SAUGUS –– The first play of Thursday’s Peabody-Saugus football game was unusual from the get-go.
First, there was the formation. It didn’t look like any formation you’d expect to see. Then, the snap came in slowly to a kid standing in the backfield, with not a helmet on, but a stocking cap.
The play lost five yards — not that it deterred the Tanners from rolling to a 48-6 victory over Saugus. But it was a reminder, lest anyone on the Peabody sideline forgot, that the game, and the season had been dedicated to the kid in the stocking cap — Mike Mastrocola, Peabody’s senior co-captain.
Coming into the season, Peabody Head Coach Mark Bettencourt had Mastrocola penciled in as his top two-way lineman.
“He was one of the best kids on the team,” Bettencourt said.
But Mastrocola never got to play a down this season. He never even made it to camp. Two weeks before camp was supposed to start, Mastrocola noticed that he hadn’t been feeling right.
“I was lifting weights twice a day,” he said, “but I wasn’t eating the way I’d normally eat.”
So he visited his doctor, who had him admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital for a complete workup. The verdict: leukemia.
“Imagine that,” said Bettencourt. “You go in for a test, and you end up spending five weeks in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy. And you never knew it was coming.
“The guys on the team were just crushed,” Bettencourt said.
“That was the low point, being in the hospital for 28 days,” Mastrocola said. “I’ve played football my whole life, and now I couldn’t.”
Adding to his misery, because he was undergoing chemo treatments, and because Children’s Hospital was undergoing a lot of construction, he wasn’t allowed to go outside.
It’s been a season of mixed emotions for Mastrocola. At first, he said, not being on the field for preseason camp killed him, as did being forced to watch his team, which finished at 10-1, have one of the best seasons in school history.
But he had plenty to do to keep himself busy. He kept up with his school work via an online program, and, when he could, watched film and attended practices.
His teammates also helped him get through it.
“They’ve been very supportive,” he said. “They’re like brothers to me. They love me, and I love them.”
The idea of letting Mastrocola take an honorary snap before the Thanksgiving game came together quickly.
“Coach Betts told me this morning,” Mastrocola said. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t know how to feel. I thought my last time on a football field was going to be my junior Thanksgiving game.”
“But the support they’ve given me feels great,” he said. “And the 10-1 record is awesome.”
He remains optimistic about the future, though he says “at this point, I’m just taking it day by day.”
