OK, time to put pen to paper on the Turkey Day happenings here …
I’ll start with Billerica, which feels the wrath of the miaa and has to travel to Reading for a Rockets home game.
Now, I’m sure that I’ll hear that this is sheer coincidence, that Reading was a site and this is how it’s worked out and how this is like if the Dolphins made the Super Bowl this year, they would be the home team.
I say that is an absolute unabashed joke. And this is yet another moronic decision by the cash-driven MIAA.
This game should be at Lowell or North Andover, Andover, Lawrence, or anywhere else but Reading or Dracut.
Dracut got flat-out hosed in this one by the MIAA.
Next topic on MIAA bashing Saturday night, I bring you the idiotic 10-minute quarters on Turkey Day for teams in the playoffs. I can’t even try to attack this one, because its stupidity stands by itself.
So the title for a league that plays 11 minute quarters is decided in a game that is played in 10 minute quarters.
Why stop there? Why not take one guy off the field for each team and have that extra guy sub in to save the wear and tear on the athletes whom you are making play three games in a 10-day span?
Or better yet, let’s line the fields with feathers to make the impacts softer when guys get hit.
Finally, I’ll ask anyone to give me the thought process behind Whittier Tech cake-walking to the title game on Saturday.
All these tiny divisions, all these fake titles and you couldn’t put a fourth team in there so the Cats actually have to play a semifinal game?
OK, enough venting.
I know I’m not supposed to report on hearsay but I saw the hit Matt Silva took and the way he held his shoulder on Turkey Day. I also heard that the coaching staff there is not counting on him for Tuesday.
That’s a mighty tough break for the Middies.
Speaking of Silva, it makes me think of the MVC and it’s talented lot of QBs.
I get the feeling with the split divisions that the coaches might reach alltime depths as they dilute the all-conference teams with 15-player first teams and 15-player second teams and more MVPs than any conference in history.
I don’t envy the coaches, but at some point don’t you have to make choices?
Somehow, I get the feeling that Silva, Nick LaSpada, Cal Carroll, Nick Elwell, Andrew Ouellette and John Hennessy all will earn their places on the first team or better.
And that’s without any of them being named on defense.
Another great area of contention is receiver.
I haven’t seen a better receiver in the MVC in a decade than Mike Calzetta.
Of course, Wayne Bolz of Billerica was money, so was Rak Shepard at Dracut, Raudy Minaya at Methuen and Christopher McConnell of Andover. The kid from Tewksbury was darn good too, for some reason his name slips me, but I watched him twice or three times and he couldn’t be covered.
My guess is that the coaches go three or four MVPs for each of the divisions, large and the small, 1st and 2nd teams for each of the divisions so everybody is an all-star.
Let me address one more MVC football note before I turn the page. The whole state of football is in flux with the potential new realignment.
The time has come for the MVC to step up and force Tewksbury’s hand for Lawrence’s sake.
You strong-armed Lawrence. You forced them back. Now, it’s up to you to give them a real Thanksgiving Day foe.
Ten teams in the league. Five league games on Turkey Day. That should be the plan.
If you don’t make it happen, then shame on all of you in this league.
Interesting chat with Mike Yameen talking with him about the potential Lawrence-Lowell renewal. One huge piece of the puzzle is Lowell coach Al Pare, a huge proponent of renewing the game but a coach who is under siege in Lowell.
Is it me or does this thing scream for a Haverhill-Lawrence, Lowell-tewksbury Thanksgivign setup?
With all due respect to Tewks and Wilmington and that rivalry, the MVC has to care for the teams that stuck around first and foremost.
Finally, I leave you with this.
I met Chris Serino at Merrimack College back in the day when UNH still had baseball and he was coaching there.
At the time, he was scouting Matt Cassano on the mound for Central Catholic.
Chris was a great guy, personable, well-spoken and sharp.
So I say this to let you know that I like and respect him.
Make that respected.
Malden Catholic, where Serino is now the AD, had the gall to charge $10 a ticket for the Thanksgiving eve game with Lawrence.
Ten bucks for a game in the regular season? Totally, totally uncalled for.
Methuen-Dracut, a much better game with tons on the line, sold for $5.
I can’t for the life of me figure how a high school could charge $10 for a football game but MC did.
If I had my way, I would have turned around and walked. But my wife’s commitment to those Lawrence students meant a lot more.
So we paid and stayed.
Imagine paying $20 for two tickets.
