The news that Jim Noel, an Everett High football player, has signed with noted NFL player agent Sean Stellato certainly brings to all of us a certain degree of pride not only in our Crimson Tide football team, but in the entire Everett school system.
In our view, the opportunity for our student-athletes to excel at Everett High both on and off the playing field is a hallmark of a great educational institution. For decades, Everett High athletes (such as Bobby Leo in the 1960s, who went to Harvard) and others have been able to make the most of their dedication to athletics and academics by enrolling in institutions of higher learning that otherwise may have been unavailable to them but for their prowess on the playing field that gave them an edge over other applicants to those colleges.
Sports nowadays is a huge business, but the bottom line is still the same as it always has been: Excellence in the realm of athletics often begets achievement in other areas of life. General Douglas MacArthur put it well when he was the Superintendent at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point: “On the playing fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that in later years and on other fields will bear the fruits of victory.”
So we congratulate not only Jim Noel who has signed with pro agent Sean Stellato, but also School Superintendent Fred Foresteire and all of the dedicated teachers and coaches in our schools who have done their part to make sure that our student-athletes can be all that they can be.