Playing career | |
---|---|
1974–1977 | Springfield |
Position(s) | Tight end |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1982 | Brookline HS (MA) (assistant) |
1983-1985 | Watertown HS (MA) (assistant) |
1986–1991 | Belmont HS (MA) |
1992–1995 | Bentley (assistant) |
1996 | Bentley (associate HC) |
1997 | Harvard (WR) |
1998 | Tufts (assistant) |
1999 | Mount Ida |
2000-2002 | Tufts (special teams) |
2003–2013 | Buckingham Browne & Nichols (MA) |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 100–26–2 (high school) 3–4 (college) |
Bowls | 3–1 (high school) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
3 New England Prep, 3 Independent School League (ISL) Titles | |
Awards | |
Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame, New England Prep School Coaches Hall of Fame | |
Records | |
All Time Winningest Coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School | |
John Papas is a former American football coach. He was the head football coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2003 to 2013. He also was an assistant coach at Harvard University, Bentley University, and Tufts University. He was the first head football coach at Mount Ida College, serving for one season in 1999. He is the founder of the Elite Football Clinics, LLC.
In his youth, Papas played for the football team, the Red Raiders, at Watertown High School in Watertown, Massachusetts. [1] He played college football at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, lettering for four years as a tight end. [2] He received Eastern College Athletic Conference weekly honors three times his senior year.
Papas was an assistant coach at Bentley University (1992-1996), Harvard University (1997) and Tufts University (1998, 2000-2002). While at Bentley, Papas was the recruiting coordinator, special teams coordinator and eventually the associate head coach. Those teams had great success, including from 1993 to 1995, when the Falcons won 30 straight, the longest winning streak in the country at that time and the second longest streak by a New England team in the last 100 years. While at Harvard in 1997 as the wide receiver coach, the Crimson won the 1997 Ivy League Title. As the special teams coordinator at Tufts, the Jumbos compiled a 18-14 record, including a 7-1 finish in 1998.
Papas was the first head football coach at Mount Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts and filled the post for the 1999 season when the team accumulated a record of 3–5. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] After the first year, long-time head football coach Ed Sweeney took over the program. [8] The first game played by the school was a 36–15 victory over Western New England College played on September 11, 1999. [9]
Papas was the head football coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (BB&N), in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 11 seasons, from 2003 to 2013. [10] [11] [12] The BB&N Knights compete in the Independent School League (ISL). [13] [14] [15] Under Papas, the Knights participated in New England prep school bowl games in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010, winning New England prep championships in 2005, 2006 and 2008. In 2008, the Knights went undefeated and were the ISL champions. In 2009 and 2010, the Knights finished 7-1 both years in the ISL and were later named ISL Champions, after Lawrence Academy was stripped of their titles for league sanctions. In February 2010, eight BB&N Knights footballers were signed by college football teams, five with NCAA Division I schools. [11] In the fall of 2010, BB&N had 7 alumni playing Ivy League football, the most of any high school in the country.
In 2018, Papas was elected to the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. In 2022, he was elected to the New England Football Coaches Hall of Fame and had a bowl game named in his honor
Papas is the founder of the Elite Football Clinic, a training camp for high school players. In June 2019, more than 2500 footballers from 43 states attended Elite clinics at Tufts University, Pomona College, and Christopher Columbus High School. [18] [ failed verification ] He occasionally comments on football in the media. [19] [20] [21]
Papas is the founder and director of The Elite High School Football League, aka The LEAGUE. The LEAGUE was founded in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to grow throughout New England. It is one of the only independent football leagues in the country and allows high school players to play more football outside of their fall seasons, thus affording them more recruiting opportunities.
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mount Ida Mustangs (NCAA Division III independent)(1999) | |||||||||
1999 | Mount Ida | 3–4 | |||||||
Mount Ida: | 3–4 | ||||||||
Total: | 3–4 |
Mount Ida College was a private college in Newton, Massachusetts.
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is an independent co-educational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, educating students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The School has produced three of the 27 Presidential Scholars from Massachusetts since the inception of the program in 1964 and is a member of the G30 Schools group and the Round Square global education association.
The Independent School League (ISL) is an athletic conference of sixteen private college-preparatory schools in Greater Boston. Its parent organization is the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). Founded in 1948, the ISL sponsors competitions in twenty-five sports.
The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) is a Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams in New England.
