Published April 25, 2019
By DAN ZIMMERMAN
NORTH READING — When this winter’s batch of Hornet hopefuls, sticks taped and skates sharpened, march single file from the locker room and take their position on the bench in anticipation of yet another season of North Reading hockey, a prominent fixture will no longer be in their midst.
After a decade at the helm of the Hornets, head coach John Giuliotti has decided to step down. With regrets, he recently announced his resignation from the program, citing that he had made the difficult choice in the best interest of his family.
“The 10 years has actually gone by rather quickly,” said Giuliotti. “I have fond memories of all the kids who wore that North Reading uniform and what they were able to accomplish for themselves and for this community. It has been a fantastic ride.”
In a storied hockey career that reaches back to his playing days as a blue-liner at East Boston’s St. Domenic Savio High School and North Adams State College, East Boston native Giuliotti seemed partial to his coaching achievements, which included a six-year tour with Wentworth Institute of Technology. Not one to mince words, Giuliotti described Wentworth as the one-time “worst college hockey program in all of North America.”
“After starting out as a JV coach and assistant varsity coach with my alma mater, Dom Savio, I wanted to break into the college game,” Giuliotti recalled. “On the advice of a friend, I blindly called Wentworth and offered my services. I was hired as an unpaid assistant and spent considerable time traveling to far-flung places like Winnipeg and Anchorage, Alaska. I did a lot of recruiting and loved every minute of it, including the eight-hour drive the day after one Christmas to scout players in Newmarket, Ontario.”
Giuliotti went on to explain that when he first started working with Wentworth, the club was in the midst of an embarrassing 50-game losing streak. By the time he moved on, however, the Leopards had won the ECAC South League title and competed in the NCAA Tournament.
Giuliotti took a job as interim head coach with UMass Boston and later, accepted a position as JV coach with Harvard where he worked hand-in-hand with Crimson head coach and former Boston Bruins star, Ted Donato.
“I spent a lot of time with Ted, absorbing everything I could about the game of hockey,” recalled Giuliotti, who spent a great deal of his own time watching Northeastern, BC, and BU practices, studying the trade. “I used to tell people that, working with Teddy, I earned a hockey master’s degree for free.”
After several years, Harvard followed a growing trend in college hockey and eliminated their JV program. Already a guidance counselor with North Reading High School, Giuliotti took the next obvious step in his illustrious career and submitted his name as head coach.
It goes without saying that Giuliotti, who makes his home in neighboring Reading, was the obvious choice to fill the vacancy. Not only could he claim an abundance of coaching proficiency, both in the high school and college ranks, but he could also boast an unmatched pedigree. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say, and Giuliotti benefited from a lifetime of hockey chronicles handed down by his father Joe, who was inducted into the Mass Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 for his accomplishments with East Boston and Shawsheen hockey.
Perhaps the single characteristic that made Giuliotti the right fit for the North Reading job was his refreshing demeanor. Known for his trademark scally cap, he would command the Hornet bench with a firm, yet open-minded approach.
“As any coach will tell you, there are a lot of guys out there who have watched the movie ‘Miracle’ and think in order to coach in this sport, you have to be the next Herb Brooks and scream and holler,” he explained. “That’s just not my personality. I don’t believe in that style. I’ve always coached my teams the way I hope someone would coach my kids. I wanted to be a hockey educator, not a disciplinarian.”
Speaking of Giuliotti’s children, he and his wife Ginny have a trio of boys, all hockey players, of course. His oldest, Jack, graduated as captain of the Reading Rockets and is currently a freshman at St. Anselm in New Hampshire and participating in club hockey. His middle son Charlie, a junior, just wrapped up a season with the JV Rockets and youngest, Sam, is a freshman.
Discussing Reading hockey gives rise to the obvious question. While North Reading and Reading skate in different leagues, there was the matter of the pre-season.
“When we played Reading in scrimmage games, it was a lot of fun,” recalled Giuliotti, who amassed 108-wins in his 10 years with the Hornets. “I would look across the ice from our bench and see my friends, neighbors, and a lot of kids I coached over the years. My son Jack was a player and my other two kids would be there. My wife and father were also on hand. Those games were a special time for me.”
Also special, according to Giuliotti, were the 2014 and 2017 seasons. In both, he led the Hornets to Cape Ann League titles and in doing so, was named Coach of the Year. He also qualified for the MIAA Tournament in 7 of 10 years, twice entering as the top-seed. But when asked to share other noteworthy Hornet achievements, Giuliotti didn’t hesitate.
“Two seasons ago, we went out to a tournament on Cape Cod,” he recalled. “We knocked off a top-notch Oliver Ames club, 5-0. The next night, we beat Lowell Catholic, which was the defending Division 2 state champions, 4-0. We followed that tournament win with a 2-1 season finale over Danvers, which was the number one seed that year. I’m proud that they worked as hard as they did, in good times and bad. We wanted our opponents to know that every time they stepped on the ice against North Reading, they were going to be in a game.”
After years of driving from rink to rink, often as many as three in a day, Giuliotti looks forward to taking a breather, as he describes it, and spend more time with his family. He admits that the sport is in his blood and he will always be part of it, in some role or capacity, including speaking at conferences as part of Massachusetts USA Hockey.
“I’ve loved coaching at North Reading and have great memories,” he shared. “But I feel it’s important that I spend more time with my sons. All three were stick boys when they were younger and that was pretty cool. They’d skate with my teams and fill water bottles. But now they’re older and I’d rather not miss the time I should be spending with them.”
Giuliotti paid tribute to his supporting cast, including assistants Brian McAuliffe, goaltender coach Pat Lee, Todd Flynn, Athletic Director David Johnson, Superintendent of Schools Jon Bernard, and of course, his wife Ginny. He also holds special praise for Coach Bill Maradei, who recently retired from Austin Prep football. Maradei coached Giuliotti as a youth in both football and hockey.
“I was a product of coach Maradei and there was something he said that I will never forget,” said Giuliotti. “The first thing you want to accomplish as a coach is to make the opposition respect you. And after you earn their respect, make them fear you. I think that’s something we achieved at North Reading.”