SAUGUS — Thanksgiving must be around the corner when Saugus and Peabody football players congregate at Prince Restaurant to revel in a rivalry that began in 1944 and has survived shaky times at both schools to emerge stronger than ever.
“When the MIAA (the state athletic association) changed the way it figured out the postseason, one of the things I didn’t like about it is that it made Thanksgiving not matter,” said Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt during Wednesday night’s dinner, sponsored jointly by the Saugus and (for the first time in more than a decade) Peabody Lions Clubs.
“Thanksgiving is important,” Bettencourt said. “It means a lot to me. What’s the Super Bowl anyway? The same six or seven teams make it. But Thanksgiving means everything.”
Bettencourt recounted one Thanksgiving game in particular, in 1989, his junior season, when the two teams had to play the day after the holiday because of snow.
“We got to Stackpole Field,” he said, “and the field was hard as a rock. We couldn’t wear our cleats and had to change into sneakers.
“Then it warmed up and the field was a sea of mud,” he said. “We had to change back into our cleats.”
Saugus scored a late touchdown to make the score 14-13 Peabody, and elected to go for the 2-point conversion.
“We jumped offside three times,” said Bettencourt. “We were trying to anticipate the snap because they had Marc Fauci, and he was the best player on the field. If he wanted to score, he was going to score. So we had to cheat to beat him.”
Somehow, Peabody kept Fauci out of the end zone and won the game.
“That game has always stayed with me,” Bettencourt said.
This will be Bettencourt’s fifth Thanksgiving game. On the other side, Anthony Nalen is coaching in his first.
“Sorry to say I don’t have any war stories like Mark,” said Nalen, whose Sachems went almost two months without a win, but stand at 4-6 going into the game.
Former New England Patriot Pete Brock, who played on the team’s first-ever Super Bowl squad in 1985, told the players and coaches in attendance despite his years in college and the pros, high school football was the most fun. He also said the game teaches life lessons, and he pointed to his brother Joe, who was challenged, as an example.
“My father can say he had four sons who played pro football, and two who played in the Super Bowl,” said Brock. “My brother Joe had challenges, and he couldn’t play sports.
“He didn’t see himself as special, and didn’t want to be treated as special. So he went to school early every morning for tutoring. He graduated at the same time as his normally-developed classmates, and got a standing ovation when his name was announced.”
Later, Brock said, his brother, who worked for Nike upon graduation, received the national company’s Employee of the Year award. Later, he said, Nike named it the “Joe Brock Award.”
“Anything any of us did,” Brock said, “pales in comparison to that.”
Brock used that to illustrate the theme of his speech, which was that in order to achieve goals, you have to focus on what it takes to get there.
He recounted an episode in 1983 he badly injured his knee during a game in Miami.
“I was a shorter trip to the huddle than it was to the sideline, so I went back to the huddle and told John Hannah I was really hurt. He asked me if I could make it through one more play.”
And that’s how it went for the rest of the game — all of which Brock played.
“That’s when I found out what giving 100 percent means,” said Brock. “The more important play in game is the next play. Give it everything you have for that play.”
The two Lions clubs gave out their version of the Heisman Trophy afterward. Bettencourt gave Peabody’s to an unsung hero on the Tanners’ special teams: Matt Raposa while Nalen gave Saugus’ trophy to Ricky Martinez.
