Michael Santoian This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Watertown Football

   www.watertownraiders.com/HOF/M - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/8/2007   Last Visited: 12/4/2007

   Michael Santoian
   
   Mike Santoian grew up playing "Kill Donnie," which sounds rather nasty until you discover that the intended victim was Don Chiofaro, then-captain of the Harvard football team, and well able to withstand the assaults of a small gang of ten year old boys.
   ...
   "He threw us around like rag dolls," Mike remembers. If nothing else, it made him want to be a football player.
   
   And a little later, he was. At Victory Field, Mike would soon give the rag doll treatment to a wide range of opposing players.
   ...
   Mike was a key part of that on the line, a Middlesex League All-Star and Boston Herald All-Scholastic. In one game against Reading he blocked three punts, a Middlesex League record. In the 50th playing of the Thanksgiving game versus Belmont, Mike helped "put Belmont's running game to shame" as Watertown's front four turned in "its best game of the season," as one local scribe noted. Later in the game Mike deflected a pass to Bob Poirier, who made it all the way to the Belmont seven yard line, setting up a key score in a 28-6 victory.
   ...
   Mentored by Bill Flecca and by seniors John Mooshigian and Hall of Famer Jay Luck, Mike learned the techniques of the field events from the best.
   ...
   After graduation from Watertown High in 1972, Mike went on to the Winchendon School on a full scholarship. There he studied hard and played hard too, earning the school's MVP in football and most-improved award in swimming. He was recruited by a number of colleges and wound up at Northeastern, eventually earning a full scholarship and playing alongside friends like Manny Bougoulas, Rich Morrill, and Eddie Kasabian. After a strong minicamp in the spring of 1975 he wound up as the starting left defensive tackle, a job he never let go. He was game captain for a key matchup with Springfield and in 1975 won the team's "unsung hero" award for his work in the trenches.
   
   Since 1979, Mike has worked for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, currently as a Lieutenant and the training officer for MCI-Concord. He's involved in the community as a Pop Warner coach, a church trustee, and a family man, thanks to his wife Kathy and children Michael and Lauren - themselves promising athletes.

2. 2. Watertown Football

   www.watertownraiders.com/news_ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/12/2006   Last Visited: 12/4/2007

   Antonellis also thanked his friends, the "big four," of Dom Lalli, Rich Merullo and Mike Santoian, who were close in high school and have become closer over time.