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Community Corner

Waz Kid: Dan Santanello

The people in town and a love for the ocean are just two of the things that have kept Dan Santanello in Swampscott for over 50 years.

If you asked any of Dan Santanello’s old hockey teammates if they thought his son Danny would captain the Big Blue when he got to high school, they would have said sure.

The Swampscott High senior is a captain this season, but for the basketball team.

“It’s kind of funny,” Santanello said. “I thought he’d play hockey, his little brother plays, but I like basketball and I help out with the team.”

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Santanello, a 1976 SHS grad, kept the book for the JV’s and will help out in that capacity during the upcoming hoop season.

Santanello captained the Big Blue in 1975-76, and held the scoring record at Swampscott High for close to 30 years until Nick Fagone broke it.

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Santanello is in the SHS Athletic Hall of Fame, along with his older brother Steven and spends his winters coaching youth hockey and his summers .

Santanello took the 11 year-old All-Stars to a District 16 title this summer with his son Steven on the team. Dan’s daughter Kristin plays field hockey at Salem State University.

“I love the people in this town, and they really came through when Kristin got leukemia,” . “People couldn’t do enough for our family, they were wonderful to us, really wonderful.”

Santanello served on the Board of Selectmen in town for close to 18 years after a nudge from Fran Cassidy.

“Fran came up to me an said why don’t you run, I was a political novice, but I ran and I won, I like to think I did some good things for the town while I was on the board,” Santanello said. “I’m very proud of getting the traffic improvements to Vinnin Square done while I was on the board.”

In addition to his wife and children, Santanello has many relatives young and old living in town. He loves to golf, with a seven handicap, and has run the Boston Marathon 12 times.

“The last time I ran Boston was 2008, Kristin has picked it up now, she ran her first official Boston last April and raised over 23 thousand dollars for Massachusetts General Hospital,” Dan said from his home on Supreme Court.

Santanello had a lot of celebrations in 2011.

Dan and his wife Sandy celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and the SHS class of 1976 will be holding their 35th reunion over the Thanksgiving weekend this fall.

“I was working for Merrill-Lynch and this woman walked in the office, (Sandy, who was an intern from Simmons College at the time) and I told a co-worker that I was going to marry that woman, and 25 years later, here we are,” Santanello said.

Dan has been with the Boston investment firm Winslow, Evans & Crocker since 2008, he is currently serving as a senior vice president and branch manager.

Santanello is a registered investment advisor, working in the field for over 28 years.

Sundays are a big day at the Santanello house, just like when he was a kid growing up on Crescent Street.

“Growing up we’d go to church in the morning, then the family would get together and have a big meal and spend Sunday together,” Dan said. “Now it’s our family and friends at our house, I cook up some meatballs for everybody and it’s even better if the Patriots are playing.”

“It’s just great to be living in town, to be a part of this community, I drive home from Boston and see the beach and the water, and I know I’m home,” Santanello said. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”

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