Retired Recreation Director Thanks Mentors, Reflects on Nearly 50 Years Working for City

Recently-retired Recreation Director Peter Centola likes to tell people worked in Watertown for 48 years. He got his start in the mid-1970s but had a break in the middle, and at one point didn’t expect to return.

Following his retirement at the end of June after 15 years as Recreation Director, Centola spoke recently with Watertown News about his time as Recreation Director, his mentors, the programs and facilities he helped build, and things left unfinished.

Build It and They Will Come

Centola took the quote from “Field of Dreams” to heart while he was Recreation Director, and in prior positions

“When I interview with (then-Town Manager) Mr. (Michael) Driscoll, way back when, it was a two pronged thing, the first was ‘what are we going to do for program offerings?’, and then ‘What were we going to do for capital projects,” Centola recalled. “At that point, a lot of the parks, they were kind of on the way down.”

While coaching college baseball he said he saw how important it is to that have a facility of your own, and preferably one in good shape.

“At UMass Boston, we didn’t have a field. When I was (Athletic Director) at Newbury College, we didn’t have a field, of course, and I when was at Mount Ida we built a field. So it’s like, ‘Build it and they will come,’ I’m a firm believer in that,” he said. “Like if you like to do something and you walk out there to the park or the facility wasn’t in great shape, you don’t get as excited. Like the spray pad at Filippello Park — it’s so nice now. The one at Arsenal (Park) is going to be nice.”

Centola noted that he had pressed UMass Boston to build a baseball field when he was there in the late 1980s, and more than a quarter century later, in 2016, the college dedicated Monan Park. He was invited and attended the dedication.

Some of the other Watertown projects he looks back on proudly include the lights at Watertown’s fields and parks. Those were a priority when he got the job. He toured Watertown’s facilities with representatives from Musco Lighting to see where lighting systems needed to be modernized.

The old ones had a timer, but if there was an outage, the clocks did not reset to the right time, so someone had to come out and do it by hand — usually Centola.

“So I remember I got a call, there was a little league game at Casey (Park) and I think the day before there was a storm. So the clock wasn’t wasn’t on a Musco system,” Centola said. “So I had to go down it was kind of misting (outside) and I had to go down, open it up, and push the metal thing. I thought I was gonna die.”

That week he went to Driscoll and told him the lighting systems need to be upgraded. Now the boxes have been replaced at all the parks in town, the latest at Saltonstall Park.

One of this favorite memories came at the recent opening of the multi-sport rink at Moxley Field. The Boston Bruins Foundation came out for the opening ceremony, which had a special flare that Centola had been working on for weeks — a helicopter flyover.

“I had called the Coast Guard, I had called the Navy, no seriously, we applied kind of late,” Centola said. “A former Watertown Police officer was now a State Police helicopter pilot. And so, (former Watertown Police Capt.) Ray Dupuis, says to me, you you’re not gonna know (for sure), he says, but they’re flying, his shift is during that time. That’s why if you see me on the podium, I think their coming but I’m not sure. And then the helicopter came. That was all Ray.”

He also looks back fondly on his time working with Watertown’s Summer Basketball League, which has been around for around 50 years, many of which Centola served as commissioner.

“At the height we had 18 teams over at Casey (Park) and 16 teams at Saltonstall,” he said. “What made it work was my (organizing) team had a background, and we had college level officials. And we ran it as a college level league.”

The league used to have an all-star game slam dunk contest, and one year the Irish National Team came to play players from Watertown’s Summer League. The league became known as one of the top summer leagues in the area, and even attracted the attention of then-Boston Celtic Larry Bird.

“I don’t remember if he had a Bud Light, a Miller Lite, but at the time there was some woods behind one of the baskets, so he was hiding in the woods,” Centola recalled.

Unfinished Business

A couple of projects Centola would have loved to have completed in his time remain unfinished. The first is the second phase of the Victory Field improvements, which include the track area, the courts, and the parking area, as well as the field house/lockerooms.

“Victory, you know, that’s a work in progress,” he said. “I feel really we dropped the ball. It was 10 years ago that we put the Phase 2 recommendation up at a meeting in the fall, and still we sit here.”

The baseball field at Casey Park has also been many years in the planning.

“One of my biggest disappointments was Casey,” he said. “When we did Casey, I think it was eight years ago, we should have done the whole thing together. And now we had a plan — I don’t know what happened to that.”

Mentors

Looking back, Centola said he was lucky to work with some great people. He said his predecessor, who was Recreation Director for 36 years, “didn’t get his due.”

