Maradei to remember
‘Influential’ coach saying goodbye after 45 seasons
READING — Masconomet football coach Gavin Monagle was going through a rough stretch midway through the season when he received a phone call from his high school coach Bill Maradei offering words of encouragement.
To those who know Maradei, it was simply Bill being Bill.
When Maradei leads his Austin Prep squad onto the field this morning against Shawsheen, it will mark the 426th and final time he will perform that duty. While Frank Sinatra sang of having a few regrets, Maradei is comfortable with the decision he made in the spring to call it quits following the 2018 season.
“Oh God, no regrets at all,” Maradei said. “I knew after last year that I was getting close to the end. Between being a head coach and an assistant, I’ve spent the 45 years coaching football from August to December, that’s a long time doing this.”
Coaching has always been in Maradei’s blood dating back to his days growing up in East Boston, where he claims to have coached a team in the third grade. He attended Dom Savio and East Boston and went on to Boston State, before jumping into coaching as an assistant at East Boston.
A year later, he joined the coaching staff at Dom Savio. In 1979, he took over a team that made the Super Bowl a year earlier and guided them back to the bowl. While everyone in the community was rejoicing over the recent football excellence at the school, Maradei knew there were some rocky roads ahead.
“We were loaded in 1979, we had a really good team,” Maradei said. “The next year, we graduated a lot of kids and we went 3-7. Honestly, I think I did a better job the year we went 3-7 because I really had to do a lot more coaching. We were very young, but we had talent and that group went on to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl in 1982.”
Monagle was the first captain Maradei had at Dom Savio and still considers Maradei one of his closest friends and confidantes. He tries to take many of the lessons he learned from Maradei and incorporate them into his present coaching style.
“Bill was a very demanding guy, but he was very loyal,” Monagle said. “He expected a lot from us because he expected a lot from himself. As a teenager, he was the type of person you wanted to emulate because of the type of person he was.”
Reggie Lanciani served as a co-coach with Maradei in the early days at Dom Savio. Now living on Cape Cod and enjoying watching his grandchildren play field hockey at Dennis-Yarmouth, he fondly recalls his time with Maradei.
“Bill is what I would call an old-school type of guy, there is no gray area with him,” Lanciani said. “He believes in doing things the right way, acting the right way and making sure his players did the same. I remember the referees coming over before the game and giving us a pep talk, going over all that stuff and I was thinking they were wasting their time because Bill’s teams were always going to do things the right way.”
Maradei insisted his players do things the right way both on and off the field and heaven forbid you strayed the line. He’s demanding and isn’t afraid to get in your face if you screw up, but his style has worked for 40-plus years.
“Next to my parents, Bill is the most influential person in my life,” said Joe Gaff, who played for Maradei at Dom Savio and later coached at Chelsea, Matignon, Malden Catholic and BC High. “He is a tremendous guy, someone who taught discipline and work ethic and expected it from us. We loved him for it because we knew he cared about each and every player.”
Maradei would have been content spending his life coaching in the city where he grew up, but Dom Savio was struggling for survival. When the school decided to close its doors in 1992, Maradei was forced to look for a job and noticed that Austin Prep had an opening for football coach and teacher.
He was hired for the job, but then learned that a group of alumni were planning to take over Dom Savio and run it as Savio Prep. As much as Maradei loved the idea of being in East Boston, he would be going against his core principles if he backed out.
“Paul Moran was the headmaster (at Austin Prep), he knew how much Savio meant to me and said he understood if I wanted to go back,” Maradei said. “I told him I was a man of my word, I told the school I was coming and that’s what I was going to do. It turned out to be one of the best decision I’ve ever made.”
By his fourth year at the school in 1996, Austin Prep qualified for the Super Bowl and finished the season 11-1. Jonathan Pollard was a student at the time and today serves as the school’s athletic director. He says the Bill Maradei who roamed the school corridor and sidelines 20 years ago is no different than what you get today.
“Bill teaches the game of life through football.” Pollard said. “He set a tone for the young men, he was someone everyone looked up to. He taught young men to become good men in the community.”
Maradei won his first Super Bowl at the school in 1999, but it was the 2009 team that brought him the ultimate joy. It wasn’t the fact those Cougars went on to win the Division 3A Super Bowl as much as he was able to share it with his sons, Billy and Mark, who were starters on the team.
“Best single moment of my coaching career without a doubt,” said Maradei, who dabbed at tears as he described the event. “No one gave us a chance to beat Holliston and we just went out there and beat them (38-15). Having my father (Bill) in the sidelines and my sons walking off the field with me. No better feeling.”
While Maradei hasn’t won a bowl since, his teams have remained consistent for the most part. Even though his team enters the Thanksgiving Day game with a 4-6 mark, Maradei says he’s enjoyed every moment of this final sojourn.
“I really think I’ve had as much fun coaching this year as I’ve ever had,” Maradei said. “This team has worked hard and given me everything I can ask for.”
Which is why Bill Maradei will stroll into the sunlight with his head held high.
“Bill (Maradei) was a very demanding guy, but he was very loyal. He expected a lot from us because he expected a lot from himself. As a teenager, he was the type of person you wanted to emulate because of the type of person he was.” — GAVIN MONAGLE Masconomet football coach