Swampscott High School football Head Coach Peter Bush as well as seniors and captains Will Bush and Vaughn Hazel spoke with the Men’s Club at the Senior Center on Thursday about their season so far and what’s to come.
“These guys have followed in the footsteps of the giants that laid the foundation of this program,” Bush said.
The Swampscott boys varsity football team is 3-2 so far this season. The 2025 season began with the challenge of replacing 16 graduating seniors, which Bush said partly contributed to Swampscott’s season-opening loss to St. Mary’s High School. The Lynn-based school shut out Swampscott by 28 points.
“I’d like to say we go into every game fully prepared, but I don’t think we were fully prepared again for that game as we were breaking in a lot of new players,” Bush said. “I don’t think we were necessarily outplayed , I thought we were kind of out coached a little bit. We didn’t really have the kids as ready as they needed to be.”
Bush said the team “quickly rebounded” after that loss. The team won 20-18 against Lynn English High School, 28-6 against Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and most recently 28-22 versus Gloucester High School last week.
Bush said Friday’s game against Winthrop High School is critical.
“You kind of look at the big picture of things, and it was a great win (against Gloucester) but I told the kids this doesn’t mean anything unless we beat Winthrop,” Bush said.
Winthrop is currently 1-4 this season, but Bush warned that the school has “played four incredibly tough teams.”
“We’re similar size-wise, as far as our enrollment goes. I say our kids are a lot tougher, but they’re tough kids. They’re well coached,” Bush said. “It’s two very similar opponents going at it. You can throw the records out. It just basically comes down to who’s going to come out on top.”
But Bush said a lot of the team’s culture and mentality comes from leaders like Will and Vaughn.
“These two young men are great examples of what it means to be from the town of Swampscott,” Bush said. “They’ve been a part of this program for a long time…Both Will and Vaughn have taken the torch that was passed to them from that great group (last year) and they’ve done a great job from the day they stepped in the weight room last December.”
They are “well rounded” with other sports and within the classroom, he said. Will said he hopes to play college football and plans to study strength and conditioning kinesiology and is considering schools like Saint Anselm College, Assumption University and Springfield College. Vaughn is still exploring his options but said he’s interested in Endicott College, where his brother – also a former Swampscott player – currently attends.
Bush also added that he has watched Will and Vaughn playing “as kids coming up through our program.”
“Our youth program is in a great place right now,” Bush said. “Our youth football president Anthony Centola has done a great job.”
The Big Blue Youth was down to just three teams a few years ago, Bush said. Now, however, Centola and his coaching staff has grown it to four playing level structures, with a D-team for third and fourth grade players, C-team for fifth and six, B-team for seventh grader, and A-team for seventh and eighth grade athletes.
“We’re looking forward to that eighth grade group coming up here next year,” Bush said. “I believe our eighth grade team had two tough losses, but they’re definitely going to be in the mixes with the playoffs.”
The game against Winthrop will be played on Friday at 7 p.m. at Swampscott’s Phillips Park Blocksidge Field.
Following Friday’s game, the team has a matchup against Saugus Middle High School on Friday, October 24, another home game versus Salem High School on Thursday, October 30, and a Thanksgiving rivalry game against Marblehead High School on Thursday, November 27.
“Every team has their Thanksgiving game, their rival, and then there’s Swampscott,” Bush said. “When I was coaching at Danvers, there were Thanksgiving Day rivals and the next opponent they circled regardless was Swampscott.”
