High school athletics have been chaotic both last year and this. A global pandemic left us locked inside our homes for more than two months beginning in March of 2020 while students learned remotely.

Last year, all MIAA sports shut down, including the Boys Basketball team’s State Championship game against Hopedale.

The summer began along with wondering if Abington High School students would be allowed to go back to the classroom in the fall. And if if students would be allowed to play sports in 2020-2021.

Abington’s Athletic Director Peter Serino had to follow all of the MIAA guidelines to keep the athletes safe.

Serino isn’t inexperienced when it comes to sports. He was a 2004 Abington graduate. While in high school, Serino played for the Green Wave and spent his time on the baseball diamond as well as the basketball court.

He then went to the College of The Holy Cross to major in history, while also being in the teacher education program. Graduating in 2008, Serino was then hired by Abington Public Schools in May of that year.

In his first year at Abington, he was a volunteer assistant coach on the 2009 Boys Basketball team, who took their talents to the South Sectional final for the first time in school history.

After that season, Serino then took on the JV coaching job for Boys Basketball for five years before making his varsity debut in 2014-15.

This year, he is finishing up his 7th season as varsity coach.

At the start of the year, sports were on hold. On Nov. 4, 2020, the Massachusetts Executive Office of energy and environmental affairs published its much-anticipated update health guidelines for youth and adult amateur sports. It gave the green light for basketball. It began in the Fall I phase.

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Serino said, “Abington has great people. From our coaches, administration, parents and of course the students, they each made sacrifices to ensure that we could offer athletics in a safe manner.”

The Abington High School boys Varsity basketball kicked off their season on Jan. 8 against the Carver Crusaders.

The Basketball team finished the season with an imposing (11-3) record. Serino ended with an imposing (92-59) record overall. And he was named Coach of the Year by the South Shore League (SSL).

This was not Serino’s first time receiving an award for this accomplishment. He has now won it three years in a row.

Serino said, “Coach of the Year is really an award that is representative of where we are as a program. It certainly is humbling to be the one to receive the recognition, but I know it is a tribute to the entire program.”

He also noted that his success as Abington’s Athletic Director is reflective of the coaches.  “We are extremely fortunate to have a dedicated coaching staff who goes above and beyond anything that could be expected. They excel at fostering relationships with the kids in the program and finding roles where each player can excel.”

The players themselves are responsible for a strong program, too, Serino said: “Great coaching does not mean anything if you do not have good people in the program. We are very lucky to have had a run of kids who have been extremely coachable and believe in what we do. The kids and their families deserve a lot of credit for the type of people that they are.”

Serino is looking forward to getting everything back to normal and having an astounding 2021.