“Anything that was accomplished and some people affiliate to me, a lot of it was Tom Sullivan,” he said. “He’s the one with a soft pour playgrounds, he kind of set that bar. And then I had a lot of help.”

Much of the work during his tenure was built upon the foundation of those before him.

“I got a lot of great people in my life. And one of the things I wanted to say I just want people to know how grateful I am. And that anything that I was part of the accomplishment, there was always a team,” Centola said. “Certainly, some of the ideas were not my ideas, and I just got on board. Like for instance, Victory (renovating the football and baseball area). They already had a committee before I came in: Tommy Sullivan, (former Town Auditor) Tommy Tracy data committee before I came on. And Ernie (Thebado) is another one who I partnered with for 15 years.”

Thebado has been named Watertown’s next Recreation Director just this week.

“I’m happy for Ernie. No one is more deserving than him,” he said.

Early on, he worked with Phil Costello, who was a physical education teacher at Hosmer Elementary School, and was Recreation Director for a time, and also ran Watertown’s summer program, Camp Pequossette.

“He was one of the greatest educators I’ve ever known: positive, talented, upbeat. I was very lucky,” Centola said. “And that’s when I started to work in Watertown. That’s why I love to say since ’76.”

He also worked as a Park Instructor, Supervisor of Parks, the assistant director of Camp Pequossette, when Frank DiMascio was the director. He also started coaching around that time, first as Belmont High School’s freshman coach in 1983, then head baseball coach at MassBay Community College. He also coached baseball at UMass Boston, Watertown High School, Catholic, Harvard, Mount Ida, and Newbury. Centola coached basketball at Watertown and Trinity High School.

Meanwhile, Centola began teaching in 1982 as a substitute in Watertown and Belmont, and then became a special education teacher’s aide in Watertown the following year. He became a business teacher at Watertown High School in 1986, and a PE teacher in 1990.

“I really wanted to be a phys. ed. instructor and coach in Watertown,” he said. “So what did I do, I went to BU, I did my Master’s, certification in phys. ed. I did my teacher’s training under Mr. Costello at the Hosmer.”

Centola also served as the assistant coach for baseball and basketball at WHS, and ran the Summer Basketball League for the Watertown Recreation Department at that time.

“So you figure I’d be a pretty natural hire. I went into the interview at the Hosmer — I didn’t get the job,” Centola said. “I was devastated, and I swore that I would never come back to Watertown. And that’s where I left.”

He took a job at Trinity High School in Newton as assistant principal, athletic director, and dean of students in 1994, before becoming assistant athletic director at Mount Ida College, and athletic director at Newbury College. That road came to an end, however, in 2009.

“I was at Newbury College, and we knew it was going to close, and I had young kids,” Centola said.

That led him back to Watertown, where he became Recreation Director in 2009.

Centola said he may not be where he is without the recreation programs around when he was growing up in Watertown. When he was 7, he tried out for little league baseball but got cut, deservingly he said. Watertown had three separate youth baseball leagues at the time, and lots of kids, but since some didn’t get to play little league, games were organized at local parks.

“We used to travel around to all the parks and play baseball, So, this is like 1971. We pile in the car we from Charles River Road to Coolidge School (now Sullivan Playground),” Centola said. “So I’m pitching and the coach is looking at me and said, ‘I don’t recognize you, who do you play with in little league?'”

He said he didn’t play little league, so the coach gave him an opportunity.

“I tried out for little league. It was life changing. Kids might not have a chance. It’s timing, it’s luck, it’s opportunity,” he said. “And if I didn’t do that …. I ended up being a college coach, I wasn’t the greatest — and I might not play college ball. A lot of stuff that I am is there. And I was given the opportunity. So, I get very emotional because a lot of the kids, if you don’t build great facilities, if you don’t have great programs, they don’t get that opportunity.”

Centola also is proud of the impact he has had on people he coached and worked with.

“It’s been very rewarding time. Challenging. Sure, I’m grateful to my mom and dad, Phil and Anna Centola, and certainly my current family has been very supportive,” he said. “And we’re very proud that a lot of the people who worked for Recreational, that played for me at Watertown baseball and Watertown basketball are now public servants: fire department, the police department, in the schools. That’s cool. That’s one of the things I think I take the most pride in.”

The Future

As Centola moves into retirement from the City of Watertown he has two children in college, so he wants to find some sort of work.

“I gotta take care of my family. I gotta find something that’s going to pay the bills, and it’s gotta be worthwhile for me, but it’s really right now I’m open to anything,” he said.

He also is looks forward to some new challenges, as well as some old ones but from another perspective

“We do have some unfinished business,” Centola said. “And I have to take care of my family, certainly find a job, but I’m certainly going to be a community activist.”