40th BHS B-Day Celebrates Brockton "Turf"

NOTE:Originally posted Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010
Story and photos By Lisa E. Crowley
The Brockton Post
BROCKTON—Past, present and future generations came together Friday night at Rocky Marciano Stadium to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Brockton High School and the Community Schools program—a birthday bash that featured the beloved Boxers football team pull out a 28-20 victory in front of hordes of alumni and current students who attended the fete.
“This is one of the most exciting nights with the most school spirit that I have seen,” said Brockton High senior and Class of 2011 President Greta Zukauskaite.
“It’s really great to see all of the alumni and all of the families and all of the students—the bleachers are full. It’s an amazing night,” she said (Pictured above holding flag pole, with from left to right, sophomore Victoria Campbell, junior Amely Lopes and Michele Haughton).
Zukauskaite and her 2011 classmates joined throngs of alumni who streamed into the stadium for Friday night’s Homecoming celebration that was the kick-off of a year long commemoration of the opening of the current high school campus—a facility that opened Sept. 16, 1970 and since has been an academic center that has offered Brockton students courses, sports and activities that outmatch nearly all other high schools in the region.
"We have so much here. People talk bad about Brockton, there’s a stigma and I don’t get it. The problems that happen aren’t here at the high school,” said Michele Haughton, a senior who is also vice-president of the Class of 2011. “If there’s anything going on out in the streets, what you do when you leave here is your problem,” she said pointing at the turf of the Brockton High campus.
“That’s all left at the door,” Haughton said.
Contrary to popular belief, students said the high school does not have metal detectors and they would be shocked if such devices ever would be installed because administrators led by high school Principal Susan Szachowicz—a 1971 grad—teachers, staff and students see the high school as a safe haven—a place where students of many nationalities, races, religions, sexual orientations and artistic, academic and athletic leanings mix and mingle through the hallways of the 548,000-square-foot Brockton High—the largest in New England.
“It’s not tolerated,” said Michael Connor, a special education teacher and 1987 graduate, who along with more than 70 Brockton High teachers gathered in the Little Theatre for a commemorative picture of staff who are also alumni after classes on Friday afternoon—hours before the football game kicked-off.
Connor said he has lived and taught all over the country, including San Francisco, and believes the size and diversity of Brockton High today—about 5,000 students in grades 9 to 12—prepares young adults for the real world.
“It’s extremely diverse and the shock value for (Brockton High) kids isn’t as high and the tolerance level is so much higher than in the suburbs,” Connor said.
After years of traveling, Connor said he has returned to his hometown to teach, but during his pit-stops in other locales, he has left a lasting impression with friends and colleagues of what the Brockton character is.
“It’s a sense of pride in where you’re from—it’s not just Boxers football, Marvin Hagler or Rocky Marciano.., it’s the band, it's the arts department…it’s the villages, the neighborhoods…it’s a sense of pride in your family and community,” Connor said.
The pride revolving around the high school extends as far back as the 1940s when the Warren Avenue High School turned out many of the graduates who have operated businesses and have led the wheels of government.
In the late 1960s an influx of students swelled the old building to bursting and students and teachers suffered through eight years of double sessions from 1962 to 1970 as plans and construction of the new high school were completed, said Claire Appling.
Appling, who worked for the Brockton schools for more than 52 years until her retirement in December 2006—including being the first female headmaster to which she was named the year the high school opened--said it was tough, but Brocktonians are tough.
“It wasn’t easy, but we got through it,” Appling said.
She recalled that half of the students would arrive at about 7:30 a.m. and leave around noon-just in time for the remaining half of students to take classes from about 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.
However, Appling said, the pain of double sessions was worth the wait because when the school opened its doors in 1970 with about 6,100 students, the campus was state-of-the-art and boasted a planetarium, four libraries, a cutting-edge auditorium and music rooms that are still the envy of area schools, an indoor pool and a sprawling building that houses academic programs that have made the high school an award winning and respected leader in student achievement.
“We’ve always been in the forefront,” Appling said.
Before the football game Friday night hundreds of old friends reminisced and looked at black-and-white photos from the 1970s posted on boards under a special tent for alumni where food was served, hugs and kisses were had and conversation buzzed.
Jane Feroli, (Pictured above to far left with, from left to right, Ana Gonzalez, Linda Plache and Linda Callahan) a 1974 graduate, signed up alumni to carry and follow class banners on the field for a special halftime show, talked with 1986 grad Linda Plache, 1983 grad Linda Callahan, and 1973 grad Ana Gonzalez—who arrived in Brockton from Cuba in 1972 as a 16-year-old junior who didn’t speak English.
Gonzalez said she and a handful of other non-English speaking students were placed in a separate class with Mrs. Sims—who along with teaching core subjects, immersed students in the English language.
“By my senior year I was with all the other students,” Gonzalez said proudly.
“It was amazing. The support was wonderful,” she said.
Speaking in impeccable English, Gonzalez said she now teaches Brockton students Spanish.
Janel Cobb, a 1996 graduate looked at the photos posted on the boards under the tent, and pointed to a pretty blonde in one of the pictures making a garment on a sewing machine.
“That’s my aunt,” Cobb said, pointing to her aunt Karen Myles (Pictured above in black and white).
Cobb said some of the student activities shown in the photos revealed how courses have changed since 1970 to when she graduated in 1996.
“I don’t remember us making rugs,” Cobb said. “Classes are much different now,” she said.
Cobb said organizers did a great job and really brought a sense of unity and nostalgia to the event.
“It’s just fun and exciting to come back and see everyone,” Cobb said.
Looking at the pictures and the clusters of grads—some holding children--she said she was having fond flashbacks of her time in high school with friends.
“It’s the whole circle of life,” Cobb said.
On the other side of the tent, a group of four freshmen wearing Boxer football jerseys gazed at photos of grid-iron heroes who played long before they were born and who helped make Brockton High one of the most feared football teams in the state.
“People say good luck or good job when they see the shirt,” said freshman Robert Anuforo who looks forward to a time when he will be a varsity player.
“By playing for the football team it makes you feel important. You have respect,” Anuforo said (#50 pictured above).
Just two years after the new Brockton High opened, the football team charged into what is called the “Super Bowl Era,” behind legendary coach Armond Colombo (Pictured in above photo from 1947 with teammates courtesy of Mark Petti and taken by Stanley Bauman) who led the team to numerous state-wide titles beginning in 1972.
His son Peter now coaches the team and has kept the Boxer legend alive, tutoring heavily recruited college prospects like Albert Louis-Jean, who helped lead the Boxers to a 28-20 victory over Fitchburg’s Red Raiders in front of a roaring and cheering crowd Friday night.
“These colors will stay with you forever,” Class of 2011 Vice-President Michele Haughton said, clutching the front of her red and black Boxers shirt. “This is a great school,” she said.