Talk of the Town

If you guessed that both went undefeated on the way to winning championships in 1972, you guessed right.

Did we say 1972?

Why that was ... like ... 50 years ago, which explains why everyone involved in that storied ’72 season (the Solons, not the Dolphins) are planning to huddle up on Saturday for their perfect run.

Head coach Burt Morrison died in 1994, and will be missed.

We know that Saturday’s 6 p.m. reunion is something of an away game — that will be held at the Barre Elks Club.

Barre is a fitting venue because that 9-0 season included a pair of wins over Spaulding High School, one that kicked off the regular season on the road and the other that ended it at home.

Here’s a lightly edited recap of the perfect season that appeared in the 1993 edition of the “Record,” Montpelier’s yearbook:

Montpelier went into the football season in what was described as a ‘rebuilding year.’ Outside voices had little hope for the Solons after the loss of 16 seniors from the previous year. We had lost 16 seniors, that was a definite fact, but that was not enough to dampen the spirits of the team. What these outside observers did not take into account was that junior varsity members were to move up to fill in the spots left empty by last year’s graduation. This combination was the winning one, and the Mighty Solons finished in a perfect 9-0 season.

Sept. 16 saw the opening of the regular season in a rather lopsided (28-6) victory over the Crimson Tide of Spaulding High. The impressive win set the squad rolling with their sights set on the State Championship. One week later, on Sept. 23, the Solons easily defeated the Little Indians of Rice to the tune of 32-14. On Sept. 29, Montpelier fans crowded the stands in the first night game under the lights on home soil. The multitude was overjoyed as the Solons tripped St. Johnsbury, winning in a 14-6 thriller. On October 7, the team traveled to Lyndon and proved that up-hill fields could not stop the green and white. Montpelier won that contest, 37-6.

Again on home soil, on Oct. 13, the sidelines were crowded for the homecoming weekend. The Bobwhites of Bellows Free Academy proved no match and the Homecoming winning tradition was kept with a 35-8 win that night. On the following Friday the Solons tamed the Tigers of Middlebury with a rousing 32-14 victory. The big game was on Oct. 27, when the Solons clinched the Northern league title in a heavy battle with the determined Seahorses of Burlington High. The Montpelier squad emerged as the victors in an exalted 38-8 win under the lights of the Burlington field.

Nov. 4 saw the close of the Solons’ regular season in the traditional final game with Spaulding High School, this time on home ground. Despite the Tide’s “strange” line-ups and “new” plays, the Solons won the muddy contest, 28-7. The following Saturday, Nov. 11, the unbeaten forces of “Uncle Burt” (Morrison) traveled to Norwich’s Sabine Field to face Rutland High for the State Championship.”

The yearbook doesn’t say so, but they routed Rutland in that Division 1 tilt, 35-6.

Not ‘players only’

MONTPELIER — Before we leave that Solons football that surely was the talk of the town in 1972, we’ve got some fresh details about Saturday’s reunion.

Seems the team’s quarterback, Rex Martin, got the ball rolling on this one from his home in Boca Raton, Florida.

Martin, who sported number 13 back in the day, already is back in central Vermont making last-minute arrangement for a get-together that won’t be a players-only affair.

So says Brenda Dufresne-Benda, who was Brenda Dufresne, when the former cheerleader’s photograph appeared in The Times Argus along with its coverage of that 50-year-old championship game.

Dufresne-Benda grew up in Montpelier and now lives in Barre and says she’ll channel her inner cheerleader, from pleated skirt to pom-poms, on Saturday.

At least 15 of the players (there were nearly three dozen) will be on hand. Peter Hudson is one of them, and he’s planning to bring his wife, Cathi Cody-Hudson.

Cody-Hudson is one of at least two “baton twirlers” that will be in attendance, one of two baton twirlers (Sue Preble is the other). Like cheerleaders and a football team, Montpelier High School once had baton twirlers, and they performed during the championship season.

We’re told the team’s statistician, Tony Segale, also plans to attend, as do a pair of assistant coaches, Francis Brooks and Paul Simpson.

