1995 Boys Team Always Will Be a State Champion

 It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since that incredible run to the Division 3 state championship by the 1995 Winthrop High School boys basketball team. What a joy it is to read in this week’s Sun-Transcript about that memorable march to the title, notably the win over Cohasset in the Boston Garden and the victory over Sutton for the crown.

Todd Doherty’s clutch, dramatic three-pointer from the corner left of the basket will stand as one of the greatest shots in school history. Anthony Poto delivered a perfect pass to Doherty, who unhesitatingly launched the key shot that swished through the net and sent the game into overtime. But the victory over a tall and powerful Cohasset contingent was a team effort all the way.

And just like Mike Eruzione and the 1980 Olympic team had to go on and defeat Finland in the gold medal game, so, too, did the 1995 Winthrop team have to travel to Worcester to play an undefeated Sutton team for the state title. Winthrop won in impressive fashion and the 1995 team secured its place in WHS annals forever — alongside the 1963 boys basketball team, the 1976 hockey team, the 1980 baseball team, the Super Bowl championship squads coached by Bob DeFelice and Tony Fucillo, and later the 2011 basketball state champions coached by David Brown. Ron Spinney’s Lady Viking basketball team won an Eastern Mass. title with an incredible win over Westwood in the early 1980s, but there was no state championship game that season.

Interestingly, Winthrop would not even have been playing in the Boston Garden were it not for a great and gutsy move by head coach Peter Grimes to opt up from Division 4 to Division 3, so his players could have the opportunity to advance to the Garden for the Division 3 state semifinal game. It was the final year for the historic Boston Garden — the Fleet Center opened the following year. The player owe a big “thank you” to coach Grimes for not only having the confidence in them that they could play in and win in the higher division, but as it turned out, providing the one of the most memorable experiences of their high school careers.