Ah, September. This is the month of the year where fall starts and kids go back to school. Well, it’s also the time of year when the high school football regular season starts. For most teams (in Mass at least), it started up on Sept. 9 (I know, Rhode Island started the week before).
The next several Friday nights (and possibly Saturday afternoons in some towns), many will be packing fields across New England to catch a glimpse of their local football team in true fall in New England fashion. Even if your local team is not the best, chances are they still draw a decent crowd. After all, it’s something to do on the cheap on a Friday night as the games tend to last from about 7 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. And then there’s those Saturday games from 1 p.m. to about 3:15 p.m. in some parts of the state.
If you’re like me, then you’ll probably be a game or two a week. Games are always one of the town’s big events of the week, so high school football recaps and feature articles become — something I find myself doing quite often.
In Massachusetts, Xaverian Brothers, Everett and Duxbury are probably the top three teams. Last Saturday, Xaverian beat Everett, 17-14, in an absolute thriller. And Duxbury’s air attack is prolific.
Also, new this year in the Bay State: there’s eight divisions in high school football. So, what does that mean? Well, for starters, there will be two more championship games at Gillette this year. And there will be eight champions in the state plus vo-techs and Western Mass. will have their own championships. Lots of winners all-around.
A couple years back too, I was one of them. Long snapped for a Marshfield team in 2014 who topped Longmeadow, 45-6, at Gillette.
That game was 39-0 at the half so yeah, maybe it’s best Western Mass. does their own thing — even though Nashoba Valley won D2 states last year.