Many of the attendees are planning to swing by Langdon Street Tavern on Friday and some are planning to play golf at the Barre Country Club first thing Saturday morning. All will be at the Elks Club in Barre Saturday night to swap memories of a special season some witnessed on the field and others watched from the sidelines.

Twice is nice

NORTHFIELD — It isn’t as simple as pressing “send,” but for the second time in six years computers collected from area schools will soon be shipped to Tanzania.

Where to start? Or should we ask: “When?”

Let’s go with 2015, which is when, we’re told, Nicole DiDomenico, of the Center for Civic Engagement at Norwich University, reached out to nearby Northfield Middle High School and talked officials into sending students and teachers on a summer service trip to Tanzania.

Northfield history teacher Mike Macijeski was among those who made the trip and, while he was on it, a connection with Shadrack Nyaulingo, headmaster at the Pommerin Secondary School.

The very next year, when Macijeski learned his school was about to replace and recycle some computers, he reached out to Nyaulingo and asked if his school could use them.

The answer from Tanzania was a big “yes,” which explains why 40 used computers that once served students in Northfield were sent halfway around the world where they are still being used by students in Pommerin.

We mention it because history is about to repeat itself in a much bigger way, according to the man who still teaches the subject in Northfield.

Seems a member of the Tanzanian parliament caught wind of the 2016 computer donation and wondered whether another shipment might be made to help other schools, this time in his nearby district of Kilolo. He reached out to the international nonprofit — Upendo Mmoja (that’s “One Love” in English) — DiDomenico helped found a decade ago, and then reached out to Macijeski, who was only too happy to help.

Seems Macijeski spent last school year working his connections (more on them in a moment) collecting 160 soon-to-be-shipped computers, along with 100 laptops chipped in by Norwich University, where they were destined to be recycled.

In a way, they still will be. So will the computers collected and stored at Northfield Middle High School, along with those Amy Urling, of U-32 Middle and High School, and Brian Schwartz, of the Green Mountain Technology Career Center, were able to line up as donations from their schools and add to the mix.

Macijeski enjoyed the steadfast support of Northfield Principal Lee Ann Monroe, who approved a scrap metal drive earlier this year that raised much of the money that will cover the cost of shipping the computing equipment to Tanzania.

“Northfield Middle High School is committed to engaging in community service and increasing our understanding of how we are part of a larger, global community,” says Munroe.

If history is any indicator, and Macijeski is a big believer that it is, hundreds of students and teachers in Tanzania will soon be very appreciative of that commitment.

School work?

MONTPELIER — You can’t take the “Main Street” out of “Main Street School,” but city officials are hoping they can replace the asphalt on Main Street in front of Main Street School without disrupting a school year that officially starts today.

That belief will be put to the test in coming days, as the next phase of road work on the stretch of Main Street that runs from the roundabout, past Main Street School all the way up to Towne Hill Road.

Some have quietly questioned the timing, and those questions could get louder if work that is scheduled to start Monday disrupts the just-launched school year.

City officials say they don’t think that it will and are taking steps to ensure the weather-dependent work will not impact school drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups by largely limiting construction to the window of time when school is in session.

That’s good news for school buses and parents who transport children to and from school.

If Mother Nature cooperates, the work will start at 9 a.m. next Monday and Tuesday when crews hope to complete the Cold-In-Place asphalt recycling on the targeted section of street.

That part of the project will take two days. Wednesday and Thursday have been penciled in as rain dates.

Barring any complications, crews will return for two days after the Labor Day weekend to adjust manholes and other structures in preparation for paving, which is set for Sept. 10.

From Sept. 6-8, crews will be onsite adjusting structures to final grade in preparation for paving on Sept. 10. That’s a Saturday, so school won’t be in session.

The schedule is as school-friendly as it can be while ensuring the work gets done. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some inconvenience associated with ripping up and repaving nearly a mile of Main Street.

Motorists who use that section of Main Street during the day should plan for some delays next week and a detour using Liberty and Heaton streets, Woodrow Avenue and Emmons Street will be in place while work is underway and school is in session.

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