus High,” said Alcott, a senior pitcher/shortstop for the Sachems. “Mostly because of pride for the town. I really didn’t see the point of going to a private school. It’s not really me.”
Of course, he acknowledges, some of that had to do with his father, Jim, who is not only a Saugus High graduate, but a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.
The older Alcott went on to play college hockey for Merrimack in the late 1980s, and was on the school’s baseball team in 1984 that won the Division 2 North title. He made it in pro hockey to play for the Virginia Lancers in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.
His son’s goals for the moment aren’t that lofty. He’s not looking to play hockey in college, although as a co-captain and a defenseman for this year’s Saugus hockey team, he helped the Sachems return to the Division 2 state tournament for the first time in several years.
“It was my first time in the tournament and I was certainly excited about it,” he said. “I loved it. We worked hard and had some great coaching along the way.”
Not only did Saugus make the tournament, the Sachems beat Methuen and Lynnfield before falling in the North semifinal to eventual state champion Lowell Catholic.
“Honestly, I like hockey probably better than baseball, but if I go on to play in college it’ll probably be baseball.”
If he does, he’ll be the first to tell you that former coach Steve Freker has a lot to do with that.
“Before high school,” Alcott said, “I wasn’t even much of a fan of baseball. But he made me love the game. He made it a lot more fun than it had been. He taught me some pitching techniques, how to field ground balls differently, and a lot of other points as well.”
He’s quick to add, however, that current coach Joe Luis, while perhaps a different sort of person than Freker, is equally knowledgeable. And Alcott is sure that the team will rebound from its 2-5 start and have a successful season.
“We’re all still getting used to each other,” Alcott said. “We’ve been in every game we’ve played. I think things are going all right.”
Alcott is mainly a pitcher, but on days he’s not on the mound, you can find him at shortstop. However, if it were up to him, he’d be on the mound all the time.
“I definitely like pitching better,” he said. “It’s more interactive, and you have more control.”
He also likes the mental aspect of it.
“You have to have a calm presence,” he said. “You can’t show too much emotion. You have to keep your composure, and you can’t let the other team know they’re getting to you.”
Actually, Alcott is fortunate that he’s able to pitch — and to even play. In Little League, he was plagued with migraines (something that he apparently has outgrown). Two years ago, while riding in a car to school after an early-morning hockey practice at Kasabuski Rink, the vehicle hit a patch of ice and overturned. It turned out that a homeowner on Lynn Fells Parkway had drained water into the street, creating a patch of black ice.
While no one was badly hurt in the crash, the incident had a profound effect on Alcott, who said he shuddered last winter when two hockey players from Falmouth died in a similar accident coming home from hockey practice.
Alcott also missed his sophomore season due to having elbow surgery in his pitching arm.
“It was on the ulnar nerve,” he said. “There was some kind of muscular transposition where the nerve slipped into the elbow joint and caused my fingers to go numb.
“They don’t know for sure (how that developed),” he said. “They said it could be hereditary, but I don’t know anyone in my family where that happened, so I don’t know.”
All he knows is that the injury is behind him.
“No more problems,” he said.
These days, he’s focused on his next game — and his next stars, which he hopes is tonight (7) at Fraser Field against Lynn Classical. He wants to go to Salem State, and he, his father, and Vikings coach Al Donovan have already been talking, he said.
And now that the Bruins are gone, he is seriously pulling for the New York Rangers — for one very big reason: his father played hockey with Rangers rookie Jim Vesey’s dad at Merrimack and the two are friends.
“Our family is good friends with their family,” Alcott said. “Big Jim’s helped us out a lot.”
