Coach Caito a born leader, mentor, friend
When it comes to describing Tom Caito’s life, certainly he was a “special” football coach, but the longtime Chelmsford resident, who passed away last Sunday at the age of 86, was much, much more.
He was a special father to seven children and a special husband of 62 years to his late wife, Peggy.
A special friend and mentor to thousands. A special teacher to students who didn’t play sports, including children with special needs. His humor, energy and charisma were unmatched. He volunteered his time at the Perkins School for the Blind and at the Brockton Veterans Administrative Hospital, and he was once named the Chelmsford Lodge Man of the Year.
And as a three-sport coach — football, track and wrestling — and before that as an outstanding athlete, he was nearly impossible to beat.
“Tom changed my whole life,” said Jack Fletcher, who worked on Caito’s Chelmsford High football staff for 17 years. “He taught me how to coach, he taught me how to treat kids, how to run a program and the stuff that all of us learned from him, we could never thank him enough. He came to the town and completely changed the way things were done in our athletic program.”
He won seven state championships, including three Super Bowl football titles during his 18-year career at CHS. His football record was 247-78-6 with five programs. He is a member of four Hall of Fames in two states (Massachusetts and Rhode Island) as a coach, and also at Boston University as a three-year football lineman.
Ultimate winner
Caito was born in Providence, R.I., attended local schools before earning a full academic and athletic scholarship to play football for three years. He became a physical education teacher and later received his master’s degree.
His coaching career started at a program that hadn’t won a game in the previous 10 years, Central High School in Rhode Island, in the fall of 1963. In his second season, the team celebrated as league champions and the following year as state champions.
He went on to Holliston High, where he won backto-back state football titles (1971, 1972) and started the school’s wrestling program.
Four years removed from his second state title, he moved on to Chelmsford High.
He was a PE teacher at four schools and the head football coach for 18 years, compiling a record of 14039-5, which included seven Merrimack Valley Conference championships, four Super Bowl appearances, losing the first one in his third season in ’78 and then beating Gloucester in ’87, Woburn in ’91 and Brookline in ’94.
“Tom was just a great, great man,” said Bruce Rich, who worked under Caito for 16 years as an assistant before replacing him at CHS as the head football coach. “He was a great influence on so many people and so many coaches who were blessed to have been able to work with him. I honestly can’t say enough about him as a father and husband. He raised an incredible family and we were all like family to him.”
Caito was the head coach of the 1985 CHS outdoor boys track state championship team.
Caito also was a football coach and athletic director at schools in Cocoa, Fla., and Scotch Plains, N.J. His last coaching stint came when he started the Merrimack College football program, compiling a record of 34-33 from 1996-2002.
Bob “Lefty” Aylward recalls many great Saturday afternoon battles when his Tewksbury Redmen took on Caito’s Lions’ teams.
“Tom’s intentions were always in the best interest of the kids and that made him the great coach that he was,” said Aylward. “He brought an energy that was unparalleled. He turned the program around and made believers out of all of those kids and those coaches believed in him as well. They loved him.”
When an 8-year-old boy in town lost his father, he became the best running back in the state under Caito a few years later, leading the Lions to the Super Bowl title. That boy, Dan Curran, went on to a stellar career at the University of New Hampshire before playing professionally. He served as the Merrimack College head coach for the past 11 years.
“I think about how coach Caito looked after me and my older sister when we were going through that. He kind of made me his guy,” said Curran, now at Holy Cross. “His best gift was making people feel special and to make people believe in themselves and not just with me but countless teammates. He invested in them as people just as much as he invested in you as a football player. The impact that he had on our people and the community in Chelmsford, you can’t put a number on it.”
Life lessons
Tom and Peggy Caito were parents to sons Paul, John, Thomas and Michael (who passed away in 2004), and daughters Alison, Laura and Leslie.
“We grew up knowing what our dad was like and how special he was,” said Thomas. “He treated every kid like they were his own son or daughter. I remember years and years of kids sleeping on our couches because they didn’t have homes.
“We’re all heartbroken, but we all realize that he lived a great life and he was highly successful. My father was a father of thousands and tens of thousands of kids and not just a father of seven.”