Events such as the Agganis games, which take place over four days next week, cannot happen without volunteers in many different areas.
One of those areas is coaching. All nine games, which begin Sunday and end with football Wednesday night, will be staffed by high school coaches who will be donating their time for the Agganis cause.
Some have played in the game, but all have coached players who end up participating in at least one of the nine games.
Among the Lynn-area coaches taking part this year, is Joe Morin of Lynn Classical, who led the Rams into the tournament in his first season on the bench. Classical defeated fellow Greater Boston League rival Medford in the first game before bowing out in a game against King Philip.
Baseball will pit English’ Esteban Paula against his former coach, Joe Caponigro of Swampscott. Caponigro was coaching at English when Paula played there. Paula will coach the South while Caponigro directs the North squad.
Also Sunday are both boys and girls lacrosse, with Bishop Fenwick’s Dave McKenzie coaching the South boys squad.
Moving onto Monday, boys and girls basketball will be played at Lynn Classical. Swampscott’s Jay Knowles will direct the South squad. Knowles coached the Big Blue to a 14-game winning streak over the winter before their season ended in the MIAA tournament.
Bishop Fenwick’s Adam DeBaggis, whose Crusaders compete annually with St. Mary’s for Division 3 supremacy in the state, will coach the South in the girls game. In last winter’s tournament, the Crusaders fell to the Spartans by a point in the state semifinal.
Moving on to Tuesday, it’s soccer at Manning Field in Lynn, with Mark Schena of Lynn Classical coaching the South girls. Classical’s Eric Moreno is coaching the boys South squad.
Finally, the football game will be played at Manning Field in Lynn. Swampscott’s Bobby Serino will coach the North while St. Mary’s Sean Driscoll the South.
There are three separate Super Bowl games represented by the two coaches. Serino’s Big Blue won titles in 2019 and 2021. There was no football season in 2020 because of COVID, and while the schools had an abbreviated season in the early spring of 2021, there was no postseason.
Driscoll, who also coached at Winthrop High, directed the Spartans to a Super Bowl appearance in his first season as coach.
The football game was established in 1955 as the principal fundraiser for the Agganis Foundation. Over the years the other eight games were added to the schedule.
Agganis was a standout football player at both Lynn Classical and Boston University. He also played baseball and was the starting first baseman for the Boston Red Sox when he was stricken ill and died at the age of 26.
He played basketball as well.
