LYNN — “Being able to play football in June! What could be better than that?” asked Xaviah Bascon of Swampscott after Wednesday night’s Agganis All-Star football game.
“It’s a surreal moment and it’s amazing, unreal,” he said. “Playing with my boys one last time, it’s a great feeling.”
Swampscott’s Big Blue absolutely dominated the game, and electrified the Manning Field crowd. Bascon and Cam O‘Brien had a total of three touchdowns and more than 189 yards.
“I have coached Cameron since he was in second grade and same thing with Xaviah,” said their coach, Bobby Serino, who also coached the North Squad in the 49-12 win. “(They were) two exceptional athletes you saw at the game today. They just perform at a higher level for high school athletes.”
The Big Blue are coming off of their super bowl win this past fall — their second in three years (there was no Super Bowl in 2020 due to COVID) — Which helped motivate them to play as hard as they could.
Bascon, the North’s MVP, had the game’s signature moment. Taking a kickoff on his own seven-yard line, the speed flanker zipped through the South’s kickoff covering, steered himself to the right sideline, and sprinted untouched to the end zone.
“As good as some of the high school athletes that we see are, they take the bar and raise it to the next level both physically, psychologically, and as teammates,” said Serino. “It is a pleasure to coach two guys like that.”
“You build such a bond with your teammates, your players, and even the new guys right away. It’s unreal,” said Bascon. “I was talking with the coaches today and I was telling them that they are the best coaches there are. They are able to take a line in a week and a half and develop them in the way that they did with teaching them everything, it was unreal.”
“It is honestly just amazing. As you know, our coaches have not coached any of these other kids except the Swampscott kids, so for us to only have one week to prepare and come out and put up the numbers we did means a lot to me and the team,” said O’Brien.
These games are in memory of Harry Agganis, who starred in football, basketball, and baseball for Lynn Classical before going on to play for the Red Sox. In June of 1955, after winning the job as starting first baseman for the Red Sox, Agganis was stricken ill. He died June 27 at the age of 26.
“Just playing for the Agganis name, I know that everybody is not able to,” said O’Brien. “Just for me to come out and play for Harry Agganis the man himself meant a lot to me (Playing in the all-star game).”
