As a sophomore, he would humbly sit in the lockerroom before a football game representing North Attleboro High School and listen to every word spoken by then Rocketeer head coach Ray Beaupre.

And North Attleboro won the Hockomock League title, advancing to the MIAA Division 3-B Super Bowl game that year, in 1995, against Marshfield.

Two years later, as a senior, he remembers almost the same scenario, but the message of inspiration was being delivered by first-year head coach Paul Sullivan.

And North Attleboro not only won the Hockomock League title, the Rocketeers beat Swampscott (20-7) to claim the MIAA Division 3-B Super Bowl title.

Not just being around a winning program, but contributing to its success, to its livelihood, to its foundation for the future, that's what Mark Vandette remembers most from his days as a Rocketeer. And to this day, many of those same principles are put into practice in the work place, for without that same strength of ethics, the 1998 graduate would not be guiding Contracting Specialists, a concrete and masonry repair firm which refurbishes historic buildings, churches, parking garages and currently a multi-million dollar project at the Walter Reed Hospital for armed service veterans in Washington, D.C.

"Coach Beaupre was a great motivator, he said all the right things and you were almost pumped up into tears - he was very emotional," said Vandette the other day. "And Coach Sullivan, he was so smart as a coach - there was no situation, no game that we were not prepared for."

Vandette is one of a quartet of Rocketeers who will be inducted into the Attleboro Area Football Hall of Fame tonight - joining Steve Martelli '94 (a service supervisor for Otis Elevator), Sean Cryan '95 (sports director at ABC-affiliate WVII in Bangor, Maine) and Jon Bourbeau '94 (the executive managing director for the Newmark Knight Frank Corp. in Miami).

Former Attleboro High School Athletic Director and coach Cliff Sherman, a recent inductee into the Stonehill College Athletic Hall of Fame, will be joined by former Bombardiers Dick Barnett '54 (an accountant), Geoff Raby '98 (a member of the Nashua, N.H. police force) and Mike Haynes '99 (the owner-operator of a real estate and home improvement company in North Carolina).

Bishop Feehan's class of 2008 Hall of Famers includes Andy Pelletier '89 (a network engineer in New Hampshire), Tom Morin '95 (a history teacher at Medfield High) and Dan Messier '97 (a plumber-contractor locally).

The football family that is the Greater Attleboro Area Football Hall of Fame is an extension of the Vandette football family, what with cousin Chris (class of 1994) having played in the Super Bowl title-taking game as a senior against Whitman-Hanson and younger brother Garrett (class of 2003), having played in the Super Bowl championship win as a senior against Swampscott.

And all three Vandettes continued their football careers in college, at Worcester Polytech.

"It was a lot of fun playing in college, we played some good teams, but we were always 5-4 or 4-5 or around .500," said Vandette over the weekend. "It was not the same thing as playing football for North Attleboro High. It was a far cry from the Big Red winning nine or 10 games every year."

Vandette was a member of the 1997 North Attleboro High football team that beat Swampscott for the Division 3-B Super Bowl championship, a wide receiver, a defensive back, a kick returner. "That was Coach Sullivan's first year and thinking back now, I was so lucky to have played for two great coaches," he added.

Naturally, Vandette can remember big games like they were yesterday. "Like the Foxboro game, they always had marquee players and we shut them down - that decided the league title for us. "That and the game at Mansfield. It was rainy and misty. They had the ball first and we got a couple of sacks that first series. Then I returned the punt about 50 yards for a touchdown and we killed them after that."

Because cousin Chris Vandette was a few years older than the Vandette brothers, Mark remembers the younger family generation looking up to him. "That's kind of like the whole North Attleboro program - looking up to the seniors, looking out for each other, setting a good work ethic," said Vandette.

He also played baseball at North for four years, played basketball for two years, then ran winter track during his junior and senior year - a small and speedy kid. "It's kind of funny, but I had played tackle and guard in Pop Warner, then I started to grow and I sped up a little," chuckled Vandette.

"Everything that I ever learned from football is that it's hard work and you take that with you in life," said Vandette. "You won't be handed anything, you have to work for everything, there are no shortcuts. Whatever you get is what you worked for - and that is pretty much the philosophy that I've taken through life."

A civil engineering major at WPI, Vandette played as a defensive back as a freshman, then moved to a wide receiver slot for the next three years. The stringent academic process, the trimesters, the inter-disciplinary studies that he underwent around Salisbury and Boynton Streets just continued the process of crystallizing what he had learned at North Attleboro High.

"We do a lot of historic repairs, water-proofing that sort of thing," said Vandette of his business, now engaged in new roofs for the Walter Reed medical facility.

"I can definitely say that by playing football, not just winning games, but the friendships that you develop, the coaches that you learn from, all of the stuff that goes on in the lockerroom or on the practice field, it helped me be more well-rounded," said Vandette.

"Being able to be part of a team, being able to communicate, knowing that there is no day where you can take it easy."

PETER GOBIS may be contacted at 508-236-0375 or via e-mail at pgobis@thesunchronicle.com