Marty Pierce thought it was only fitting to attend his granddaughter’s high school softball game Wednesday afternoon, supporting her during a tough time.
Mount Alvernia faced the St. Joseph Prep/Matignon co-op, in which the latter joined the other two on Tuesday as announced Catholic schools that would close at the end of the academic year. Enrollment has been low, and Matignon is shutting down due to a lack of funding.
It’s natural for the iconic former Matignon boys hockey head coach to be affected by the news, having orchestrated a dominant 40-year run that produced 10 state championships and 20 league titles. The program was nationally regarded as a juggernaut from the 1970s through the early ’90s. He can still describe with great detail the many moments that defined the historic stretch before he retired in 2004, and along with it, the many big names that came through the program before playing Div. 1 collegiate hockey. Many also advanced to the NHL.
“I was shocked that they closed. I feel mixed emotions of the closings of all these Catholic schools,” Pierce said. “I’m very, very proud of Matignon High School, I was there for 40 years. I had many great athletes, student-athletes. I was proud and honored, and considered it always, always a privilege to be their coach. All of those times were magical. Just magical times, just enjoyable times.”
While the list goes on about what the community is losing from the Catholic schools’ closures, one of the biggest disappointments comes within the scope of boys hockey history. It’s been a while since Matignon rocked Boston Garden, but the impact of its accomplishments over three different decades under Pierce has an incredibly far reach.
Very few could disrupt the Arlington reign under fellow coaching icon Ed Burns. Come the mid-1970s, a new titan had arrived under Pierce. A large wave of talent poured in, and his teams caused chaos on the way to state championships in 1975 and 1977. Every other year until the turn of the decade, they were the runners-up.
“Matignon was the first Catholic power in the mid-70s that went on one of those runs,” said Arlington coach John Messuri. “I think one year, all nine of their forwards played Div. 1 college hockey. Other programs started to build off of that.”
With many more high school hockey games being played at Boston Garden than there are today at TD Garden, aspiring hockey players filled the stands to witness the program’s greatness. “Marty’s Mohawks” enamored hockey fans with their unique hair style and overwhelming dominance, winning five straight state titles from 1980-84.
Not even the 1982 Acton-Boxboro team, loaded with future NHL players Bob Sweeney and Tom Barrasso, could stop them in that run. By 1984, about a dozen of Matignon’s players were committed to Div. 1 colleges. When the program missed the state title game in 1985, it was the first time it didn’t make it in 10 years.
“I went to those games (even before playing),” said Suffolk men’s hockey head coach Shawn McEachern, Matignon class of 1988 before playing at Boston University and spending 13 seasons in the NHL. “Incredible games. Incredible. The thing about playing at Matignon is that everybody that went there to play, that was the ultimate goal to play for Marty. Marty was a master motivator, he got guys riled up and excited to play the game.”
Watching his older brother’s Arlington team take on Matignon as a youngster inspired Messuri before he embarked on his own well-decorated hockey career as a player and coach. Back before legendary coach Bill Hanson’s Catholic Memorial Knights dominated the scene to eventually help claim the most championships in state history, he was in awe of the opposing powerhouse.
“When I grew up coaching, I wanted to be Marty Pierce,” Hanson said. “Everybody aspired to be him because he was a class guy and a great coach. To see something like that break down and close is disheartening.”
Arlington Catholic, under former longtime head coach Dan Shine, caught up to Matignon throughout that long stretch to create some epic matchups. Hockey had become a large part of both schools’ identities, along with the other sporting events between the two.
“We’re probably only three miles apart, it was the battle of Massachusetts Avenue,” Shine said. “It was a great rivalry, the games would be sold out, two or three hours before game day. If you didn’t get there two hours before the game, you weren’t getting in.”
Both were bumped down to Div. 2 in the mid-80s purely based on the size of the school, and that set the stage for Matignon to win two more titles in 1987 and 1988. Between the two of them, Catholic Memorial and the other Catholic Conference powers, the Catholic schools’ reign forced the creation of the Super 8 in 1991. Matignon never went on to win it, but reached the final in 1992 and 1996, and won the traditional state title again in 1993.
To think that Matignon played a major factor in two major shifts within the sport’s local history, to now no longer have a school, is a tremendously difficult pill to swallow.
“It’s a sad day,” said Merrimack College director of men’s ice hockey operations Bob Emery, Matignon Class of 1982 before playing at Boston College. “My years in high school are my best hockey years, for sure.”
“It’s just sad to see it go because back in the 80s, it was such a fun place to be,” McEachern said. “The school, they took such pride in the tradition of the hockey program. When you win the state title at Matignon, there’s no school the next day. We rode on two firetrucks through Cambridge to Matignon, where the whole student body would be waiting for us.”
What it accomplished, though, will never disappear. And Pierce has nothing but pride in providing such a historic identity for the small school.
“There certainly is,” he said. “There was nothing like it.”