Blue Hills Horse Unit Gains News Friends

By Lisa E. Crowley
The BrocktonPost
MILTON--When the Massachusetts DCR Park Ranger Mounted Unit hosts its semi-annual holiday open house next Sunday, the popular horse-riding unit will have a few new friends by its side.
A new non-profit organization, Friends of the Massachusetts Park Ranger Mounted Unit has recently formed with the goal of raising enough money to bring more of the mounted units back into the state’s public parks beginning with increasing the number from one to three that currently patrol the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton.
“It’s in its infancy,” said Maureen McLaughlin, a Hanover resident and president of the group which completed the incorporation process in October.
“Hopefully, eventually, it will grow and more people will help out and donate money,” McLaughlin said.
The holiday open house will be held Sunday, December 12 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the stables adjacent to 685 Hillside Street in Milton that once housed a corps of hoof-stomping horses that patroled the 7,000 acres of Blue Hills Reservation.
The event is free and includes pony rides, free pictures with Santa and other children’s activities, hot cocoa, cookies and tours of the historic, yet run-down Brian T. Broderick stables and barn.
The event is free, but Friends organizers hope attendees will make donations to help the group begin what are expected to be long-term fundraising events.
The holiday open house has been an annual celebration held by the rangers in the mounted unit—that is when the mounted unit has been in existence.
Once a mainstay, throughout the last decade the horse unit has been pared back and has been on again-and-off again in Blue Hills and other state parks because of budget cuts.
In 2004 the unit was completely disbanded after the State Legislature cut funds for the horses despite an outcry of public support that attempted to save the beloved unit.
In the spring of 2008 the mounted rangers rode again after being reinstated through a $100,000 budget rider that supported a three-horse patrol.
It has operated as a three-horse unit since. However, two of the horses do not patrol the Blue Hills on a regular basis and are with the Plymouth Country Sheriff’s Office.
Once dozens of horses and rangers trotted through the more than 15 state parks and reservations and covered more than 300,000 acres.
The Blue Hills mounted unit travels to other area parks performing safety tours and educational programs but is limited.
Because the historic Brian T. Broderick stable and barn is in such a state of disrepair, horses are stabled elsewhere.
The stable and barn are currently used to store lawn and other maintenance equipment.
All across the country mounted units often are the first line items eyed for cuts during difficult financial times and in a majority of cases friends groups have organized to raise money to save those horse units.
These friends groups have had a greater and lesser degree of success.
Last year the City of Boston cut its 12-member Boston Police mounted unit. It saved the city $600,000 but ended an era of the horses patroling Boston’s streets and public parks that dated back to 1873.
A quickly launched friends group was unable to prevent the Boston unit's demise.
In Cleveland, Ohio, the mounted police have patroled the streets for more than 100 years. For more than 20 years a friends group has paid for the care and cost of the horses and the City of Cleveland pays the bills for employees and stables.
Currently, the Cleveland Mounted Police has seven horses and three riders—down from 11 a few years ago and far short of the 80-head during the unit’s heyday.
The Cleveland friends group estimates it costs about $160 per day, or more than $58,000 a year, to pay for the hay, oats and other necessities to care for the horses and city funds are getting smaller and smaller.
In Washington D.C., an elite mounted unit formed in 2003 by Congress to patrol the nation’s Capitol was decommissioned just two years later when Congress cutoff the $145,000-unit with six officers and five horses and have not been patrolling since.
From Philadelphia, Penn., to San Jose, Calif., to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire--where a friends group has kept the horses on the beaches at least for this fiscal year--legislators have cut money to pay for the popular mounted units.
Lt. Susan Murphy Survillo, a mounted ranger with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency that oversees the state's parks, said people love the horse units and are an invaluable public relations asset for the rangers and police forces around the U.S.
"People want to see the horses in the parks and on the beaches," Murphy Survillo said. "Nobody is going to come up and pat a cruiser or an all-terrain vehicle. We're the goodwill ambassadors for the DCR and the state," she said.
While the horse units are people magnets--especially for kids--they are useful as safety personnel on trails and can reach places and navigate terrain motorized vehicles cannot.
Supporters also say the mounted units in city, suburban and rural parks and communities have been credited with deterring crime and keeping possibly highly-charged crowds in control.
"An officer or ranger on a horse has a wider range of view and can see much more of what is going on on the ground," Murphy Survillo said. "An officer on a horse is also intimidating and might stop someone from doing something because of their presence," she said.
Friends group President McLaughlin--whose is an avid dressage rider and competes with her thoroughbred Laddie throughout New England--said while the group is small today, they hope to grow and be able to help in the restoration of not only the mounted units, but also the decrepit Broderick stables and barn—loosely estimated in the millions to restore.
"That's a dream and probably years down the road, but you have to start somewhere," McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said she and fellow friends board members, Lisa Young of Salem and Jeff Livingstone of Franklin are hopeful those in the area’s equestrian world, park enthusiasts, and horse-unit lovers will donate and help keep alive the tradition of the mounted unit in the state’s parks.
They are supported by a handful of volunteers and are beginning plans for fundraising events, such as a possible bowling tournament, Country-Western line dancing nights, golf events and in the spring, seek to offer self-guided trail rides through Blue Hills for those who own horses.
McLaughlin said the Friends--for a fee--would offer coffee and donuts before the ride, lunch afterward and special trail maps for riders to clip-clop through the Blue Hills.
She said the group rides are popular in other areas and are a way for horse lovers and owners to meet other horse owners on a social level.
She said often horse owners ride alone because of busy schedules or their friends do not have horses.
“It fosters camaraderie and it’s for a good cause,” McLaughlin said.
Anyone wishing to make a tax deductible donation or want to join the group visit the group's Facebook pages at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-MA-Park-Ranger-Mounted-Unit/112526825455601
(Photos courtesy Friends of Massachusetts Park Rangers Mounted Unit and DCR)

