Andrew Thomas McCann Scholarship
Andrew Thomas McCann is our guiding light. Taken too soon Andrew's spirit is with us every minute of every day. The Andrew McCann Scholarship Fund supports youth sports in Andrew's name. The article below says it all. Please give in the spirit of Andrew to support youth sports in the Southestern Massachusetts area. Thank you!
A.T.M. 15/42
By Buddy Thomas
January 27, 2012
You can use a lot of words to describe Andrew McCann and
not one would be negative. But, there are no words to describe my reaction when
informed of his untimely death following a one-car accident sometime Thursday
morning. Maybe "numb" would be appropriate since that's exactly how I felt after
getting the telephone call.
I only knew Andrew through athletics and, like most of the
high school athletes I've met over the last four-plus decades, our relationship
was limited to newsprint. He made the headlines and I wrote the reasons why.
There weren't always a lot of headlines but seemingly in every game in any sport
he played, Andrew managed to make some sort of meaningful contribution.
Andrew was a senior at Greater New Bedford Regional
Voc-Tech, where he was a plumbing student. After school, his focus was on
athletics, football and baseball in particular. He also ran track, but he seemed
more comfortable on the diamond and gridiron.
He wasn't very tall ... maybe 5-8 if you stretched the
tape. But, if you include the size of his heart, he was as big as anyone on the
Bears' roster. And, boy, was he tough. Not wise-guy tough. Andrew was football
tough. And no better example of that was when he walked to the sidelines
emotionless after breaking his humerus bone in half during a game this past
season.
I don't know if Andrew enjoyed being interviewed but, like
it or not, he was always cordial when you pulled him aside. He didn't say much
and when he was asked a question about a big hit or game-saving tackle, Andrew
always managed to, somehow, work the word "team" into his answer. It wasn't
Andrew being phony. It was Andrew being Andrew. That's just the way he was.
In football, he was a two-year starter at linebacker for
the Bears and, this past season, he was named to The Standard-Times All-Star
team for his part in leading Voc-Tech to its first winning season (6-5) in 20
years and second straight State Vocational Tournament championship. He had five
quarterback sacks and ranked second in team tackles.
In the spring, Andrew's athletic focus was on baseball.
Last season he helped lead the Bears into the postseason tournament with
significant contributions at a number of positions, including third base, the
outfield and on the pitching mound. On Tuesday, Andrew was named tri-captain of
this year's team and was penciled in as the team's No. 1 pitcher. He was
supposed to get his "captain's hat and jacket" Thursday morning but was a
no-show. That wasn't like Andrew who, according to his baseball coach, Rick
Avila, was never late for school and always kept his appointments. An hour
later, Avila found out why when word of Andrew's death reached the high
school.
There'll be a void on the roster when the baseball team
reports for spring practice in another five or six weeks, but that will be small
compared to the much bigger void that will last forever in the lives of those of
us who had the pleasure of knowing him.
Rest in peace, Andrew.
