Following the abrupt cancellation of Pop Warner last season, the newly launched Charlestown Youth Football is now aiming to bring the sport back for neighborhood youth.
According to Charlestown Youth Football board member John Taglilatela, who served as vice president of Pop Warner between 1995 and 2001, the new program was launched in collaboration with American Youth Football — the nation’s largest youth football and cheering organization. The fledging Charlestown league has received support from AYF and Louis Spano, commissioner of the recently established Northeastern Conference Youth Football League in the towns of Salem, Beverly and Swampscott. AYF and the NECYFL are planning crossover games to provide full schedules for all in this first year, and Charlestown has been invited to join in all aspects of their football and cheering programs, as well as season-ending playoff and cheering competitions, Taglilatela said.
“Charlestown has been part of the Pop Warner organization for well over 35 years, but after careful consideration we have decided to become an independent program within American Youth Football,” Taglilatela said. “AYF is a non-intrusive, non-controlling program, which empowers us to restructure the football and cheerleading programs to best serve the youth of this community. Once we get the program reestablished, we will then begin to educate local communities about establishing a new conference in and around Boston.”
Taglilatela said the mission of AYF is getting kids to play football again and to bring the fun to the game. AYF has three rules — safety, sportsmanship and participation for everyone. Unlike Pop Warner, which imposed a minimum play requirement for less skilled players, AYF emphasizes that everyone gets the same amount of playing time.
“This is not about wins and losses, but providing our players with the foundation of playing the sport, building self esteem and developing life skills,” Taglilatela said. “An educational component is also being planned for tutoring, drug and alcohol awareness, as well as a nutritional program for all.”
In addition, Taglilatela said AYF allows more flexibility with paperwork for registration than Pop Warner did. Unlike before when players were required to submit paperwork from their physicians, doctors must now only sign off on players’ registration forms.
The AYF has also abandoned the age and weight structure adopted by Pop Warner and instead opted for a grade-based, age-protected system. Charlestown Youth Football will have a second-grade instructional team, as well as teams for third- and fourth-graders, fifth- and sixth-graders and a seventh- and eighth graders.
“Grade bases allows players to compete with their peers and allows players who may not meet the weight requirements to play and not have to wait until high school to be exposed to the sport,” Taglilatela said.
The Charlestown Youth Football board of directors is also unique in that there will be no president; instead, it will consist of seven executive directors and eight volunteers.
”The new board of directors is familiar to all of Charlestown, as we are fortunate to have those who manage Little League, Youth Hockey, Girls Hockey, Lacrosse, CYO Softball, the Charlestown Townies and the Community Center collaborating to bring youth football back to Medford Street,” Taglilatela said.
And with games tentatively planned for Friday and Saturday evenings at Charlestown High School’s new athletic field, Taglilatela believes the launch of the new program marks a new start for youth football in Charlestown.
“This is a new beginning, and it is my hope that the entire community supports this effort to return youth football to this neighborhood in our state-of-the-art football facility,” he said.
The first registration for Charlestown Youth Football is scheduled at the Charlestown High athletic facility on Sunday, June 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration forms will be available during the month of June from the Charlestown Community Center, Little League, CYO softball and during Charlestown Lacrosse games. Registration fees are now $25 per player or cheerleader, but a $75 fee will be imposed after Aug. 1 for those who do not register before that time.
The program is also seeking a cheerleading program director and a treasurer. Interested volunteers should contact John Taglilatela at 617-839-8745.

CREDIT: D. Harney

CAPTION: Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino congratulates members of several neighborhood NoDrug coalitions, whose organizations recently received nearly $2 million in state funding for substance abuse prevention efforts. Also joining the mayor were Dr. Barbara Ferrer, (standing on the mayor's left side) executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission; Michael Botticelli, (standing far left) Substance Abuse Services director for the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health; and Ann Mahony (standing second from left, next to Botticelli) from the U.S. government's Substance Abuse & Mental Services
Administration.
Others in the photo, seated from right to left: Patti Conroy,
Beth Rosenshein, Kate McDonough, Deidre Houtmeyers and Katie Portis. Standing from right to left: Jan Quiram, Michael Kozu, Peggy Carolan-Bolognese, Mayor Menino, Barbara Ferrer, Michael Charbonnier, Ann Mahony and Michael Botticelli.

The Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition was recently awarded an $80,000 grant to help prevent opioid overdoses as part of a state Department of Public Health program to fund neighborhood groups working to combat drug and alcohol abuse.
As part of the MassCall2 initiative, the Boston Public Health Commission will receive $2 million in state funding over the course of three years to fight drug and alcohol abuse in neighborhoods throughout the city, with an emphasis on fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses (i.e. heroin, OxyContin) and underage drinking. CSAC was one of four “NoDrug” coalitions to receive a total of $340,000 in first-year funding specifically for opioid prevention programs; the grants awarded to these groups will total $1 million over the next three years.
"The Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition is delighted and honored to have been named as one of the recipients of the MassCall2 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health,” said Beth Rosenshein, director of CSAC. “We would especially like to thank Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare Community Benefit Programs for their ongoing support of our coalition.”
Rosenshein added CSAC has already shown significant results since its establishment in 2004.
“Opiate overdose calls from Charlestown to Boston Emergency Medical Services went down 17 percent from 2003 to 2006, while drug-related mortality rates decreased 41 percent between 2003 and 2005,” she said. “With the Boston Public Health Commission as our partner, the Charlestown community looks forward to continued success in reducing the effects of opiate abuse and addiction through this innovative initiative."
Sen. Anthony Galluccio, who along with State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty wrote letters of support recommending CSAC as a grant recipient, said it is critical to acknowledge opioid abuse at this time, particularly as more users are mixing these and other substances with lethal results.
“It is clear that the challenges facing Charlestown, as well as other communities across Massachusetts, continue to exist and grow in many cases,” Galluccio said. “It is crucial that we support organizations such as the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition in these important efforts, and as a state senator, I will continue to advocate on behalf of the great work that is being done each day in our community.”
Meanwhile, O’Flaherty was pleased that CSAC was selected as a MasCall2 grant recipient and applauded the group’s ongoing effort to fight substance abuse in the community.
“We’re very happy that CSAC has received state funding, and we know it will be put to good use,” O’Flaherty said. “We know that CSAC has been doing very good community outreach work on a very difficult subject – substance abuse.”