Mass. State Police Win Brockton Pipe and Drum Contest

The BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—A contingent from the Massachusetts State Police Pipe and Drum team were crowned champions in the Brockton Fire Department’s second annual battle of the pipe and drums bands contest.
On Sunday Nov. 14, five bands from the New England were scrutinized by judges from the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association as they marched, pounded drums and played bagpipes at the Shaw’s Center in Brockton.
More than 100 people attended the event.
Brockton Firefighter Peter Reardon said five teams competed this year. During the competition’s inaugural contest last year four bands vied for the honor of best pipe band in New England.
“We’re growing and I can see this as becoming some kind of festival,” Reardon said.
The Mass. State Police unseated the Greater Boston Pipes and Drums, who won the competition in 2009.
Each team raised money for various charities.
Reardon said each team shared in the prize money that was raised from entry fees for the bands and $10 tickets paid by those who attended the competition.
First place winners Mass. State Police received $1,042 which will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project, which provides numerous services for severely injured military members.
Second place winners Brockton Fire Department will donate $868 to The Enterprise newspaper’s Helping Hands fund that offers help to various local charities and organizations.
Third place winners Peabody Fire Department will donate $695 to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Former champions, Greater Boston Pipes and Drums placed fourth and will donate $521 to Shriner’s Hospital Burn Fund for Kids.
The New London. Conn. Fire Department—which won the honorary award for the department who traveled the longest distance—placed fifth and will donate $347 to the Bridgeport, Conn. Fallen Firefighers Fund and will help the families of two Bridgeport firefighters who died fighting a blaze in July.
Reardon said he hopes every year the contest will grow and is seeking corporate sponsors to help defray costs and expand the competition.
Reardon said next year’s competition is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2011.
“We hope it will be bigger, better and badder,” Reardon said.
(Entire team photo at top of Mass. State Police Pipe and Drum photo courtesy Mass. State Police Pipe and Drums)

