OK, the tough work has been done, two-a-days, camp, endless practices, time to look at the local teams and their races, and make a prediction or three on the upcoming year.
We’ll start with the Merrimack Valley Conference race.
Hmm, looking for a favorite.
Folks down river will point to Dracut and its 17 returning starters.
Nope, not here.
The inside feeling here is that Central Catholic wins the MVC, possibly running the table with a clean slate.
The reasoning is simple. Giant numbers. A three-year starter in Shain Jowett at QB, another stud at fullback in junior Zack Latrell (man, should Central be renamed Fullback Prep or what? (Lovett, Fendone, etc., all the way back to uliano) and a big, savvy line led by a pair of potential scholarship guys in Michael Garcia and Zak Adamopoulos.Looking for a star you may never have heard of, try Rob DiBitetto. The little guy hits like a train.
After that, I’ll buck the trend and go with Tewksbury, a smidge ahead of 3/4 Dracut and Chelmsford.
Why the Redmen?
Two reasons. First, it’s the presence of the MVC’s dominant lineman a year ago, Joe Gulino. Second, it’s possible that my man, Ronnie Wallace, who’s definitely starting at safety, could get the nod at QB, too.
Wallace is a winner, a gamer, the kind of athlete that gives high school sports a good name.
He and the Redmen will find a way.
Again, 3/4, it’s Dracut, which must try to survive the toughest non-league schedule you’ll see with Brockton, Everett and the Prep lined up and Bruce Rich’s Lions, the defending champ.
As for the rest, we’ll see Andover rebound from some early setbacks to respectably sit in the middle of the pack.
I’m not sure about the Rangers of Methuen, who had a long way to come from out of the depths, but Pat Graham seems to have the program moving upward.
Lowell, Billerica and Haverhill, which has top athletes competing all over New England for other schools, including All-ISL returning quarterback Brett Frongillo, should round out the league.
Now lets slide to the Cape Ann League.
Large: How can you go against Masconomet with the Splinter-Bunker combo, two straight titles and the North Andover Turkey Day curse dead and buried?
Masco is the clear-cut choice to three-peat.
It is here that normally I would shock the world and choose Lawrence High.
I hear the chuckling, but I’m dead serious about the Lancers and their talent.
Other than the Chieftains, I don’t think there is a team in the Valley or CAL or Southern NH that wouldn’t trade their skill players for the Lancers.
Ramon Heredia runs the spread again for the third straight year. The junior backfield mix of speed Devin Montanez and power Harvey Blanco are as good as it gets. Receivers Alex Andrews, if eligible, Demitri Brown, Aaron Blanco and Mike Calzetta are flat-out weapons.
That said, it is Lawrence’s last year in the CAL, a league that has never really accepted the Lancers.
Too often in their CAL tenure, the Lancers have been stung by a questionable flag, a mystery hold or the like. Sorry, but we tell it like it is here. The CAL has never officially given Lawrence a fair shake
That said, we’ll go North Andover with its massive, but young line, to earn the runner-up spot as Zac Iovanella delivers 2,500 yards of offense.
The Lancers do sneak up and zing someone this fall, I say LHS takes third, by the slimmest of margins over an impressive Pentucket squad with Wilmington finishing it out in a re-organizing year after the departure of coach Bob Almeida.
Small: Amesbury/Newburyport; Newburyport/Amesbury, who do you love?
I think you have to lean to the Port side, just because the Indians won the Turkey Day showdown last year.
Georgetown, with Joe Espo and the crew, represent the wrench in all those best laid plans. The Royals move over from the CAC small and pose a gigantic threat.
North Reading is the class of the rest, a smidge better than Ipswich, Ham-Wenham and Lynnfield.
Quickly, we’ll go to the CAC in the large with the Reggies rebuilding and Shawsheen losing a top back to Billerica High, we’ll go off the board with Lynn Tech to grab the title over much-improved Whittier and Greater Lowell.
Manchester Essex should again own the small, especially without the presence of Georgetown.
Coming Thursday night, we’ll submit picks for the weekend. Fellow E-T staffer Dave Dyer continues his stranglehold on the picks in print, I think it’s because he knows I”m a better prognosticator. Therefore, I will challenge him on-line and thoroughly defeat the man.
