Globe North Sports | High School Basketball

Swampscott victorious

on 'return' to Garden

Swampscott players celebrate following their victory over Archbishop Williams in Monday's Division 3 state semifinal at the TD Banknorth Garden. (Jim Davis/ Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / March 15, 2009

Jack Hughes is one who can truly appreciate what it means to lace up his sneakers and play on the fabled parquet floor at the Garden.

He's been there. Not as a 32-minute-per game starter. But as a reserve, one whose moment lasted exactly one minute, 40 years ago, for the Swampscott High boys' basketball team.

So as his Swampscott High girls' squad was wrapping up its 67-51 victory over Archbishop Williams in Monday's Division 3 state semifinal, he made sure that all 15 of his players had their moment too.

"Back then it was different. You had to win 70 percent of your games to get into the tournament and every game was played in the Boston Garden," said Hughes, of his experience on the 1968 Swampscott squad.

"In the first game I got in for one minute. But I didn't get in the championship game against Braintree, which we won on a buzzer-beater. I wanted them to be able to say years from now 'I played on the Garden floor; it wasn't long but I played on it,' " he said.

Swampscott played perennial Central power Quaboag Regional in yesterday's state final.

Senior forward Allie Beaulieu, who netted a game-high 23 points in Monday night's win, was thrilled to see that all of her teammates were able to get onto the floor.

"[Hughes] told us he was a team player. He didn't even play one minute in the championship game but he felt so involved with the team," said Beaulieu, a 1,000-point scorer who will play at Bates next season.

"He was trying to say 'We're a team and everyone on the team counts.' It's so true. I love all my teammates. It's good coaching on his part, because every girl on the team deserved to have a chance to play in the Garden," she said.

But perhaps one reason Swampscott got there in the first place was because team members never got hung up on all the storylines surrounding their season.

A Swampscott team had lost on at least three other occasions at the Garden. But this season, the Big Blue buried the ghosts.

After losing to Pentucket the previous two seasons in the North final, Swampscott bounced the Sachems, 61-46, to earn its trip to Boston. The win at the Garden was the school's first EMass title, for either boys or girls, since 1968.

"I didn't even know half those stories," said Beaulieu, who collected five of the team's 19 steals in Monday's win after scoring 20 points in the North Sectional final. "We just go out there and play."

While Beaulieu and junior guard Kara Gilberg (22 points) led the team offensively on Monday night, they are by no stretch the team's biggest scoring threat. That title belongs to senior forward Tara Nimkar, who before tallying 17 points against Archbishop Williams became the program's all-time leading scorer in the North Sectional final.

Jack Hughes is one who can truly appreciate what it means to lace up his sneakers and play on the fabled parquet floor at the Garden.

He's been there. Not as a 32-minute-per game starter. But as a reserve, one whose moment lasted exactly one minute, 40 years ago, for the Swampscott High boys' basketball team.

So as his Swampscott High girls' squad was wrapping up its 67-51 victory over Archbishop Williams in Monday's Division 3 state semifinal, he made sure that all 15 of his players had their moment too.

"Back then it was different. You had to win 70 percent of your games to get into the tournament and every game was played in the Boston Garden," said Hughes, of his experience on the 1968 Swampscott squad.

"In the first game I got in for one minute. But I didn't get in the championship game against Braintree, which we won on a buzzer-beater. I wanted them to be able to say years from now 'I played on the Garden floor; it wasn't long but I played on it,' " he said.

Swampscott played perennial Central power Quaboag Regional in yesterday's state final.

Senior forward Allie Beaulieu, who netted a game-high 23 points in Monday night's win, was thrilled to see that all of her teammates were able to get onto the floor.

"[Hughes] told us he was a team player. He didn't even play one minute in the championship game but he felt so involved with the team," said Beaulieu, a 1,000-point scorer who will play at Bates next season.

"He was trying to say 'We're a team and everyone on the team counts.' It's so true. I love all my teammates. It's good coaching on his part, because every girl on the team deserved to have a chance to play in the Garden," she said.

But perhaps one reason Swampscott got there in the first place was because team members never got hung up on all the storylines surrounding their season.

A Swampscott team had lost on at least three other occasions at the Garden. But this season, the Big Blue buried the ghosts.

After losing to Pentucket the previous two seasons in the North final, Swampscott bounced the Sachems, 61-46, to earn its trip to Boston. The win at the Garden was the school's first EMass title, for either boys or girls, since 1968.

"I didn't even know half those stories," said Beaulieu, who collected five of the team's 19 steals in Monday's win after scoring 20 points in the North Sectional final. "We just go out there and play."

While Beaulieu and junior guard Kara Gilberg (22 points) led the team offensively on Monday night, they are by no stretch the team's biggest scoring threat. That title belongs to senior forward Tara Nimkar, who before tallying 17 points against Archbishop Williams became the program's all-time leading scorer in the North Sectional final.