McKeon Post Pool Team Propelled By Posthumous Player

By Lisa E. Crowley
The BrocktonPost
AVON—When members of Dorchester’s John P. McKeon Post #13 won the South Shore Pool League Championship last season to become the first team in the league’s history to “run the table” and go undefeated for the season and at the same time set the record for most consecutive championships at four, one member Kenny Blair may have been missing in body, but their beloved teammate was there in spirit.
“We had his shirt on a chair through the whole season and during the playoffs,” said his childhood friend Eddie DiLorenzo, an East Boston native who has lived in Braintree and now in Weymouth since 1998.
“I know he helped me in those playoffs that night when we won. He was the difference,” DiLorenzo said.
Blair, a Revere resident who DiLorenzo has known from kindergarten in East Boston, died in January, 2009 at 55 of leukemia. Blair--pictured above in 1996--was a member of the team for three of the four championships.
Blair's death was a year before the team went on the undefeated run to win the 2009-2010 league championship for the fourth straight time and members believe the shirt and Blair's memory were an inspiration for the team to set two records the season following his death.
The undefeated season is unprecedented in the South Shore League’s 37-year history and the fourth consecutive championship by Post #13 is a feat that bests Braintree Moose Lodge’s three championships.
To say the team has been hot over the last four years is an understatement.
The McKeon Post came close to an undefeated season during the 2008-2009 campaign when Blair was playing. The team only lost one match that season and went on to win its third consecutive championship.
Richard Zaccaro, a Brockton resident who plays for Post #13, said the team’s winning ways may make it seem as if the Post #13 is rolling over teams.
He said that is not the case.
“There is a lot of talent and a lot of skill in this league. It’s a really competitive league,” Zaccaro said. “Sometimes it’s just one ball. Sometimes it’s just luck. You have to have luck,” he said.
Post #13’s success rate hasn’t gone unnoticed by other teams and while there is a lot of friendly rivalry among teams, the McKeon Post’s undefeated season isn’t likely to hold through the 2010-2011.
“Who says they’re champions. They’re not champions. That was last year,” said Glen Cabbage, (Pictured below shaking hands) a member of one of two teams out of the Avon V.F.W. when Post #13 took on Avon in the first match of the season in September.
Like the New England Patriots and other teams who have won numerous titles, Post #13 opened the season with a target on their heads—a black and white circle like the 8-ball that is the target of the league’s matches.
“Everyone’s gunning for us,” Zaccaro said.
One week before the All-Star break which will be held Wednesday Nov. 24 and features the best two players from each team, Post #13 is in third place, but within striking distance of first place.
Post #13 began this season with an undefeated streak that lasted two matches.
In the third week, they lost to a new team in the league, Weymouth Elks, a team that features Herb Whiffen, a Braintree resident who is known in the area for making custom pool cues for area players.
The South Shore Pool League, which formed in 1973, currently has 14 teams who play each other every Wednesday night from September to February.
Unlike many leagues that have moved to faster games like 9-ball, South Shore Pool League plays straight pool with partners.
During play one team has solid balls, the other stripes and it’s a race to clear the table and sink the 8-ball, but it’s not bush league—players have to call their shots and while allowed to play defense—cannot cross the line and be called out for a “Safe Shot,” or what is loosely called Chelsea pool, when a player does not make an honest attempt at his own ball because it is blocked in some way.
Safeties are not allowed and if an opponent believes a player has intentionally played a safety, the opponent calls out the player. There is no argument if a safe shot is called. The penalty is an automatic loss of game.
A second is a two-game suspension, and a third or any subsequent safe shots by a player is suspension for the remainder of the season.
