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Book Recaptures Championship Magic
By J. Michael Whalen
Times Staff
8/6/09
He’s always been on top of the action. It’s just that the action is now on the field or the court, as opposed to the city streets.
Roy Chambers, a retired Boston police sergeant, traded in his badge for a camera several years ago, and his presence on the sidelines of Milton High School sporting events has become a welcome sight to the teams he covers. When he covers games, students in the stands will often shout, “Roy! Roy! Roy!” until he takes their photo.
His latest labor of love, a book titled “Milton Wildcats: MIAA Division II State Basketball Champions 2009” (published by Blurb Inc.), captures all of the excitement of the team’s championship season in pictures.
Putting together the book – which features more than 300 photos from the Wildcats’ playoff match-ups with Catholic Memorial and Woburn, as well as the title game against Hoosac Valley – made its creator reflect upon all he witnessed during the season.
“Early on, I realized the boys’ team was very good,” said Chambers, a frequent contributor to the Times who has shot a variety of boys’ and girls’ teams for Milton High. “The whole team just gelled together. And I’m sure Coach [Sean] LoPresti was seeing the same thing.”
Because the Wildcats had both talent and depth, Chambers added, they were able to wear down opponents with the use of their bench players.
“It was difficult for other teams to keep up with them,” he said.
The team took advantage of its versatility and stormed into the playoffs. Although Milton defeated other opponents on its way to the crown, Chambers’ book focuses on the last three games, which he said were the most exciting. Those included the dethroning of CM, the defending state champion, in the Division 2 South Championship game played on March 7; a 70-69 nail-biter over Woburn in the Eastern Massachusetts Final, at the TD Banknorth Garden, on March 10; and the championship game, at Worcester’s DCU Center, on March 14.
Chambers said the games provided many memorable moments, including freshman Rene Castro’s game-winning shot against the talented Woburn team with nine seconds to play.
“[Castro] comes in at the end of the game and changes the whole atmosphere,” he said. “He had no fear – even though he was just a freshman. He hit that shot just like he was practicing.
“It was a super basketball game. The fans were all on the edge of their seats. And what better place to [win] it than in the Garden?”
Before the title game, Chambers said, the Milton players continued to act like “gentlemen,” as they had throughout the season. And even though there were some “macho” antics by Hoosac Valley prior to tip-off, the Wildcats were not cowed.
“Nobody intimidated them,” he said. “All of [their] action was on the court.”
Before becoming Milton’s favorite sports photographer, Chambers was involved in excitement of a very different kind. The Stoughton native, who lived in Needham before moving to Milton in 1995, retired from the Boston Police Department in 2003 after 33 years on the force.
Previously, he was in the military police from 1962 to 1966, and his service included a stint as President Kennedy’s honor guard while he was stationed at Otis Air Force Base in the summer of 1963.
Chambers, also a Vietnam War veteran, said photography “has always been a hobby,” but he never shot any sporting events until his nephew, Chris Sharpe, became a star quarterback at Springfield College a few years ago. Over time, he learned to use sophisticated equipment by Nikon and Canon because the “standard cameras on the market” couldn’t do the job.
“Sports photography is so different from everything else,” he said. “It’s really been a learning process.”
And for pure fun, it’s hard to top covering this year’s state-champion Wildcats.
“The team was an exceptional team,” said Chambers. “There were no ‘stars’ – it was a really close team. And probably the most fun thing about it was being around the student body, the fans known as the ‘Copeland Crazies.’ They were the best.
“It was a lot of fun being around them.”
[Chambers’ book is available in hardcover editions for $95 and $91, and a softcover edition for $66. To order a copy, visit www.miltonsports.com.]