Senior citizens ready to cheer on team

Courtesy of John Minch, Sentinel and Enterprise

FITCHBURG -- Anthony "Biz" Bizzotto strolled into the lunch room at Golden LivingCenter on John Fitch Highway, sat next to Pam Moison and quickly fell into a conversation about the city neighborhood known as The Patch.

"All Italians, they call it The Patch, Little Italy; this is where I come from," said Moison who lives at the nursing home and wore green beads in honor of the visiting football team.

She declined to say how old she is.

Bizzotto, 22, of Leominster, a colorful 230-pound linebacker at Fitchburg State College, has a tattoo memorializing his sister across his muscular left arm and a shaved head with only the silhouette of a falcon left on the back of his head.

"People say it looks like a sparrow or sea gull, but I don't mind. I can't see it," he said.

About 20 players, coach Paul McGonagle and Athletic Director Sue Lauder visited the center, where the lunch tables were decorated with megaphones and pompoms in the team's green and gold colors.

"I can't believe you all came," said Chris Ganoe, the activities director at the center. "This is fabulous."

The center plans to send some residents to each of the team's home games this year as a cheering section starting with the game against UMass Dartmouth Sept. 19.

"I'll be the cheerleader, I won't get up and kick the football," said Dorothy Lapierre, 89, of Leominster, who has lived at the center about two 1/2 years.

She and Barbara Cormier, 63, talked with Matt Brown, 21, a 6-foot 225-pound left tackle from South Boston, who looked as if he was having a good time.

"I'm a big fan of doing community projects," Brown said

The college is expanding its community outreach this year, Lauder said. 

"It's a good connection; it's good for our kids and it's good for the residents," she said. "It's good developmentally for our kids, to know that this is something we need to be able to do, go in and talk to folks."

James Walcott, 81, and his wife Roberta Walcott, 78, talked with offensive lineman Kevin Blanchard, 21, of Naugatuck, Conn. and defensive end Steve Witherell, 21, of Brattleboro, Vt.

James Walcott is a big football fan who said he is looking forward to taking part in the cheering section.

"I like the players and atmosphere," he said.

Dale Whittredge, 21, a strong safety from Haverhill, and Ryan O'Neil, 21, an offensive lineman from Worcester, met with Lauri Seila, 72, who said he will try to get to a game this year.

Whittredge who is a history major, said he enjoyed sitting down to learn about Walcott's past.

"I've always been a fan of learning from the past, being a history major and all. It's nice to hear different sides of things and stuff like that," Whittredge said. "He went to school in Gardner; he used to scuba dive and catch lobsters, he's big into that; he said his father played football for Fitchburg (high school) when he was a little guy, so that was pretty neat."