Tewksbury Youth Football Dedicate Announcers Booth to Shane Contalonis

The Tewksbury Youth Football season began on a perfect September Saturday, and before kickoff TYF took a moment to remember one of their own. 

Shane Contalonis, 12, a TYF announcer and 6th grade student at the Ryan Elementary School, passed away suddenly on Monday, June 10.

Before kickoff on Saturday, the announcers booth at Ballou-Del Rossi field was dedicated to Contalonis, and a sign atop the booth reading "Shane Contalonis Announcers Booth" was unveiled. 

Shane's parents, Maureen and Tucker Contalonis were present at the dedication, and 

"He was just fun, he just always had a big smile on his face," Tucker said. "We're so proud of this, thank you all, thank you very very much. Now let's go out for what we've been waiting for, let's play some football."

TYF President Rob Rosa also announced that the announcers booth would remain silent during Saturday's game in honor of Shane.

"We decided to keep the booth silent out of respect for Shane," Rosa said. "Other than dedicating the booth the other thing we wanted to do was keep the booth silent. There will be other announcers, but there won't be another Shane."

Rosa said that Shane was a large part of the TYF community, and he would be missed in and out of the announcers booth.

"We're a football and cheerleading program, but we're also a family," Rosa said.