With the exuberance and pandemonium of the Winthrop High hockey team’s Division 4 State Championship last week having calmed down a bit, we’d like to take a moment to reflect upon what truly was a monumental achievement by head coach Dale Dunbar and his Viking crew.
Winthrop entered the tourney as the #5 seed and survived some close calls in the early rounds of the tourney, including a 4-3 win over #28 Apponequet in the Round of 32 and then a 3-2 victory over #12 Norwell in the Sweet 16.
But as often is — and must be — the case during a team’s championship run (at any level in the sports world), as the competition grew tougher, so too did the Vikings. Their wins by scores of 4-0 over #4 Littleton in the Elite 8, 5-1 over #1 Stoneham in the Final Four semifinal, and then 3-0 over #6 Dedham in the championship game were indicative of a team that came together and peaked at the right time as they rose to surmount new challenges at every step of the way along their championship path.
The Winthrop High hockey program has been among the most successful in Massachusetts for decades, but it has been almost five decades (49 years in 1976, to be precise) since the Vikings have earned a return trip to Boston Garden to bring home a state title.
We offer our congratulations to head coach Dunbar, assistant coach Mike Norris, and a staff that includes Mike Eruzione, Phil Lundberg, Chris Finn, Billy Hayes, and Ryan Skoczylas, whose incredible coaching skills were evident during the championship run.
But as even the best of coaches will acknowledge, it is the players who must execute and perform — and every Viking who took to the ice in the tourney played both selflessly and flawlessly to help their team achieve the pinnacle of success.
We also want to acknowledge the incredible support of the legion of Winthrop fans and the Winthrop student body who packed all of the tourney venues to root on their Vikings. Indeed, It seemed as though the entire town turned out at the Garden for the title game in boisterous support of their heroes.
The achievements of the 2025 state title team are now in the history books — and will live forever in Winthrop High sports annals.
But more importantly, we have no doubt that as each and every young man on this team matures into adulthood, they will recall the invaluable lessons they learned this year: With dedication, hard work, and teamwork, great things are possible.
It is on occasions such as these that we are reminded of the words of General Douglas MacArthur (when he was serving as the Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point prior to WWII) and his view about the value of athletic competition:
“On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and on other fields will bear the fruits of victory.”