Players said being called out for a safe shot is rare—but it does happen.
Each week teams play the best of 10 games to win the week's match.
Teams in the league include Braintree Moose Lodge #413, Randolph Elks, and Abington Knights of Columbus. Some of the teams, like Post #13 and Avon V.F.W. , have “A” teams and “B” teams.
A and B teams play in either the north and south divisions of the league and are not divided so much by skill level as by which lodge, V.F.W. or Legion post has more players.
A teams play B teams every week.
Each team recruits its own members and like the McKeon Post, many are friends who go back to childhood, military service, numerous jobs and employment and schools.
Post #13’s Zaccaro said some may see the game of pool or the league as just a way to get out of the house and have drinks with the guys--which it is--but it is also a great game that requires skill and concentration.
“At least my wife knows where I am, what I’m doing and who I’m with,” Zaccaro said.
An all-male league, it’s also a venue where the guys talk about work, the family, kids, and past escapades at various parties such as Post #13 player Donald “Noodles” Newell’s Halloween extravaganza dressed as a vampire and coming out of a coffin at Dorchester’s Penney Post.
“You should have been there—I should have been there,” Newell (Pictured below on table) said laughing as his teammates recalled how hysterical it was.
Al Alsopp, a longtime Brockton resident who is co-captain of Avon V.F.W.'s B team, said the guys in the league are rivals, but most have played against each other, or in some cases been on the same teams, and it’s all in good fun.
“There’s a lot of camaraderie,” Alsopp said.
However, Alsopp said, none of the teams are giving in to Post #13’s winning mystique.
“You always have an advantage on your home table,” Alsopp said. “We want to kick their butts,” he said.
Tossing back drinks during the matches is a part of the fun of the league, but many players don’t drink alcohol because it throws off their game and while many players are amateurs looking to learn and meet new people, others like Eddie DiLorenzo have been playing pool all their lives.
Nicknamed “Fast Eddie” after the famed Paul Newman character in pool-shark movies “The Hustler” and “Color of Money,” DiLorenzo, players said, is one of the best, if not the best, player in the league. “The only way he loses is if he beats himself,” said Braintree resident and teammate David Hurley.
An East Boston native, DiLorenzo, 55, said his father, known as Joe D., owned a pool room and he literally grew up playing pool.
DiLorenzo is an admirer of old-timers like Willie Mosconi, who was the king of pool from the 1920s to the 1950s and was the technical advisor on Newman’s movie “The Hustler.”
Once, when DiLorenzo was 13 his father brought him to a pool exhibition featuring 9-Ball great and Billiard Congress of America Hall of Famer Allen Hopkins, who ruled the tables from the late 1960s to the 1990s.
DiLorenzo (pictured in above photo in center with Richard Zaccaro holding pool stick and teammate John Hardiman at left) said Hopkins picked him out of the crowd to go head-to-head with the champion in two games of 9-ball.
At age 13, DiLorenzo beat Hopkins in the first game.
DiLorenzo said he would have won the second game, but Hopkins interrupted his concentration at crucial times.
“In the second game there was a lot of table talk,” DiLorenzo said.
While many of the South Shore League’s players aren’t as good as DiLorenzo, many like Avon V.F.W.’s Alsopp believe it doesn’t matter who is more highly skilled or who has won four straight championships, because like in football, you have to sink the shots and play the games to walk away with a win.
“On any given Wednesday any of these teams can beat the other,” Alsopp said.
Any organizations wishing to join the league can contact President Jim Casey at 617-838-9636 or via email at caseyaviation@comcast.net.
For more information about the league, click here for South Shore Pool League.
Interested parties are invited to join players and the league during the All-Star game at the Abington V.F.W. next Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m. There will be food and a cash bar.

