EVERETT – Justin Flores’ first audible wasn’t the most popular one, but proved to be the most prudent course of action.
The first-year Everett football coach debated whether to tempt fate and hold the team’s first practice outdoors as regularly scheduled or play it safe and move things indoors in the event of rain. Flores opted for the latter and it turned out to be a wise move as the skies opened up just as practice began and rained for the better part of 45 minutes, flooding some of the roads around Everett Memorial Stadium.
“It was 9:30 in the morning and I was thinking where to practice because of the weather,” said Flores, who accepted the job in late June. “When I told the guys we were going to be in the gym, they weren’t happy because they wanted to practice outdoors, but I explained the situation and that we needed to reserve the gym then or someone else would take it.”
The opening day wasn’t as fluid as Flores would have liked, but the 31-year-old Woburn native certainly didn’t let that bother him. As players flocked into the gym, they were greeted with a neatly printed one-page itinerary of the day’s scheduled events.
“(Coach) has fit in well, the kids really like him,” said senior linebacker Dominic Papa. “Even though he’s not from Everett, he is a city kid (Woburn) like us and understands things.”
When Rob DiLoreto stepped down as head coach in late March, it was widely assumed that his replacement would come from Everett. The last time the school went outside the city to hire a football coach was back in 1926 when Boston native Denny Gildea came over from Leominster High and spent the next 28 years guiding the Crimson Tide to 167 wins.
That didn’t deter Flores, who previously served as an assistant coach at the University of Maine, from tossing his hat into the ring for the job. One member of the search committee was current Everett All-Scholastic wide receiver Christian Zamor, who wanted to make sure Flores wasn’t going to use the highly-sought-after job as a resume builder.
“I asked him if he wanted to be here and not look at this as a stepping stone,” said Zamor, who has committed to play his college football at Boston College. “He said he wants to come here and help us become better players.”
Flores is fully aware that he isn’t an Everett guy, but he has wasted little time in making his presence felt around the community. In some ways, he sees a lot of advantages in learning on the fly.
“I found out that Everett isn’t as big as I thought. You can get around the city pretty quickly,” Flores said. “I’ve reached out to the Pop Warner coaches and the younger kids in the programs so they can get to know me.”
As the players filed in for the opening practice of the Flores Era, they all arrived with the same goal in mind. It’s a goal that hasn’t changed one bit through the years.
“Coach has the same goal that we have.” Zamor said. “He wants to win and we want to win.”
