Holloway and Curtatone round out high profile staff

By Jack Nicas

To an impartial observer, they’re just two dedicated coaches working to help their team win. However, to the trained eye of a Somervillian, they’re two of the city’s top officials, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Police Chief Anthony Holloway, on the field coaching the city’s kids.

For the first time in Curtatone’s 10 years as an assistant coach of Somerville High School’s football team, he’s being joined by another influential citizen of the city. Chief Holloway said Curtatone mentioned his position with the team in passing one day and Holloway immediately saw an opportunity to give back to the community.

‚ÄúI just asked if I could come out there to be there and talk with the kids,‚Äù he said, ‚Äúbecause it’s really all about them.‚Äù

Junior linebacker Erick Flores said the chief’s involvement is helping change stereotypes. ‚ÄúSometimes people say, ‘Oh, I hate cops,’‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúBut [Holloway] is out here taking his own time to help us.‚Äù

Head coach Harry Marchetti said the chief’s presence is a great influence on the kids. ‚ÄúThere’s a lot of tough situations and backgrounds here,‚Äù he said, ‚Äú and then they see the police chief here, in a different light, as a human being who cares about them. How does that not impact them?‚Äù

However, to Holloway and Curtatone, their off-field jobs are meaningless once they step on the field. ‚ÄúI don’t want you calling me mayor,‚Äù Curtatone said he tells his players. ‚ÄúAnd [Holloway] joked with them, ‘You call me coach; only call me chief if you’re in the back of my cruiser.’‚Äù

Holloway said, ‚ÄúI’m not asking them information, what’s going on in the neighborhood, who’s selling drugs. I’m there for them.‚Äù

‚ÄúWhen the whistle blows, they’re totally different people,‚Äù said senior offensive lineman Duvinson Norestant. ‚Äú[Curtatone’s] not the mayor, he’s the coach to us,‚Äù Flores added.

Both men share football backgrounds, excelling in the sport as high schoolers. Holloway said he played linebacker and tight end at his Florida high school, while Curtatone specialized at the skill positions. He said he played for Somerville High in the early 1980s as a quarterback, running back and wide receiver.

Two years after graduating, Curtatone, who’s now the team’s offensive coordinator, said he signed on as a volunteer assistant coach with Somerville High in 1986. Since then he said he’s been coaching ‚Äúboys and girls athletics for the past 20 years.‚Äù

‚ÄúIt’s a big commitment, but I love doing it,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúTo me it’s personal gratification. I love being the mayor, but if I could do anything full time, it’d be coaching athletics.‚Äù

He said his commitment is one that lasts a lifetime. ‚ÄúI don’t want to be just someone who passes through their life,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúI want to earn their respect and I want to be there for them 24/7.‚Äù With that philosophy, the mayor said he’s gained ‚Äúhundreds of younger brothers‚Äù through coaching football.

Some of those “younger brothers” have gone onto the NFL and others have come back to Somerville to work in the Department of Public Works or as policemen, Curtatone said. However, he said all of them “have taken that positive experience of hard work and applied it in their lives.”

To see that happen is the biggest symbol of the mayor’s success, he said. ‚ÄúAs a coach you have to be a teacher, an instructor and a mentor. This is a classroom on life. If at the end of the day we can help a young person become a positive citizen, then we’re doing our job.‚Äù

As coaches, Holloway and Curtatone seem to be doing their job. Flores said the team was “ready to go” for their season opener against Greater Lawrence Tech Friday night and that if they stay committed, “we can do some damage.”

Yet as mentors, the two are going above and beyond the call of duty. “They want us to do well,” Norestant said, “and they really care about us.”