Charlestown High School has eliminated its chief administrative officer position due to budget constraints and, in the process, displaced a veteran Boston Public Schools employee who has served in the role since it was created in October 2006.
Michel Allen, who joined the BPS staff in 1989, will hold the chief administrative officer position until the end of the school year. The position was designed to handle non-academic issues at the school, including the discipline of students. Prior to that assignment, Allen served as the director of technical vocational education at Madison Park Vocational School.
The chief administrative officer position was created as part of the implementation of a new security plan at Charlestown High following an incident in which a 15-year-old youth allegedly fired a shotgun at a group of youths outside of the high school on Sept. 28, 2006.
“The mayor and Michael Contompasis (interim BPS superintendent at the time) promised that certain things wouldn’t happen again and that communication would be better with the community as a whole,” Allen said. “My job was to make the sure that the environment [at the high school] was conducive to learning.”
Of the climate at Charlestown High upon his arrival, Allen said: “It was in disarray, and the school culture was a big downside. My job was to eliminate the negative element at the high school.”
In the role, Allen helped furnish the administrative staff with walkie-talkies, addressed public safety issues with Boston Police, worked with the MBTA on truancy watches and implemented the school’s ID and camera systems. He also worked with Charlestown MissionSAFE and the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition and was regularly on hand as the high school representative at B-Smart, Charlestown Neighborhood Council Public Safety Committee and other community meetings.
Allen also wrote the grant to rehabilitate the Charlestown High weight room and reviewed design plans for the school’s new, state-of-the-art athletic fields.
Dr. Margaret “Ranny” Bledsoe, who was named principal of Charlestown High at the beginning of the school year, applauded Allen’s performance as chief administrative officer and said that the school would continue to work with the community following his departure in June.
“Michael was put in as a transitional figure two years ago because the school was perceived as needing additional support,” Bledsoe said. “He was kept on this year, and he’s done a really good job. We’re committed to continuing the outreach work that he has done with the community.”
Ed Grace, chair of the CNC Public Safety Committee, said Allen’s outreach work made the high school a more integral part of the community.
“He was an important asset coming into the community, and he resolved a lot of the longstanding issues with the high school not being a part of the community,” Grace said. “He was out in the street when students were dismissed and worked to address public safety issues at the high school with the police and residents. He felt like he was a part of the community because he was at all the meetings.”
At the May 6 CNC meeting, the Neighborhood Council voted in favor of a motion made by Grace to send a letter to BPS officials praising Allen’s work at the high school.
Meanwhile, Allen said he looks forward to returning to curriculum with BPS, but he still isn’t satisfied with the current environment at the high school.
“I think overall it’s a better environment…but I haven’t accomplished everything I wanted to do here,” Allen said. “It’s not where I wanted it to be.”

CAPTION: Capt. Ed Mancini of The Navigator Club.

After noticing that fewer people had the time or money to maintain their own boats nowadays, Capt. Ed Mancini founded Charlestown-based The Navigator Club in an effort to provide a first-class boating experience for Boston residents in an atmosphere that he describes as “a country club on the water.”
“The Navigator Club has put the fun back in boating by allowing Bostonians the opportunity to enjoy being on the water without having to worry about anything else,” said Mancini, who previously worked as a sales manager and yacht broker for Grady-White Boats. “We are similar to a country club – in which we have a strong sense of community among the members, fantastic boats and first-rate facilities.”
With corporate offices on Warren Street and water-based operations at the Constitution Marina in the Navy Yard, The Navigator Club had its official launch on May 1. Its fleet presently includes Grady-White and Boston Whaler powerboats, which members can reserve after completing a boat safety training program consisting of four hours of classroom training and one-on-one instruction on the water with Capt. Paul Croteau, The Navigator Club’s director of training.
“Our goal is not to quickly pass people through and get them out,” Mancini said of the training program. “There is no time limit for training. We want them to be comfortable and confident on the water.”
Besides safety, Mancini said The Navigator Club also emphasizes service for members, including insurance, slip fees, maintenance, storage, cleaning and complimentary parking. Provisions, fishing equipment and any other special requests are also available through the club’s concierge service for additional fees.
“Service is imperative because if boating is aggravating and time consuming, people aren’t going to do it,” Mancini said.
Members are also given access to all services at the Constitution Marina on the day of their reservations, including its swimming pool, sundeck, bathrooms, locker rooms and barbeque stations.
“As a member, you become a part of the community down there,” Mancini said.
The Navigators Club offers a variety of different membership options, including individual, family, corporate, weekday and rolling 12-month packages. Membership is limited to 25 for 2008, however.
For more information on The Navigator Club, call Capt. Ed Mancini at 617-880-2525 or visit www.thenavigatorclub.com on the Web.