All-Scholastic selection Aidan Boutin led the Hanover High rugby team in carries and tries en route to the Division 2 state title game this spring.
Behind every star athlete is a support system. Boutin isn't shy to reveal his. It's rooted deep in school history.
Boutin's older brothers — Seamus, Colin and Rian — founded the Hawks' rugby program in 2015. In the near decade since, Hanover built a one-time state champion and perennial contender from the ground level.
“Watching them growing up, I always wanted to be like them," Aidan Boutin said of his brothers. "In football, wrestling, rugby, every sport, no matter what it was. I’ve watched so much film on them, it’s probably unhealthy.”
Boutin, the last in the family's high school sports pipeline, approaches his senior year this fall.
What's one thing to which he looks forward most? Facing off against his three older brothers in the rugby team's annual alumni game again.
“I tried to run each one of them over (last year),” Aidan Boutin said. “It was the first time I got to compete with them in a game. It’s something I definitely won’t forget.”
Humble beginnings
Coming off three title-game appearances and consecutive Final Fours since winning the 2017 Division 2 championship, the team now routinely fields 40-plus players on its roster every year.
The older brothers know well — it wasn't always that way.
In 2015, Seamus, Colin and Rian Boutin rounded up 17 players for the inaugural season (Seamus' senior year, Colin's junior year and Rian's freshman year). The three brothers recruited athletes from every Hanover High sport in the hallways to extend their brotherly bond over football just one more season together, even though this wasn't football.
“I feel like we were all learning together. I did not know how to play (rugby)," Colin Boutin said. "It was more about getting a bunch of guys to play one more season to tackle and run around with the ball.”
They asked one of their teachers, Andy McLean, a former rugby player in the Super League, to oversee the team.
“The next day, I think they had about 20 signatures (of interested players), and it just kind of went from there," McLean said. "They were really great for recruiting. Not only are they great athletes, but they are such nice kids.”
The team formed and hit the field for its first-ever game that spring. It booted the kick-off to opponent Scituate, and Colin Boutin prematurely tackled the Scituate player as the opposition attempted to field the ball. Officials stopped the game, and Hanover drew a yellow card just seconds into its debut.
Nine years removed, Colin Boutin laughed at the blunder and said, “It’s a good rule. We just didn’t know it at the time."
Seamus Boutin agreed, chuckling, “We had no idea what we were doing. We were just hitting kids, (unknowingly) breaking every rule.”
Said McLean, “There’s always something that comes up when you’re sure you went over everything. Stuff like that isn’t too bad, though you can get called out and be made to look pretty silly.”
Building a winner
Scituate won the opener handily, the brothers said, but Hanover made a rematch near the end of the season more competitive. The next year, Hanover competed for the MYRO (Mass. Youth Rugby Organization) title in 2016, just before the MIAA sanctioned rugby as a high school sport in 2017.
“It was incredible," Rian Boutin said of the climb. "We got better and better each year — more kids, more skill, more knowledge of the game.”
In 2017, Seamus and Colin had graduated, and Hanover dropped games to a pair of established programs, Marshfield and Milton, early in the regular season. The Marshfield loss came by single-digits, but Milton put up 50 in a rout.
When the postseason arrived, Hanover, led by senior standout Jeff Wheeler, avenged the defeats with back-to-back wins over the Rams and Wildcats to clinch the MIAA's first Division 2 title. Rian Boutin, a junior at the time, scored a try to seal the state championship win over Milton at Endicott College.
“That day, they were just so determined," McLean said of his players in their first title game. "They tackled, tackled and tackled. And, in the second half, Milton barely touched the ball. We had it the whole time.”
Said Colin Boutin, "(The team) has come a long, long way."
One last run
The trio of already-graduated Boutin brothers still help out the current-day team. Seamus is a paraprofessional at Hanover High and an official member of McLean's coaching staff. Colin, who also contributes to coaching youth wrestling in town, and Rian are familiar faces on and around the sidelines during games.
The team's goal for Aidan's senior year is to dethrone the three-time defending champion, Weymouth. Hanover lost a heart-breaker to the Wildcats, 34-29, in the Division 2 final this spring.
“(Weymouth is) very good. I just want to beat them really bad," said Aidan Boutin, an 8-man who will soon suit up at running back and linebacker for the football team this fall. "That’s three years in a row I’ve had to look seniors in the eyes and say we didn’t win.”
Wheels up for one last run at rugby for the Boutin band.
“I’m sure we’ll still have them around," McLean said of the family, including the brothers' father, Warren, mother, Danielle, and sister, Kayleen. "But there will be tough shoes to fill in terms of them playing because those four were amazing players. It’ll be real hard not having a Boutin (in 2026)."
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