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Peabody’s Panopoulos suffers broken back

Wednesday, September, 12 By Bill Kipouras
Staff writer

Peabody’s senior football center, Anthony Panopoulos. suffered a broken back on the fourth play of his team’s 44-0 opening night loss to St. John’s Prep.

Panopoulos will face at least a year of rehabilitation, head coach Dick Woodbury said.

“When I visited Anthony at Salem Hospital he said, ‘Coach, I’ll be ready in a couple of weeks.’ That’s what kind of spirit he has,” said Woodbury. “He’s a great kid.

“Fortunately, he has strong back muscles from conditioning and none of the broken bones pierced his kidneys.”

The Tanners also lost QB Tom Ciulla on the opening series with a broken collarbone. His successor, sophomore Mike O’Brien, had never taken a varsity snap.

“We also were down to our third center when Anthony got hurt. The No. 2 center didn’t dress for the game. The problem was that the center calls our schemes and didn’t know the sysem. Losing Ciulla and Panopoulos took the starch right out of us,” Woodbury said.

Peabody visits former Greater Boston League foe Cambridge Friday night (7).

This story originally appeared on the North Shore/Cape Ann High school sports blog. You can click here to comment on this article.