Kudos to Mike Yameen for tracking us down to for the opportunity to give his kids a little ink.
A miscommunication Tuesday kept Yameen’s boys out of my first-annual midseason survey, but here’s how the Lawrence High football boss answered the five questions as the second half approaches.
Midseason Mr. Reliable: “I’d go with Pedro Cruz, who’s been there every game, both ways up front, then there’s our starting corner Pedro Rodriguez, who’s been as tough as they come out there, and finally our sophomore halfback Devin Montanez, who we are trying to get the football to more often.
Unsung Hero: “Has to be Harvey Blanco. He’s been so tough at fullback and is our second leading tackler at linebacker on defense.”
Biggest surprise: “I’d say Donea Robinson, our leading tackler. He wasn’t around for a lot of the summer work, but he’s just a natural talent out there.”
Second half goal: “Just to stay with it and keep working. Our kids haven’t quit and I’m proud of them for that.”
How to get it done: “We just have to grow up. We’re so young, and we make so many mistakes.”
By the way, Yameen and a half-dozen other contacts around the MVC weren’t budging but the sources close to the league say the move to push Lawrence back into the MVC for football is nearly complete.
By all accounts, Lawrence will be part of the MVC football scene in 2008.
“I haven’t heard that,” said Yameen, “but I will say this, the league we’re in right now, the Cape Ann League, is a pretty darn good football league.”
Bringing Lawrence back to the MVC opens the door for an expansion to 12 teams, meaning two divisions a small and large in the MVC.
Rumors of a proposed merger with the CAL, making a three-pronged league, have fallen through.
Word that Malden and Medford were interested in joining the MVC in all sports was leaked a couple weeks ago.
Thinking that the MVC would do what it has done, splitting by recent performance, not by enrollment, the football split looks this:
Large
Chelmsford
Billerica
Central
Lowell
Andover
and hmmm.
One of the seven remaining candidates will have to bump up:
Tewksbury
Haverhill
Methuen
Dracut
Lawrence
Malden
Medford
I can’t imagine too many volunteers for that one. Dracut seems like the likely candidate, with the recent upswing in its program, but I can remember those nights before thanksgiving on Gary Meuse’s local cable roundtable and how all the old-time middie followers professing how their kids couldn’t hang, enrollment wise, with the Chelmsfords and Centrals.
Tewksbury, on a high now but enrollment wise, it’s a small school.
Methuen? Needs a couple more years to renew, at least.
Haverhill? Trending downward.
Lawrence? It’s not ready.
Perhaps one of the new guys, if it is indeed Malden and Medford, will fall on that sword.
Again, this is all based on recent rumors, so think what you’d like about it.
And don’t be afraid to pass along your comments.
