Letter: Congratulations to classy Beverly 'Bad Dawgs' team

To the Editor:

A well deserved note of congratulations to the Beverly B-Squad "Bad Dawgs" on their success this season. Coach Nardella and his staff have done a great job and put together a talented and classy team.

The success of this team serves as a shot in the arm for the Beverly Pop Warner program and will hopefully pay great dividends for the Panthers on Saturdays in the future.

I have coached the Swampscott B-Squad for the last six seasons and previously coached the E-squad for six seasons. It is great to see Beverly competitive again and developing future high school players.

During my tenure as a coach my teams have always been involved in good, hard fought and clean games against Beverly. Unfortunately in the last few seasons, Everett, East Lynn and ours elves have been the most competitive in the league top to bottom. The improvement of the Beverly and Triton programs will do wonders for the North Shore League for years to come.

Coaching from the smallest town in eastern Massachusetts Pop Warner, I have been puzzled as to why programs like Beverly's have struggled in recent years. My impression has been that Beverly has always had a good administration and coaches, but just did not seem to get the athletes out to play. The "Bad Dawgs" certainly have the athletes back out playing.

I feel it important to bring up how the "Bad Dawgs" players and coaches handle success.

My B-Squad team found itself down by four touchdowns at halftime, by far the worst score in my coaching tenure. This was not due to Beverly running up the score, but was a simple case of a very talented team shell-shocking another team and coaching staff that was caught off guard and overwhelmed. The final score allowed me to say to my team "we beat them in the second half."

My team never quit and I was proud of them, but coach Nardella played the second half in a manner that respected my players, coaches and parents and allowed us to leave the field with dignity. We did not have a great season, but did play East Lynn, Everett and Triton very tough.

The Beverly game experience could have totally demoralized my team. Coach Nardella allowed me to keep my team's spirit and confidence up without embarrassing them. He and his staff had words of encouragement for everyone of my players after the game. They did not trash-talk or rub our noses in their success. This was the first time one of my B-Squads had ever lost to Beverly, but Beverly handled it as just another game.

I have always tried to keep the scores close in the past, but have often witnessed horrible situations where coaches punish their opponents for no reason. In my experience, winning with great talent is easy, but winning with class is something only a coaching staff can instill in a team. Coach Nardella has taught his team how to win with class!

Regardless of how much further the "Bad Dawgs" go, I want to congratulate everyone involved in Beverly Pop Warner Football and say welcome back! Every organization deserves the taste of victory and you have earned it. Keep up the good work!

Thomas H. Driscoll, Jr., Esq.

Head Coach, B-Squad

Swampscott Pop Warner Football