I'm already on Cape Cod, preparing to see another high school football game in about 12 hours or so, but I figured it was time to put up some bonus thoughts from Saturday's 38-0 win by Tri-County over Holbrook-Avon:
** My impressions of Saturday's game have already been written -- for Sunday's newspaper, in my column. But I don't mind repeating them here because, in this case, first impressions were lasting ones.
In the event that anyone reads these comments, and somehow interprets them as insults directed at the student-athletes of Holbrook or Avon, let me state for the record right from the start of this post that I am not criticizing the kids who wore the uniforms Saturday. This is what I saw in a bigger-picture sense, and the comments you'll read (and I'm going to put the column parts in quotes) are not intended to have any hidden double meanings. It may sound a little harsh to some, but in no way do I intend to criticize any athletes in these observations -- just the adults who apparently don't care much about what the kids are doing.
In fact, it scares me that I even have to say that.
Anyway...
"Sometimes I think that high school football fans in this area don't know how good they have it -- and that they might actually take the health and vitality of their football teams for granted.
"It isn't easy to keep a football team on the field these days, a fact of which I was reminded Saturday when, on a lark, I ventured up to Holbrook to see the Tri-County Cougars continue their march toward a second straight playoff berth in a game against the co-operative team from Holbrook and Avon.
"Holbrook and Avon have fielded a joint team for some time now, yet the results of this joint venture don't seem to be readily apparent. When I pulled up to Holbrook High in the midst of a deluge Saturday, I was greeted with a dreary scene that I'd call "post-apocalyptic football," a Rod Serling-esque vision of what high school football would be like if it was played several years after a nuclear war.
"The school itself is of classic early-1950s design (I can easily imagine the duck-and-cover drills being conducted in the classrooms), and the field looks like the product of 40 years of neglect -- rusted chain-link fences ringing the field, crumbling and bent in some places; an antiquated, non-functional scoreboard; tall weeds growing through the gaps in the visiting-team bleachers; and the yard lines barely showing through the ragged growth of the grass or the mud in the worn-out patches of the field.
"The kids on the team (maybe about 20 healthy bodies at most) gave a good effort, let there be no mistake about that. In fact, I felt sorry for them, busting their butts on the field against a superior team when it was painfully obvious that most of the adults in the two towns feeding this team don't give a rat's behind whether it succeeds or fails.
"But they're not alone.
"Millis, for many years the smallest school in the Tri-Valley League, has fought the good fight for a long time despite dwindling enrollment. This year, the Mohawks almost had to drop out of the TVL when the numbers got too low -- until the town of Hopedale came to the rescue, agreeing to send some of its strapping young lads over to Millis to augment the numbers. Bourne has also absorbed football-minded individuals from Upper Cape Regional in recent years.
"But in my travels, I haven't seen as sad a sight as I did Saturday in Holbrook. Each one of those kids in uniform deserves a lot more support from the community than they're getting."
** This was my first look at the Tri-County Cougars, and I came away very impressed. The Cougars throw some of everything at an opposing team ... rotating quarterbacks, options, "Wildcat" plays, counters ... you name it. And they come so quickly, and are executed so well, that an opposing team just doesn't have time to react or to figure out what the Cougars' tendencies are.
** During the game, a young man in a Cougar uniform (I'd say who, but I didn't have a roster) came up to me and asked me if I knew that he and several of his teammates were former South Attleboro White Hawks. "Now I do," I said.
Indeed, although the school is technically outside our circulation area in Franklin, we've tried to fully cover Tri-County since it opened in the late '70s because of the overwhelming number of local student-athletes in the school. We tried to offer the same coverage to Southeastern Regional several years ago, as it draws students from Mansfield, Norton and Foxboro, but our overtures were met with overwhelming disinterest at the Easton school. Tri-County has always been a lot more receptive, so I'm glad to stand in the rain and mud to watch the Cougars play very good football.
** This Randy Hardy kid is fun to watch. He can do just about anything on a football field, and did a lot of it in pretty rotten weather Saturday. Yes, he threw three interceptions, but he also tossed a 70-yard touchdown pass to Nate Keene, and the picks were almost as effective as punts when they were thrown.
Of course, one can't ignore 21 carries for 231 yards and four touchdowns, coming either as an option quarterback or a halfback. The 96-yarder inside the last minute may have lifted an eyebrow or two under other circumstances, but keep these factors in mind:
-- Tri-County has fairly good numbers on its roster for its division level, but there wasn't a lot of depth on either side of the field, so there weren't many kids with clean uniforms to put into the game.
-- When Hardy broke through the line on the second-and-10 play from his own 4, he was probably the most surprised person in Holbrook to see nothing but open field ahead of him. There just wasn't a lot of energy or spirit left in the fellows in the blue uniforms to engage in a hot pursuit. At a time like that, you don't just turn around and say, "You know what? I don't feel like running 96 yards." You take what you're given.
** Got a kick out of how laissez-faire the officiating of this game was, particularly the clock-keeping. Without a working scoreboard, time was kept by some fellow in street clothes walking the sidelines, and I think he was keeping it on a 40-year-old Timex. I'd ask what the official time was for a touchdown, and he'd round it off to the nearest minute, as in "Seven minutes..." or "Nine minutes ..." with a distinct "don't bother me" feel to it.
Seriously, if the adults in charge aren't taking the game seriously, how can anyone expect the kids to react any differently? As I said, we take for granted what we have around here, in the way our 10 football-playing schools conduct themselves, respect the game, and understand the positive life-lessons that can come from doing things right.
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