It’s taken over 12 years to reach the summit, but the King Philip Warriors can finally stake a claim to a football state championship. Under the guidance of head coach Brian Lee, the Warriors defeated Reading 21-18 at Gillette Stadium to capture the MIAA Division 1A Super Bowl on December 3, 2016.
Following an undefeated season in which the Warriors captured the Kelley-Rex Division of the Hockomock League behind their aggressive running game, their first high school Super Bowl Championship in school history had to be won in a way in which they were unaccustomed.
After a 79-yard touchdown run by Reading’s Nick DiNapoli, KP junior quarterback Brendan Lydon hit Ethan Dunne for a 14-yard score and scrambled for a 2-yard touchdown, giving the Warriors a 14-6 lead. Reading countered with another touchdown, but again the two-point conversion failed. The Warriors quarterback then hit Brett Mazur for another touchdown, pushing the lead to 21-12 in the fourth quarter. Reading scored once more and this time the point after was no good, accounting for the 21-18 final score.
“Winning the State Championship for the first time was awesome for the boys as well as the school for a lot of reasons. I had alumni reaching out to me from all over the world,” the coach said. “We’ve certainly been a consistent team over the last 10 years, winning 6 Hock titles in a 10-year span; this was just a culmination of all our hard work.”
Throughout the regular season the foundation of the King Philip offense was their running game, but Reading came in with a plan to hold the Warriors and Shane Frommer at bay. On 29 rushing attempts the KP backs could only muster 102 yards, while their aerial attack was clicking as Lydon went 13-18 for 260 yards.
“Coming into this game we had three full weeks to prepare for Reading and the same went for them,” Coach Lee said. “They shut our running game down and forced us to beat them through the air. Our quarterback and receivers came through and now we’re State Champs.”
Prior to the beginning of the season, Lee knew that the team he had was good despite their record from a year earlier, but he also knew that he needed to reestablish their position within the Hockomock League. In order to do so, they would have to regroup and focus at the task at hand.
Senior captain John DeLuca was moved out of the quarterback position and moved to receiver to utilize his talents, while Lydon was given the starting quarterback position.
“John’s ego didn’t get in the way at all, he was fully open to the switch and was looking to do whatever he could to help the team succeed,” Lee said. “In addition to playing receiver for us, he is also our punter, holder, outside linebacker, running back and occasional quarterback.”
While the senior captain was taking his new role in stride, so was the team’s new signal caller.
“Brendan stepped right into his new position with confidence. He didn’t have to be it; we were a senior-laden running team,” the Warrior coach said. “Just because you’re the quarterback doesn’t mean you have to be the leader. We had a phenomenal offensive line of seniors that allowed us to run the ball on everybody we faced, except Reading.”
Although King Philip was able to capture its first state title in school history with Lee, it was something that almost never came to fruition. Twelve years ago Lee took over a team he said was pretty bad, and not just in terms of football. According to the coach, the team was definitely not established and had an attitude, the fields were awful, and everyone expected them to lose.
“The program had some winning teams prior to my getting there, but the culture was not top-notch and there were too many ups and downs,” he said. “I put together an entirely new staff and let everyone play; you’ve got to believe in yourself.”
The freshmen who came out that first year had finally helped turn the program around by the time they played in their senior campaign. The culture had been flipped and success was coming to the football team in Wrentham.
“Football is not just played on the field--there is so much more,” Lee said. “If the athletes won’t listen to you on the field then they’re not listening to their teachers in the classroom. My first year here we had seven academically ineligible athletes and in the second year we had 12 suspended for drug and alcohol use. I needed to make these kids accountable if we were going to have any success here.”
During his third campaign as the Warriors head coach, Lee found his team finishing the regular season with a 2-9 record and he was at his breaking point.
“At that point I was figuring that I just wasn’t the guy to do it and almost walked away,” he said. “However, through all the tough times I did see a lot of positives. We had four losses that year in the final minute just because they didn’t know how to win.”
Lee decided to give it another go and the following year his team went 9-2 and became competitive, and now eight years later the Warriors are Super Bowl Champions with a coach that almost walked away. Instead, he is now responsible for one of the gold banners hanging from the King Philip gym among hundreds of green banners.
Much like his motto--you must commit to your endeavors--that’s just what the newest state champion coach did.
“Commitment is what it is all about. You need to believe in yourself and if you stay out of trouble then success will come,” Lee said. “It’s not all just about focusing on football, but what you do in the classroom that will eventually lead to the field. Anyone can coach these guys.”
Without his dedication to turning the program around, KPHS would be one gold banner short in its gym. But thanks to Lee and his coaching staff, Warrior athletes from all sports can look up at the banners and see how far they have come in order to become champions on and off the field.
Issue Date:
January, 2017
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