Biography

Joe Lafratta is the father of pre-teen football in North Attleboro. Acting out of a desire to create a formal football program for pre-high schoolers, Joe formed the Rockets back in 1962.

That first team provided a responsible recreational program for 25 boys. A year later, another team was formed. The program eventually grew to embrace five teams and provide healthy recreation for hundreds of North Attleboro youngsters.

As a coach and as longtime Junior Football president, Joe devoted more than twelve years to the program before he stepped down in the mid-1970s.

Devoting hundreds of hours of his time and not an inconsiderable amount of his own funds, Joe Lafratta developed the program which introduced North youngsters to the world of football. Under Joe, they had their first contact with competitive athletics, learning not only the skills of the game, but the tenets of sportsmanship that will serve them for the rest of their days. Scores of youngsters trained in Joe Lafratta's program and went on to become outstanding high school players. Some continued on to college programs.

For his long and selfless devotion to youth football Joe Lafratta richly deserves a place in the Greater Attleboro Hall of Fame.