WESTFIELD – Forty-two year-old Mike Wing woke up one morning, ate a healthy breakfast, and hit the gym just like any other day. But it wasn’t just any other day.
Wing, a 1993 graduate of Westfield High School, felt a sharp pain in his chest. A trip to the hospital emergency room revealed a heart defect.
Tight end Mike Wing played for the University of Massachusetts from 1993-1997. Wing, a former Westfield Bomber will join several alumni to take the field against the current Westfield High School football team this Thursday in the inaugural Thanksgiving Day alumni game to be played at Bullens Field. (Submitted photo)
Wing immediately underwent angioplasty and received a stent to unblock a descending artery on his left atrium.
Now, just one month later, Wing is back to routine workouts and ready to take on the 2016 Westfield High School football team at Thursday’s inaugural Thanksgiving Day Alumni Flag Football game at Bullens Field.
“It’s going to be fun,” said Wing, a former tight end and strong safety for the Bombers. “I’m just not sure what to expect. It’s been 24 years since I last stepped on that field against Cathedral, and we whooped their butts.”
For the first time in more than 70 years, the two teams will not meet on Thanksgiving Day. Cathedral’s football team was eliminated after the school merged with Holyoke Catholic following the 2015 season.
Westfield finished as the series all-time winner, going 44-28.
“I think it’s a bummer,” said Wing, who played for former Bombers coach Ron Reopel, a Western Massachusetts High School Football Hall of Famer, in the pair’s final season.
Westfield senior running back Wilton Royal rushes for the second of of his three touchdowns scored against Commerce. Royal, who rushed past opposing defenses all season, and the 2016 Bombers will take on the school’s alumni team on Thanksgiving Day. The game is slated to kick off Thursday at 10 a.m. (File Photo by Marc St. Onge)
Wing, a 6-foot, 6-inch tight end, earned a full scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, where he played from 1993-1997. The ’93 grad will join fellow teammates Neal Burke, Bob St. Pierre, Bob Girard, and Aaron Miller, and a host of other former Bombers, who played between 1988-2014.
The list of alumni players includes: Jamarcus Jeames (#1, 2011), Jake Toomey (#2, 2014), Nate Collier (#3, 2011), Sam Gendreau (#4, 2013), Rashaun Rivers (#7, 2014), Cory Babinski (#10, 2011), Arty Owen (#11, 2011), John Toomey (#14, 2013), Craig Ward (#15, 2015), Billy Maki (#19, 2005), Justin Bard (#21, 2006), Ricky Stephens (#24, 2005), Quinn Barbeito (#27, 2013), Noah Swords (#33, 2014), Jordan Cree (#38, 2015), Jake Girard (#40, 2009), Eddie Ortiz (#41, 2002), Garrett Fitzgerald (#42, 2014), Andrew Vega (#43, 2006), Burke (#45, 1993), Kyle Nutting (#48, 2013), John Thompson (#53, 2011), St. Pierre (#60, 1993), Corey Ward (#62, 2014), Mike Racicot (#63, 1995), Brien Lynch (#72, 2013), Ben Hallmark (#75, 1995), Girard (#77, ’1993), Miller (#78, 1993), Paul Thibault (#82, 2005), Wing (#88, 1993), and Billy Bryant (#89, 2005).
“Thanksgiving Day without the rivalry won’t be quite the same,” Wing said, with a nostalgic look to the past. “It used to be that whoever won the Thanksgiving game between Westfield and Cathedral went to the Super Bowl … (but) a bunch of guys who never played together are going to line up and go chase the ball Thursday.”
Kick off is at 10 a.m.
Tickets will be available at the gates with a price of $5 for adults and $3 for students. Senior citizens and children under the age of five are free of charge.
The 2016 Westfield High School football team runs out of a “tunnel” of smoke in a large inflatable helmet to begin a regular season game at Bullens Field. (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
