Holman Stadium opened on Thursday
September 23, 1937; it was paid for by funds from the federal government's
Works Progress Administration (WPA) and money bequeathed by a local citizen,
Charles Frank Holman. He believed the
stadium should benefit both present and future generations of citizens of the
City of Nashua. Over the years five
professional teams have called Holman Stadium home. This included farm teams for the Brooklyn
Dodgers, California Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates. After the Nashua Pirates departed, two
different non-affiliated teams became the tenants at Holman Stadium. While professional teams have come and gone,
the constant has been amateur baseball.
Holman Stadium has been around for
75 years and hosted Rivier College, Nashua High School (North after the split),
Bishop Guertin High School, Babe Ruth Leagues, American Legion, AAU Games and
numerous other amateur baseball teams.
The newest residents of Holman Stadium are following in this great tradion. Nashua resident Tim Bawmann, President of the
Lowell Spinners (a class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) and Jon Goode, Vice
President of the Lowell Spinners, convinced their boss Drew Weber, owner of the
Lowell Spinners, to bring a new team to Nashua’s Holman Stadium. This led to the creation of the Nashua Silver
Knights, a founding member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New
England (FCBL). When the new team was
announced this group made a commitment to the City of Nashua to showcase local
talent.
Growing up in Nashua, Silver
Knights manager BJ Neverett watched some of the professional teams come and go
over the years. He remembers his first
visit to Holman Stadium was during the 1960s where he watched a local high
school baseball team. When he got older,
he played both baseball and football at Holman Stadium for Nashua High
School. “When I played football our
locker room is the same one our team will be using this year”. Once his playing days were over, he became a
teacher and coach in the Nashua school district. He coached the junior varsity baseball team
for nine years, and in 1995 he was named the successor to Charlie Mellen as
Head Coach of the Nashua High School varsity baseball team. Nashua High School had won the 1995 New Hampshire
State Championship and Mellen was leaving as a champion.
In 2005, Nashua High School was
split into two schools and Coach Neverett became Head Coach of Nashua High
School South baseball team. In the
season before the split he believes he and his team let a state championship
slip through their fingers, and now with the team divided he was not sure how
the 2005 season would fare. This season,
however, would be his most rewarding one of his career. He remembers, “We won 19 in a row, those kids
were great, after the split, a season like this came out of nowhere”. The season ended with his second state
championship.
In 2011, after stepping down as
Nashua South’s Coach, BJ became the Assistant Coach for the inaugural season of
the Nashua Silver Knights. Under the
leadership of Silver Knights Manager Mike Chambers, BJ Neverett learned how to
handle college players who were already prepared to play, but also wanted to
have fun during their summers off campus.
Mike Chambers says, “We had different styles of coaching and we learned
together during the season. Sometimes we
would go with his ideas and sometimes mine.
We coached as a unit even though I was the manager, that’s the way I
like to run a team”. During the season
Neverett noticed a difference in the way the games were being presented to
fans.
“Our games at Holman Stadium were
nothing like the games in the other three stadiums. I watched Jon Goode ride around in a go-kart;
it was like nothing I had seen before.
These guys in Lowell really know how to entertain the fans.”
At the end
of the 2011 season Coach Neverett was a champion again, “The championship last
year is right under the 2005 State Championship, when it comes to my most
rewarding moment. We meshed as a team
and had a lot of fun during the season”.
With renewed energy Coach Neverett was excited to return to Holman
Stadium as an assistant coach, but when Mike Chambers accepted a full time roll
with Franklin Pierce, he stepped down as Manager and Coach Neverett was the
obvious choice to be his replacement.
The ownership group’s commitment to the City of Nashua to showcase local
talent now extends to the position of Manager.
The 2012
season will mark BJ Neverett’s first season as Silver Knights Manager, and his
30th season coaching in and around the City of Nashua. We here at the Silver Knights are lucky to
call Holman Stadium our home, and even luckier to have a homegrown manager the
likes of BJ Neverett.
-2012 Nashua Silver Knights Souvenir Program
