It wasn’t supposed to go their way. A group of gritty high school football players with stories of family tragedy and poverty. A teachers’ strike and an angry administration that declared the football season over. And at the center, a scrawny, 5-foot 8-inch quarterback with a vision of winning it all.
But in 1994, the Salem High School football team went to the state Super Bowl. The coaching staff sacrificed their jobs for their players, and Sean Stellato became a North Shore football legend.
Now a National Football League agent, Stellato is bringing the story of his beloved team to Hollywood in a film adaptation of his book, No Backing Down: The Inspirational Story of the 1994 Salem High School Football Team. Angelo Pizzo, the iconic screenwriter behind Hoosiers and Rudy, will spearhead the project.
“It’s so much more than just a sports story,” says Stellato, now 38. “Our coach didn’t back down, the superintendent didn’t back down, the teachers union president didn’t back down. Everyone drew a line in the sand.”
Pizzo compares Stellato to the central character in the film Rudy, a small-statured athlete whose will to succeed united the Notre Dame community. And he says the history of the Salem witch trials lends a strange irony to the 1994 season, especially after the school’s then-superintendent compared the team and its coach to a cult.
“Salem is falling apart and people are at each other’s throats, and then the community comes together through the football team,” says the screenwriter. “There’s a lot of proprietary feelings about football in Texas, but the passion that New Englanders have for high school football—it’s intense.”
For Stellato, that passion and the drive to succeed began as a child. His father worked long hours to provide for Stellato’s mother, siblings, grandmother, aunt, and cousins, who all lived under one roof.
“He would tell me, ‘You’re not born into a white-collar family, you’re not big, but don’t ever let anyone outwork you,’” says Stellato.
The lesson stuck. In 1993, after the Salem Witches failed to make the postseason and players sat sulking in the locker room, Stellato knocked on his coach’s door.
“Sean was this little sophomore, and he came walking into my office and said, ‘Coach, if you give me the ball next year, I’ll take you to the Super Bowl,’” says Perrone, now 81. “I’m standing there looking at this kid—five-foot-nothing and 120 pounds—and I’m thinking, ‘Man, he’s gotta be nuts.’”
It was a bold move for a bench-warming placekicker. Over the next year, Stellato trained hard and hit a growth spurt. By the time he stepped onto the field as a junior, he had grown several inches and packed on 30 pounds. He won the starting quarterback position, and the Witches began an unlikely winning streak.
Off the field, the team battled opponents bigger than their North Shore rivals. The captain’s brother had both his legs amputated. Another player’s mother overdosed. Many players came from single-parent homes with mothers working multiple jobs.
“It was chaos for me,” says Elvin “E-Train” Rodriguez, the Witches’ former star running back. “I was going to school and I had a son, so I had issues with daycare and trying to buy diapers. I’d try to get out of practice and go to work to make money.”
To the players, Perrone was a coach and father figure, and Stellato used his own father’s example to instill an unfaltering work ethic in his teammates. He would even call players to make sure they went to bed early.
The quarterback’s diligence got results, and the Witches entered the postseason with an undefeated record. But with three games left before the Super Bowl, tensions erupted at Salem High School. It had been years since the teachers’ last raise, and when administrators received a 20-percent pay hike, the teachers went on strike. The school responded by canceling the football season.
Undeterred, the players broke into the school to take back their equipment. They changed outside in the cold and ran drills in the park. When police and K-9 dogs descended on an unsanctioned practice, they issued Perrone a cease-and-desist order.
After 38 seasons coaching high school football, Perrone’s job and the jobs of his entire staff were on the line. But the coaches already knew what they would do.
“He looks at us and he says, ‘Boys, let’s go play ball,’” recalls Stellato.
For the next month, the Salem Witches made national news as their star quarterback and coach rallied the team to three consecutive last-minute victories. On Thanksgiving Day, 17,500 fans watched Salem beat Beverly to advance to the Division III Super Bowl. Stellato’s prediction had come true.
Unfortunately, the Witches lost the championship to Whitman-Hanson Regional High School.
“They outplayed us,” says Stellato, “but we banded together with our coach and overcame those challenges. In life, sometimes you gain more when you lose.”
Perrone was fired and never coached football again. He went on to coach the Salem State College baseball team for 19 years before retiring, and he says he has no regrets.
“I never looked back and said, ‘Gee, did I do the right thing sticking with those kids?’” says Perrone. “We were not about to take football away from them.”
Stellato continued to outwork his competition, on and off the field. At Marist College, he started as wide receiver and double majored in business and communications. His scrappiness caught the attention of the Arena Football League, where he fulfilled his childhood dream of playing professional ball.
He then took his behind-the-scenes knowledge of the game and turned it toward a career as an NFL agent. In 2013, he started his own agency, Stellato Sports, a move he says was only possible with the support of his wife, Krista.
Today, Stellato represents 20 NFL players, including five New England Patriots. He still lives on the North Shore with his wife and two daughters, and he travels the country as a motivational speaker. This fall, he launched the No Backing Down Movement, a nonprofit that will partner with schools to create literacy and athletic programming.
For the North Shore native, that fateful 1994 season and the hard-fought successes that followed are the embodiment of his father’s example.
“I think we all want to leave a legacy,” says Stellato. “I want to leave an impact on a lot of hearts, and I hope this story can inspire people at all stages of their journey.”