Man About Canton: Xaverian Connections

Did you know …

Michael Pina, a former Canton resident and grandson of Bobby Trayers of Canton, was the standout senior quarterback that led the Xaverian Brothers High School football team to an undefeated 13-0 season and to the Division 1 Super Bowl championship with a convincing 44-14 win over Central Catholic. Pina threw three touchdown passes of 12, 49, and 73 yards. His 49-yard touchdown pass went to Coby Tippett, son of New England Patriot great Andre Tippett. Coby scored three touchdowns: a six-yard run, an 88-yard interception return, and the 49-yard touchdown pass. Xaverian’s head coach is Charlie Stevenson Jr., formerly of Canton, whose father, Charlie Stevenson Sr., coached CHS from 1943 to 1957 and will celebrate his 102nd birthday this coming year. Charlie Jr. has been the Xaverian head coach since 1993 and has compiled a record of 168-47-1. He has won six Division 1 Super Bowls and has a 27-game winning streak going into next year.

This past football season, seven Hockomock League teams made the MIAA high school playoffs: Mansfield, Stoughton, North Attleboro, Foxboro, Attleboro, King Philip, and Sharon. Canton High and Randolph High, both with 5-2 records at the time teams were picked for the playoffs, were the only two teams in the state with that record that did not make the playoffs. The problem was Canton’s league record of 2-2 included a tough loss to Sharon, which made the playoffs with a losing record. No Hockomock team made it to the finals in the playoffs.

Canton’s Bobby Witt, pitching for the Texas Rangers on September 1, 1990, became the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to go seven innings and strike out and walk 10 batters in a game. Nine other starting pitchers have been credited with 10 or more strikeouts and at least 10 walks in the same game, but seven of them took more than nine innings, two took nine innings, and only Witt did it in seven innings. He was the winning pitcher in that game, beating the A’s 3-2.

The Canton High School boys basketball team will play a nonleague game against Norwood at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday, January 31.

The Canton High School boys soccer team missed the state playoffs for the first time since 2005, finishing the season with a 3-10-4 overall record.

Canton Town planner Tim Richard intends to request Community Preservation Act funds to build a walking trail at Forge Pond.

The cost to send a student to full-day kindergarten in Canton is $3,500, which is among the highest in the state.

Blue Hill Country Club, which contains 210 acres, is assessed at $5.2 million. It recently sold for $10 million.

The Canton American Legion Riders recently presented Veterans Agent Tony Andreotti a check for $4,000 raised from their fifth annual charity motorcycle run.

There were two veterans’ functions going on last month at the Canton American Legion Post 24: a “thank you” dinner sponsored by the Sons of the Legionnaires and the annual Veterans Day Breakfast.

Veterans Day ceremonies are held annually at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate the month the World War I armistice went into effect. It is the only federal holiday that we celebrate on an exact day by law.

The AA Will Company has been selling off its sand and gravel pits over the past few years. In Canton, the company sold its property on Route 138 where the Brightview senior living facility is being built. In Stoughton, the company sold most of its property to an electrical company, and its large property off Route 140 in Lakeville is up for sale.

Peter Leonard recently retired after working for the Canton Housing Authority for over 32 years.

Talking about the Housing Authority, they are in the process of installing security cameras at the Pequit Street housing project and at the Hagan Court complex.

The Canton Recreation Department will hold its annual Christmas party on Sunday, December 13, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the lower hall at St. Gerard’s Church. Tickets are only $5 per person and are available at the Recreation Department and the Senior Center.

Canton-based Dunkin’ Donuts is now serving beverages in festive holiday cups while its rival, Starbucks, serves its coffee in a plain red container. No Merry Christmas on Starbucks’ coffee cups. In MAC’s opinion, it is another example of American companies moving away from Christmas-themed decorations.

Interesting elections this past November: In Fall River, Jasiel Correia II was elected mayor at age 23, making him the youngest major in city history. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, Joe Ganim, the former mayor, won his old seat back after serving seven years in federal prison. Only 13.63 percent of the registered voters in Boston voted in the hotly contested Boston City Council race. In Randolph, only 16.5 percent of voters cast ballots to elect five at-large councillors out of six running and six school committee members out of eight candidates. In Quincy, 41 percent of registered voters cast ballots in a close mayoral election, and in the Weymouth mayor’s race, 39 percent cast votes.

In the good news department, for most Medicare beneficiaries, the Part B premium will probably not rise to $120.90 as planned, but will remain at the current $104.89. There is a hold-harmless provision in the federal law that says you stay at $104.90 if you do not receive a Social Security COLA in your 2016 check and also satisfy certain other conditions. These other conditions include that you are not newly enrolled in Medicare. If you are enrolled after January 1, 2016, the premiums could go past the projected $120.90 up to a ridiculous $159.30.

Eversource, which supplies electricity to the town of Canton, will see a 5.1 percent increase over the past summer and fall rates. However, it is still approximately 17 percent less than last year’s winter electricity rates. According to an Eversource spokesman, south shore customers, including Canton, will pay about $114 per month, down from an average of $137 last year.

From our trivia file comes this little bit of interesting information: The lowly Lincoln copper penny that we used to be able to buy candy with and which we have many of lying around the house ignored and unused is the only coin where the pictured president is facing to the right. On all other U.S. coins, the president faces to the left.

A competent professional listens well, probes, asks questions, and thinks before he speaks. This is easy to say but hard to do.

This is all for now folks. See you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=31773

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Dec 10 2015. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.