25th Brockton High Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday

The BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--The Brockton High School Athletics Hall of Fame will induct 12 new members at a ceremony at the Shaw’s Center in Brockton Saturday, Nov. 20 during a special celebration that will highlight the 25th year of the Hall of Fame honor.
The Class of 2010 inductees include nine athletes, two residents and one coach.
High School Athletic Director Thomas Kenney said in a prepared statement the 12 new inductees embody not only the athletic spirit, but also the educational.
“You look at the names of the athletes, and you think about their impressive athletic careers, but you also think about what great students they were, too," Kenney said. "The inductees are truly chosen for all of the good things they did while at Brockton High – academics, arts and athletics,” he said. “This year is really special because this class is the 25th class to be inducted, and I hope people will celebrate that important milestone with us.”
The 2010 Honorees are:
Residents Thomas Hughes and William Poliseno, and coach Jack Johnson.
Athletes to be inducted are:
Paul Baroncelli – Class of 1988 - Baseball
Jeffrey Pike – Class of 2000 - Swimming
Stephan Smith – Class of 1993 – Cross Country, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track
Nneka Cardoza – Class of 2001 – Softball, Volleyball
Cleveland (Curtis) Jackson – Class of 1986 - Basketball
Peter Giannakoulis – Class of 1990 – Baseball, Football
Lisa (Nolan) Fennessy – Class of 1996 - Volleyball
Richard Wallin – Class of 1949 - Golf
Robert Zurinskas – Class of 1990 – Baseball, Football
The 25th annual BHS Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. at the Shaw’s Conference Center next to the Brockton Rox Baseball Stadium, 1 Lexington Street, Brockton.
Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at the BHS Athletic Office. For more information, please call 508-580-7540.

Zombies "A Scream" in Boston

The BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—When Brockton resident Pat Gorman stepped out of South Station in Boston Tuesday morning, the last thing she expected was to see a man walking off a bus bleeding from a gory wound in his head.
At first, Gorman said, she worried the man needed medical help, but as she walked closer and the man opened his mouth, let out a long groan and waved his arms around, and others just like him filled the streets, she realized something else was going on.
“He started to howl and groan and other people got off the bus and they were covered in blood--I figured out it was a zombie thing,” Gorman said.
Once she knew people were not really hurt, she thought it was a howl—literally.
“It was a scream,” said Gorman, a member of Brockton Garden Club and other community groups.
Gorman, a regular commuter from Montello Station to South Station arrived at about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday morning to walk among the “walking dead,” or hundreds of actors and actresses taking part in a world-wide public relations stunt for a new TV series—not surprisingly called “The Walking Dead” from AMC and Fox International that premieres Sunday night.
The mob of zombies howled, shrieked, and left faux bloody tracks as they made their way from South Station to Boston’s Public Gardens and the State House.
The zombie invasion was held in 25 cities worldwide, including London, England, Hong Kong, China, Bogata, Columbia and Madrid, Spain.
(Photo courtesy AMC)

Spellman V-Ball Evens Cross Town Rivalry

NOTE: Originally posted Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
The Brockton Post
BROCKTON--Cardinal Spellman's girls volleyball team had their revenge against Brockton Monday shutting out their cross-town rivals 3-0 in a powerful performance team members hope will be enough momentum to drive toward a playoff berth and an eventual championship.
"This was a big game for us," said co-Captain Shaylyn Roach, a Spellman senior from Weymouth. "Brockton's a big school and they beat us last week. We just came out and played our game," she said.
Last Wednesday the Boxers beat the Cardinals 3-1 at Brockton High in matches that were hotly contested and decided only by a few points.
Less than a week later and on their home gym, the Cardinals shutdown Brockton's heavy hitters and dominated at the net to take three straight games and improving the team's record to 7-5.
"After last week's loss we talked about stepping up to the challenge and not taking the foot off the gas," said Cardinals coach Ali Gerrish. "All my starters played really well. It was really a team effort," Gerrish said.
On the other side of the court, Boxers coach Jack Olson was completely unhappy with his team's performance.
"They outplayed us," Olson said. "We just waited for them to make a mistake and they never did," he said.
Both coaches said this year is the first year in many that Spellman and Brockton have met on the volleyball court and both sides are enjoying the renewed rivalry.
During yesterday's match while not many spectators watched those who were there made their presence known, especially Whitman's Kelly Ahlstedt, who teammate Molly Anderson gave "a shout out" to for Ahlstedt's steady shout outs and chants throughout the match that gave the non-league game the feel and sound of a playoff match.
The defeat drops the Boxers below .500 to 4-5 and is the team's second loss in as many games after losing Friday's match against undefeated New Bedford.
Brockton faces another tough opponent Friday at Bridgewater-Raynham.
With the win, Spellman looks forward to traveling to Aquinas High School Wednesday and while Coach Gerrish is taking games one at a time, especially against league powerhouses like Bishop Fenwick and Bishop Stang some of the volleyball team's supporters are looking further into the future.
"They're going to win the championship," shouted Meredith McManus, now assistant coach for girls soccer who last year won a soccer championship as a senior. "We got one, now they're going to get one," she said.

