“Bert” Spofford was a baseball coach at AHS for 9 years. He brought respectability back to AHS after some down years. He was much more than a coach. His folksy wisdom was a trademark of Bert’s, always a great storyteller.
His ability to relate to kids was unmatched. He had a way of getting his point across without raising his voice or talking down to someone. His ability to relate to pitchers was amazing. A great athlete in his own right, Bert himself, was a great pitcher. He played football, basketball, and baseball at Georgetown High School. He then went on to Sanborn Seminary Prep school and played all three sports. At the Seminary he struck out 156 batters in 105 innings. After Prep School he went on and pitched and graduated from Cornell University.
His teams at AHS were always competitive. They regularly made the states and in 1977 advanced to the State Finals and sectional finals in 1979.
Several years later, Bert became an assistant coach for Jerry Mondalto. He has this to say about Bert: I played one summer for Bert.” I knew him as Dickie’s Dad, the guys from Georgetown. I was not around when Bert coached at the high school much, but I followed him after he retired. Bert was the connection for a lot of us that played baseball in the area, the connection to the past. Baseball being a game of stats and history, he could talk about our fathers, because he saw some of them play. That was a big deal to hear a story about a play or a game your dad played in. Remember that back then, not too many photos and definitely no videos were taken in the 30’s and 40’s. Any of us that loved baseball enjoyed hearing the names of the past, and in the next breath he would be talking about the current day players.
To have him on the bus with the team was special, in the dugout or sitting in his purple car reviewing the stats after the game. Whatever game it was that day was the most important game to him. He made everyone on the bus feel it and you know what? The best part was the respect the young kids who didn’t know him showed him every day.
“We all have Bert stories. One of my favorites was a game against Lynnfield. Bottom of the 6th, game tied at 2. We have a man on 3rd with 1 out. We decided to run the squeeze play as the 3rd baseman is playing deep, when out of our dugout you hear yell (he had 2 hearing aids and couldn’t hear well), good time to squeeze with the 3rd baseman playing so deep! Yep, the 3rd baseman moved in and we called off the play! That was Bert!”
Bert also ran the Park program for the kids in the summer for many years. He was always a hands-on guy, not one to delegate to others. He was always there for the kids.
Bert was also a historian. Bert painstakingly went to the library for 4-5 days a week to record the history of AHS football, baseball, basketball, and hockey.
He did this by digging into old newspapers, microfiche, and yearbooks. He started this from the 1st year of AHS. He also did this for Georgetown and Newburyport as well. This was all done by hand!
The AHS Athletic Hall of Fame would not be here today if not for his tireless work. We, who love AHS athletics, all owe him a debt of gratitude for the incredible job he did.
In his later years, he said the greatest reward was all the former players who would stay in touch. Whether it be a phone call or seeing him at the park watching a game or even at the gym in the winter at basketball games, it always brought a big smile to his face.
It is with great pride and appreciation, we induct Bert Spofford into the AHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
