SAUGUS — Members of the Saugus community are pushing to rename the town’s new Middle-High School athletic complex after longtime hockey coach Christie Serino, Jr.
This week, School Committee member John Hatch went before the Board of Selectmen on behalf of Serino’s family to request that an article naming the complex in Serino’s honor be included on the annual Town Meeting warrant.
“We wanted to sponsor this article to honor everything Christie’s done for student athletes, residents, and to honor everything he’s done to support the town,” Hatch said. “The difference he made in people’s lives was amazing.”
Serino, who grew up in East Saugus and was a graduate of the town’s public schools, was a former three-sport athlete and inductee into the Saugus High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
He previously taught English at Belmonte Middle School, physical education at Saugus High School, and served as the Sachems hockey head coach from 1980 to 1987 — during which time he won three Northeastern Conference titles and was awarded Eastern Massachusetts Coach of the Year.
After his tenure in Saugus, he went on to coach baseball at the University of New Hampshire from 1994 to 1996, and hockey at Merrimack College from 1999 to 2005. Before his death from cancer in October 2012 at age 63, Serino served as athletic director and hockey coach for Malden Catholic.
“He had his fingerprints engraved in every aspect of this community,” said Serino’s son, Matt Serino. “When really looking at it, you want to name the field after someone who represents not just a playing field, but represents what this town is all about. With everything that my father stood for and everything he did for this town and the people that he affected, it seemed like a perfect fit to name the new stadium after him.”
The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted in favor of the proposal, and an article requesting the name change will be included on the warrant for this year’s Town Meeting scheduled for late spring.
“Chris wasn’t just about helping student athletes. He was about helping everybody,” Hatch said. “People don’t realize how many kids he helped throughout the years.”
Funds to support the name change have been raised by the Varsity Club.
“The new facility is such an amazing place that we wouldn’t want (anything) to be out of place, so we’ll work with the town to make sure the signage is appropriate for the stadium,” Hatch added. “I hope that once we put the presentation on, Town Meeting sees that Christie is truly someone who deserves to be memorialized.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