Bikers' Roar Fills FD Union Hall

NOTE: Originally posted Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010
Brockton Post
BROCKTON—The deafening roar of thunder surrounded Perkins Avenue and North Montello Street as the gleaming tailpipes and polished leather of hundreds of motorcycles headed to the final stop of the 8th annual Brockton Fire Department motorcycle run for charity.
Two-by-two, riders on Harley Davidson’s, Honda’s, and Kawasaki’s poured into the parking lot next to Brockton Fire Department Local 144’s union hall parking lot on Perkins Avenue.
“We came to support Local 144,” said Roger Poulin, a firefighter from Rhode Island who joined last Saturday’s ride with fellow Rhode Island jake Alan Bova (Pictured below).
While it was their first ride with Fire and Iron—a riding club of Brockton firefighters, families and friends--like many of the participants Poulin and Bova said they are frequent riders on the dozens of fundraising rides that take place throughout the state during motorcycle riding months—usually spring, summer and fall.
Under bright blue skies and white puffy clouds, an estimated 250 to 300 bikes, some carrying double riders, began the ride at Fire Station #6 on West Street adjacent to Campanelli Stadium and rode through the city’s streets for a more than 90 minute ride from Brockton to Halifax, Carver, Plymouth Duxbury, Pembroke and back through the city via the Bridgewaters.
“It was a nice ride,” Poulin said.
Brockton Firefighter Billy Hill, the union’s treasurer, said the last few years rain and threats of rain have marred the ride and fewer bikers joined in, but last Saturday, he believed was the trek’s biggest one since the first eight-years-ago.
“The weather has a lot to do with it, but at last count we had 250 bikes,” Hill said.
He said the ride, which cost $15 is the department’s biggest fundraiser and supports numerous charitable organizations, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
While the riders might think they are having all the fun cruising around the city and the South Shore, many of those who helped set up the tents, tables, beer coolers and other necessities at the Perkins Avenue union hall, were having a good time of their own as they went about their tasks with the day’s band Shoe City Blues cranking music in the background.
“38-24-36,” shouted one of the women pointing out Kathleen Boyer's measurements as she walked toward a tent where a group of women sold T-shirts outside the union hall.
Wearing denim vests with Fire and Iron decals on the back, the women joked and socialized all the while attracting bikers to buy T-shirts or raffle tickets for good causes.
“It’s about having fun and helping out,” Boyer said while simultaneously lighting a cigarette, directing participants to the food line or the beer line and getting a hug from one of many friends.
Boyer, a Pembroke resident and sister of Brockton Fire Lt. James Young, said the Brockton Fire Department joined Fire and Iron about five years ago, and joining the nationwide club is a way for motorcycle enthusiasts to get together and enjoy the sport.
Well-known among the riders, Boyer directed the throngs into the parking lot and jumped into one of two non-motorcycle vehicles that joined the end of the parade: a bright yellow dune buggy and a stealthy, black and red sports car that made its first appearance on the Brockton run.
Some didn’t think the sportscar fit in.
“If you ask me, I think it looks like a tick,” said Donnie Baker, a rider from Brockton who preferred a Harley to the two-seat sports car.
Baker and a group of friends said they were having a great time at the event, however, John Murphy was a little sad because he wished his wife Lorie Anne, who died in 2008 was there.
“She would have loved this. She’d be so psyched,” Murphy said, showing a cross with Lori Anne's name tattooed to his shin.