LYNN — The Harry Agganis National Hellenic Invitational Basketball Tournament carries a rich tradition in the St. George Greek Orthodox Church community.
It stresses the true meaning of community and sportsmanship while keeping legacy of Lynn’s “Golden Greek” alive.
One of the tournament’s highlights is the presentation of The George K. Mazareas Recognition Award. Established in 2006, the award singles out individuals who display tremendous passion, courage and maintain competitive spirit, as Mazareas did, and still does, as he battles ALS. A former Lynn School Committeeman, Mazareas played college basketball at Tufts and professionally in Greece.
This year’s award was presented Saturday to Steve Bulpett at St. George Community Center’s Agganis Gymnasium.
Bulpett, a Lynn native and Swampscott High graduate, is former teammate of Mazareas’.
“First of all, to me, the award’s about George,” Bulpett said. “I have my name on it this year but the award was, is and always will be about George. He’s a lifelong friend and that’s what it means to me. And when I come back here every year, it’s coming back home again.
“We played together from intramural basketball at St. George, through the GOYA Leagues, Park League. My last year at Swampscott was George’s sophomore year. We hung out a lot that year. He was always an amazing person.”
Bulpett, who lives in Nahant, graduated from University of Dayton with a degree in journalism. He’s in his 34th season as a Celtics beat reporter for the Boston Herald. He said he found his passion for basketball at St. George.
“Growing up, (the Agganis Tournament) was the big thing as far as basketball,” Bulpett said. “As kids who played here five, six times a week, this is what we grew up wanting to do. The competition, the teams would come in from New York, Chicago, Boston, Peabody, Lynn. The crowds were amazing.
“Having Harry Agganis as an ideal for the community’s something that I don’t think can ever be measured. It’s important that the legacy gets passed down.”
For Bulpett, the award represented a team effort. He accepted the award alongside a handful of his former St. George teammates who were in attendance Saturday.
“I asked a bunch of them to back here for this,” Bulpett said. “It’s great to be around teammates. We share that but we also share our Greek heritage and what that means, what it meant to our parents and grandparents that we were playing ball at the church. I’m sure they hopefully, in some way, still understand that we’re still involved.”
With an up-and-down, inconsistent season, the Celtics have fans feeling uneasy as the playoffs near. Bulpett said he felt they were in for a tough road but believes they can steer the ship in the postseason if they play to their capabilities.
“In professional sports all you’re promised is that season,” Bulpett said. “With the possibility of a major injury happening you’re not necessarily even promised that. There were people playing in different directions sometimes this year. They need to realize that this is what they have and if they don’t embrace the talent they have, they’re going to look back and say ‘man, we screwed that up.’ With the talent they have they certainly have the ability to accomplish the goals they set out with. They haven’t shown us any evidence of that in a consistent manner. We’ll see how far it goes.”
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In the Agganis Tournament’s girls division, Chicago (Papaflessas) defeated St. George of Lynn, 46-27,
Leading scorers for the Chicago were Frankie Kokkines (19 points), and Georgia Alexakos (15) while St George was led by Nikki Tsiotos (12) Natashia Maniatis( 9)
In the boys division, Chicago got off to a quick lead, building at one point a 16 point lead behind the 3 point shooting of Alex Vlahos. Trailing at the half, St Nick’s of New York came out with a very aggressive man-to-man defense and behind the shooting of Chris Rouzanous to take the lead at the three-minute mark. Clutch foul shooting and continued hard-nosed defense made the difference in the end as St Nick’s defended its title, 82-76.
High School All Stars were: Alexi Vlahos (Chicago) Dean Kritikos (Chicago) Chris Rouzanous (NY) Greg Pepedonis (NY) L. Stegenovich (NY), with Rouzanous named the MVP,
The Pastor’s Award, given by the Rev. Fr George Tsoukalas, went to Alexi Vlahos of Chicago.
In the Men’s Division, the St George team had a fairly easy run to the Championship game beating Brooklyn NY and Weston, Ma. While first-time finalist Roslindale made it to the final by taking out St Vals of Peabody and Whitestone NY in a thrilling overtime game.
In the men’s championship, tournament MVP Tom Pappas (20) and Jack Poulo (18) led the way for St George while Roslindale was kept in the game behind the shooting of Peter Tsagaroulis (26)
The all-stars were Dino Mallios (St George) Jack Poulo (St George) Matt Seferin (Roslindale) Peter Tsagaroulis, with Tom Pappas named MVP.