RallyNorth.net

Staying super in Swampscott

Friday, November, 30 By Alan Burke
Staff writer

Tomorrow, coach Steve Dembowski and Big Blue, the Swampscott High School football team, will be at Gillette Stadium, marching off the same yards that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots have made sacred to the region's football congregation.

It's the third high school Super Bowl appearance for Dembowski, 37, in just nine years. Ask him about it, and he hurries to give credit to his staff and players. "These are the things we're most proud of," he said. "The players we've produced."

And he cites the importance of football in Swampscott. "You're always hearing about 1972. That team went 10 and 0." Which is not to mention the locals who went on to play in the NFL.

"The kids know about the traditions," Dembowski said, "and they want to be part of them."

Among the standout alumni of the Big Blue program are present Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron, a former defensive back for the Detroit Lions and the Cincinnati Bengals; Billy Adams, who played for Buffalo in the 1970s; Tommy Toner, who played five seasons for the Green Bay Packers; and Ed Toner Jr., who played with the Colts and Steelers in the early 1990s.

But the fact is Dembowski himself has become a man to be reckoned with on Saturday afternoons partly by veering just a little bit from the norm.

"I have a different lifestyle," he said. His only current connection to the school is football. He's not a teacher, nor a guidance counselor.

Off the gridiron, Dembowski is a successful financial planner and investment adviser -- so successful that he can slip away during football season to work 12-hour days and earn $8,200 for the season as coach.

"We don't do it for the money," he said. After leading his boys through yesterday's vigorous practice, he added, without irony, "I'm on vacation from work."

Preparation is the secret of his success. It's an area where his work as a financial planner crosses into football. "You can do whatever you want when the stock market is good or the team is moving the ball down the field," he says. "But when things go bad -- you better have a plan." Dembowski doesn't weigh his words as he speaks.

"I always say what I think," he said. "I don't really hide my opinions. I'm just trying to be honest. I think it's the best policy."

But it's not without its risks and when pressed he acknowledges, "I'm not always a choirboy. If people don't like my opinions I always say, 'I'm in charge. We're going to do it my way.' If they don't like it, they can get somebody else."

The focus that football requires | especially the daily commute through Boston from the South Shore town of Milton | is time-consuming and tough on his family. Dembowski praised his wife, Kristin, for her patience. While he's on the field, Kristin is taking care of daughters Anna, 3, and Kate, 1.

"She makes a lot of sacrifices so I can do this," Dembowski said.

Dembowski is a Swampscott native with a Swampscott family. His father, Henry, is a one-time Marblehead superintendent and current educational consultant, while his mother, Claire, sells real estate. At Swampscott High, Steve played running back and linebacker, glamour positions. But the accolades and awards aren't what he remembers.

"It was playing with my brother (Dave) at my side," he said, "... one of the highlights of my career."

Football got tougher when he moved to UMass Amherst, but not being a star let him learn a lot more about the nuances of the game, he said. Some of those lessons he's taken with him to Swampscott, winning 67 games and losing only 35 throughout his career.

On the other hand, he realizes that while not everyone can play football, it sometimes seems that everyone has an opinion about how to play football. Dembowski knows what he's in for when he walks into the Dunkin' Donuts.

"When you're a football coach everyone is going to second guess you."

But it's unlikely he's hearing from many critics this year. To the contrary, some Swampscott fans might be worrying over how much longer they can keep their coach.

Not to worry, Dembowski said. He has no ambitions beyond Swampscott High.

"To coach at the college level would take too much time, and it would mean too much travel," he said, his voice fading a bit. "At least not at this time in my life."