Walter Dubzinski Jr 

On Oct 5 2025, at the Gardner Museum, in grateful appreciation for his outstanding and dedicated service to the city of Gardner, Walter Dubzinski Jr was awarded a Citation by City Counselor Judy Mack.

It's a name that has been synonymous with Gardner High School football since the early 1930s. The second era of Dubzinski football at Gardner High came to an end when Walter Dubzinski Jr., after 38 years, 242 wins and four Super Bowl titles, announced he would be stepping down as head coach of the Wildcats in 2015. 

Growing up in the shadow of Walt Dubzinski Sr., who coached Gardner High football from 1946-65, Walt Jr. had big shoes to fill. What followed was a career marked by excellence and accolades. After graduating from Boston College in 1964, Walt Dubzinski Jr. took assistant coaching football jobs at Hanover High School, St. Bernard’s and Gardner. He got his first head-coaching shot at Lunenburg High in 1977, and success soon followed. Under Walt Dubzinski Jr.’s tireless dedication, the Lunenburg Blue Knights made four Super Bowl appearances, winning three times, in 1979, ’81 and ’83. 

In 1986, he took a job as vice principal at Gardner High School and also became the Wildcats’ new head football coach. The Wildcats flourished under Walt Dubzinski Jr.’s leadership. They won a Super Bowl in 1997, and in 2011 put together a perfect, 11-0 regular season to claim the Mid-Wach B title. In 2006, Walt Dubzinski Jr. and his brother, John Dubzinski, entered the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame side-by-side. 

Walt Dubzinski Jr. said the message he tried to convey to his players was simple, “Work hard, do the best you can,” he said. “Be a good school citizen and be a good citizen in general. Be a good husband and a good father. Be respectable in all that you do. You don’t need to be a surgeon or a lawyer to be respectable. Do what you do and do it well.”

Do we ever really retire?

Spectrum News Video did a story on Walter in 2025:
Walt Dubzinski Jr Making an Impact on Football for Over 75 Years.
Walt Dubzinski, Jr., who was the Head Coach at Lunenburg and Gardner for very successful runs and now is an assistant coach for his son Mike at Wachusett, the passion for high school football and the impact it can have on high school kids remains as strong as ever.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ma/worcester/news/2025/09/22/walt-dubzinski-jr--making-an-impact-on-football-field-for-over-75-years

Banner image above from the Gardner News:
Caption: The stunning Wildcats’ come-from-behind victory, the biggest star of that day, Gardner tailback Lee Blanchard, who bolted around the right side for an early 68-yard touchdown run and added another, an 88-yard jaunt around the left end, sparking the thrilling late-game rally from a 19-7 deficit as the game clock ticked under four minutes. 

Some text excerpted from https://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/2015/03/09/longtime-gardner-high-football-coach-walt-dubzinski-jr-retires/