SWAMPSCOTT — Standing on the Gillette Stadium field with a lei draped over himself, Swampscott’s Xaviah Bascon had a moment to take everything in.
Bascon’s 2021 season was nearly stopped in its tracks before it began. Two weeks before the 2021 season started, Bascon was in a back brace, recovering from two fractures in his spine after the Fall II season this past spring.
“I was in a back brace questioning if I’d be able to play at a high level,” Bascon said. “To be able to be here with my coaches and my team and finish on top like this is a dream come true.”
In the Division 5 Super Bowl against North Reading Wednesday night, Bascon totaled 170 yards from scrimmage and also threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Cole Hamernick. The senior finished the season with a school record 210 carries, 1,509 yards, and 21 rushing touchdowns.
“Since he was a freshman, we knew he was a special kid,” Swampscott offensive coordinator Robert Serino III said of Bascon. “We knew in his first practice (that) he was going to be special and he’s the hardest working kid I’ve coached in my eight years coaching. He pushes guys around him to be better because they want to be better because of him and he’s so smart, he’s like having another coach on the field.”
For Bascon, the most important development in his game was his confidence.
“I think my confidence was a huge part of it,” he said. “I got much more confident as a football player and as a running back. I’ve been a running back my whole life and my first two years (at Swampscott) I got thrown into being a receiver. It was a different atmosphere for me, a different situation, but I always made the best of my situation. Now that I’m at running back, I feel like I definitely excelled this year.”
No matter what the future holds for this running back, it’s safe to say that his high-school career had a storybook ending.
