This has been one of the most exciting winters in Revere High School basketball history.
The Revere High girls basketball team, under first-year head coach Lianne O’Hara, became the biggest story on the North Shore, accumulating 18 consecutive victories while earning the No. 1 ranking in the state.
While the girls were excelling, first-year coach David Leary and the Revere boys were building momentum and pursuing a goal that hadn’t been achieved in the program’s previous 17 years: a berth in the State Tournament.
Leary never stopped believing that his team was of championship and state tournament caliber, and the players bought in to his system. Revere put together a streak of excellence that has carried it in to the post season as one of the hottest teams in the region.
Director of athletics Frank Shea has been a constant source of support and encouragement to the two programs. It was Shea who appointed coaches O’Hara and Leary to their respective positions and he deserves credit for bringing in such highly capable and hard-working individuals who have set a great example with their dedication to their responsibilities.
We congratulate coaches O’Hara and Leary, their staffs, and their players for their outstanding seasons to-date.
We hope that the community will continue to support these teams as the time of the year, affectionately known as March Madness, begins next week.
We remember the powerful boys teams of the early 1970s under coach Buddy O’Neill – we believe that Revere officials once had to close off the Whelan School gymnasium because so many fans wanted to see the Revere-Somerville game.
In the late 1990s, Revere became a tournament team under coach Tony Ferullo.
The Ed Leyden-coached girls teams in the mid-1980s were perennial GBL contenders. Former coach Diana Finn led Revere High team to an undefeated regular season just a few years ago.
Basketball fever is back in the city and that’s great news.