Watertown High School (WHS) is the local high school, built in 1925, for Watertown, Massachusetts, United States. The school is home to the Watertown Raiders, who are best known for their varsity field hockey and boys' basketball programs. Watertown's colors are black and red. The school newspaper is the Raider Times. On May 8, 1930, ex-President Calvin Coolidge was received at the school as town celebrated its 300th anniversary. As a part of the celebration, a national radio program was broadcast from the high school marking the momentous anniversary.
Edward North "Robbie" Robinson was an American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Brown University, University of Maine, and Tufts College—now known as Tufts University, and co-head football coach at Boston University. He also coached for the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League (NFL). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955.
Joseph McKenney was an American football player, coach, and official. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1928 to 1934, compiling a record of 44–18–3. McKenney also played at Boston College and was the starting quarterback for the Eagles from 1923 to 1926.
Edward F. Sweeney was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Dickinson College from 1985 to 1992, Colgate University from 1993 to 1995, Frostburg State University from 1996 to 1999, and Mount Ida College from 2000 to 2007, compiling a career college football coaching record of 114–110–4.
The Brandeis Judges are 17 intercollegiate sports teams that represent Brandeis University. They compete in the NCAA's Division III in the University Athletic Association conference, which they joined in May 1987. The team colors are blue and white, and their mascots are The Judge and Ollie the Owl.
The Tufts Jumbos football program represents Tufts University in the sport of American football. The team competes in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The team's head coach is Jay Civetti, who has led the Jumbos since 2011.
John Griffin MacDonald was an American football coach. He was a longtime high school football coach in Massachusetts and served as the head football coach at Boston University from 1918 to 1919, where he compiled a record of 3–6–1. He was the father of Congressman Torbert Macdonald.
Charles "Doc" Whelan was an American football player and coach and physician. He served as the head football coach at Tufts College—now Tufts University—for three stints and at Boston University from 1921 to 1925, compiling a career college football record of 54–68–7. Whelan also coached track at Harvard University. He died after a brief illness in 1945.
Leo Edgar Hafford was a professional baseball player who played pitcher in the major leagues. He attended Tufts University and Bowdoin College, and went on to coach football at the University of Connecticut in 1911. He served as head coach only briefly, as he died from typhoid fever three weeks after accepting the position. He coached only coaching one game, but was credited as head coach for the whole season.
The Mount Ida Mustangs football program represented Mount Ida College in college football. Milton fielded its first football team in 1999 and its last in 2017 before the school closed in 2018. The Mustangs competed at the NCAA Division III level as an independent from 1999 to 2009 and as a member of the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) from 2009 to 2017. The program has three head coaches: John Papas (1999), Ed Sweeney (2000–2007), and Mike Landers (2008–2017). In 19 seasons of play, Mount Ida compiled an all-time record of 76–119. The Mustangs shared the ECFC title in 2012, the same year they made their only postseason appearance, losing in the first round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship playoffs.
Bill Samko is an American college football coach. He was most recently the assistant head coach and offensive line coach at the Bentley University. Samko served as head coach of Tufts University between 1994 and 2010, compiling a record of 57–79. He also served as head coach of Sewanee: The University of the South from 1987 to 1993, tallying a mark of 35–27–1. Prior to his tenures as a head coach, Samko served as an assistant coach at Tufts from 1974 to 1980 and at Yale University from 1981 to 1986 under head coach Carmen Cozza.
Jay P. Civetti Jr. is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for Tufts University, a position he has held since 2011. During his time at Tufts, Civetti helped end the school's 31-game losing streak, and he later led the team to three consecutive winning seasons.
Arthur Graves Sampson was an American football coach and sportswriter who was the head football coach at Tufts University from 1926 to 1929.
Harry Arlanson was an American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Tufts University from 1954 to 1965, compiling a record of 57–35–2. Arlanson coached football and baseball at Weymouth High School in Weymouth, Massachusetts from 1935 to 1954. His football teams at Weymouth had a record of 135–19–10.
Michael Landers is an American college football coach. He is the special teams coordinator and defensive line coach for Bentley University, a position he has held since 2023. He served as the head football coach at Mount Ida College from 2008 to 2017. He played as a walk-on athlete at Georgia Tech.
Carl Edward Etelman was an American football back and coach. After playing college football at Tufts University in Massachusetts, he played semi-professional football for the independent St Alphonsus Athletic Association from 1924 to 1926. He also played professionally in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for the Boston Bulldogs and Providence Steam Roller, before returning to the semi-pro ranks with the Fitton Athletic Club, where he spent three seasons. After his playing career, Etelman coached the Whitman High School football team in Massachusetts for 18 years, and also coached the semi-professional Old Town team of Abington for two years.