Matty Sardella’s Spirit Lives On in 25th Annual Golf Tourney
It’s unusual for events like memorial golf tournaments to last a quarter century. But on September 17, 2011, the 25th annual Matthew Sardella Memorial Golf Tournament will tee off at Reedy Meadow at Lynnfield Center Golf Course.
Matthew J. Sardella, a 1986 graduate of Wakefield High School, was a journalism student at Salem State College at the time of his death in May 1987. He was an outstanding goalie for the Wakefield High School hockey team from 1984-1986, and was named to the North All Star Team in his junior and senior years. He was awarded Top Defensive Player and MVP trophies. He also played high school football and baseball.
Matty was vice president of his class for four years, was a member of DECA and volunteered for various fundraising efforts including the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation Telethon. He did all of these things while battling daily with the asthma that would eventually claim his life.
“It’s a wonderful tribute to Matty’s memory,” says his brother Lou of the tournament’s longevity. “It’s awe-inspiring that he touched so many people in so few years.”
The first annual Matthew Sardella Golf Tournament was held in the summer of 1987, just months after he died. Over the years, the charity golf tournament has raised over $50,000. Each year, the proceeds from the tournament are split between the WHS hockey program and the Citizens’ Scholarship Fund that bears Matty’s name. Since 1988, 55 recipients have received scholarships totaling nearly $20,000.
This year, the name of Christopher J. Sardella has been added to both the golf tournament and the CSF Fund. Christopher was Lou’s two year-old grandson who died last year in a tragic accident. Christopher was the son of Justin Sardella and Laura Galante.
“Louie called me a couple of months ago and asked if we could combine it to include Christopher,” says Tony Germanetto, Matty’s high school friend and one of the golf tournament organizers. “We had wanted to do something special for the 25th anniversary. What better way to honor the 25th than to add Christopher?”
For Germanetto, there’s no mystery about why the tournament has lasted so long.
“Matty’s spirit and who he was is what brings people back,” Germanetto says. “The spirit Matty had just doesn’t go away.”
That spirit is illustrated by Matty’s hockey career, and perhaps no better than the historic 1985 quadruple overtime game in the Division I North hockey quarterfinals against a heavily favored Watertown team.
Matty’s father, Louis Sardella, remembers that game well and wrote an essay to commemorate it. The game took place in March 1985 at Merrimack College in an arena packed with 5,000 screaming fans. As the teams took the ice and the crowd anxiously awaited the start of the game, some Watertown fans targeted Matty with a chant of “You’re too small! You’re too small!”
“Indeed Matty was small,” his father wrote. “Matty had taken large amounts of medication all his life [to combat his asthma] which seriously inhibited his normal growth patterns. However, only his physical stature was affected, not his intense competitive spirit.”
Rather than cave in to the taunts, Matty raised his goalie stick high in a gesture that indicated that he was ready for whatever his opponents could throw at him.
The bigger, favored Watertown team jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. One more Watertown goal would almost surely have ended Wakefield’s tournament hopes.
But there would be no more Watertown goals – not in regulation play or in the four overtime periods that followed after Wakefield tied the score. Matty turned away shot after shot, demoralizing his opponents and inspiring his own teammates to unprecedented heights.
Wakefield won the game 5-3.
Afterwards, Wakefield coach Dave McCarthy likened Matty to a “steel curtain” in the net. Watertown coach Dick Umile said, “The big difference was Sardella.”
It’s yet another tribute to Matty’s powerful legacy that members of that Watertown hockey team have come to his golf tournament year after year, a testament to the respect that they had for Matty. They are expected again this year.
“He touched a lot of lives,” Matty’s father, Lou, reiterated this week. “It wasn’t just young people. He really reached out to older people. He had a certain magnetism. He didn’t try to do it. It was just there.”
In an editorial after Matty’s death, the Wakefield Daily Item wrote, “A wave of shock and sadness enveloped this community Sunday when word quickly spread that 19 year-old Matty Sardella had died.”
My mother had a special fondness for her youngest nephew. I can still hear the sadness in her voice when she called to tell me that my cousin had died. “I have some bad news to tell you,” she said when I picked up the phone.
Germanetto says that he and the other regular participants look forward to the golf tournament and outing every year as “a day to get together and remember Matty.” He says that as the crowd has gotten older, married and had children, the day has evolved into a real family event.
“We wake up on that day and smile,” he says, adding that the tournament has gotten to the point where it “pretty much runs itself.” The format is a 9-hole scramble and also includes individual contests for things like longest drive. Traditionally, the winning team wins tickets to a major sports event. Past prizes have included Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox tickets.
There will be one shotgun start at 12 noon on Saturday Sept. 17 at Reedy Meadow at Lynnfield Center Golf Course. The event also includes a post-golf party with food and raffles.
For golfers, the donation is $70, but for $25 you can just come for the food, which starts at about 3 p.m. Call Tony Germanetto for entry forms at 781-246-4151 or 781-608-1007. Registration forms must be received by Friday, Sept. 9.
Even if you are not planning to attend the tournament, you can still make a donation to the Matthew and Christopher Sardella CSF fund at PO Box 2107, Wakefield, MA 01880. Donations of raffle items will also be gratefully accepted. Contact Tony Germanetto to donate raffle items.
Since Matty’s death, Germanetto says, he has often drawn strength from the words inscribed on his friend’s headstone: “The purpose of life is to reach out eagerly without fear.”
“I’ve gone to the cemetery and read that and it’s helped me through a lot of hard times,” Germanetto says. “The spirit Matty had just doesn’t go away.”
[This column originally appeared in the September 1, 2011 Wakefield Daily Item.]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, Feature stories, Profiles, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Christopher Sardella, CSF, Daily Item, golf, golf course, golf tournament, golfer, golfers, golfing, hockey, ice hockey, Lou Sardella, Louis Sardella, Mark Sardella, Matt Sardella, Matthew & Christopher Sardella Golf Tournament, Matthew J. Sardella, Matthew Sardella, Matty Sardella, Reedy Meadow at Lynnfield Center Golf Course, Tony Germanetto, Wakefield, Wakefield Citizens Scholarship Foundation, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Search this site
Categories
Flickr Photos
Archives
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Recent Comments
Mark Sardella on A very Special Town Meeti… John Breithaupt on A very Special Town Meeti… Mark Sardella on A very Special Town Meeti… John Breithaupt on A very Special Town Meeti… Dan Noren on A very Special Town Meeti… Blog Stats
- 368,034 hits
LINKS
I loved reading this article about my cousin Matty. It makes me feel proud to call him family. Thank you for the opportunity to read about how special he was to all.
Diane
I enjoyed reading the article. Though I did not know Matty personally, I have known other Sardellas from Wakefield. A soft spot in my heart is there for them. Fitting tributes sometimes are not where they should be—this IS a worthy one, and one that does pull at our heartstrings. Thanks for reminding us of two of our “Wakefield family.” Pete Dawson
Matty was such an amazing person. He inspired so many no-one who met him could ever forget him. Hockey games, Midget hockey tournaments and were always a lot of laughs with Matty around. R.I.P Matty so many miss you