LYNN — Bragging rights among Lynn’s high school basketball teams are at stake this week as the 2018 Walter J. Boverini Tournament tips-off Thursday afternoon. Lynn Tech will host the tournament and the school’s girls basketball re-enters the mix in place of Swampscott. The Tigers will battle the St. Mary’s girls at noon, while crosstown rivals English and Classical will play at 2 p.m. The English and Classical boys take the court at 4 p.m., followed by Tech vs. St. Mary’s (6).
The consolation (girls at 12, boys at 2) and championship games (girls at 4,boys at 6) will be played Saturday.
The Classical boys won the crown on their home floor last winter, one of the highlights of head coach Jasper Grassa’s first season guiding the Rams. They defeated Tech in the opening round and St. Mary’s in the championship game.
“It felt great last year,” Grassa said. “It’s really about the bragging rights with the four Lynn teams. We feel like we have a good chance to defend it here so that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Classical is undefeated this season (3-0), as is English (4-0). The red-hot Bulldogs have played solid basketball out of the gate with blowout victories in each game.
“I know they have Jarnel (Guzman) and Alonzo (Linton) and they’re very tough players,” Grassa said. “They have a bunch of other guys as well. We have to keep them out of the paint and avoid turnovers to give ourselves a chance to win against them. They’re so explosive going to the hoop. They way they turn you over, you have to protect the ball.”
With Lynn bragging rights on the line, Grassa said he doesn’t need to motivate his players for the Boverini. They understand what they’re playing for and they enjoy the opportunity.
“They love it,” Grassa said. “The energy, the crowd’s always bigger. It seems like it’s such a big deal. That’s how they take it, that’s how they treat it. Once you’re in that tournament, people talk about who’s the best Lynn team and things like that. The kids always get up for it.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s always fun.”
All four boys teams made the state tournament last year. English and Classical earned bids in Division 1 North. St. Mary’s and Tech qualified in Division 3 North.
“The talent is great between the four Lynn teams,” Grassa said. “It’s always great because it gets you ready. After this break, you get into the thick of the season. It helps prepare you. A lot of teams don’t have games during this break. This can really help us.”
On the girls side, St. Mary’s will look to earn its fifth consecutive Boverini crown. The Spartans defeated English in the first round last year and took down Classical for the championship.
St. Mary’s (4-2) started the season on an up-and-down slope with a win over Saugus in its opener, followed by Catholic Central League losses to Archbishop Williams and Arlington Catholic. But the Spartans have picked things up as of late and enter the tournament with momentum after a pair of wins in Florida.
“Across the board the city tournament’s one of the highlights of the year,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We’re definitely looking forward to it. We just had a very good trip in Florida. I’m hoping we play the way we did in Florida. I think we’ve been playing better. Hopefully that carries over. We look at the Boverini as the first thing we can win. It’s the first title up for grabs and we’d certainly like that have it again.
“I think our defense the past two games in Florida was better. We challenged shots on offense, our spacing was much better. We made 19 3-pointers in two games. I think a lot of that was because we made the extra pass and spaced the floor. We opened up the best shot possible by properly spacing the floor and making the extra pass.”
St. Mary’s takes on an unfamiliar opponent in Tech. The Tigers (1-3) earned their first win of the season last Friday at Essex Tech.
“I think it’s good to have all four Lynn teams in the tournament,” Newhall said. “I think (Tech coach) Kaitlyn Wechsler has done a good job bringing the program back to a point where they feel comfortable coming back to the tournament. It’s a big positive having all four Lynn teams competing.”
The tournament is named after Walter J. Boverini, a Lynn native and Classical graduate. Boverini served in the United States Army and attended Boston College, where he played football, shortly after returning home from World War II. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1970 and the Massachusetts State Senate in 1972. A strong advocate for education, Boverini spent six years as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education. He died in 2009 at the age of 83.
