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Column: Football team will survive athletic expansion
Everybody take a deep breath.
For 26 years under Jack Martinelli, the Foxboro football program was as good as any in the state. No years below .500. Multiple Super Bowl championships. Foxboro's enrollment never seemed to matter then.
But now that the football program has finally stumbled, for the first time in seemingly forever, it's as if the sky is collectively falling on the town of Foxboro.
Our enrollment is too small to compete with the Mansfields and the North Attleboros of the Hockomock World. Hockomock League fans are salivating at the thought of the Warriors' reign at or near the top of the Hockomock League being over, quickly putting King Philip in the "new big three" at the sake of Foxboro.
Warriors fans are bemoaning the addition of new sports to Foxboro High School. Ice Hockey, lacrosse - these are only hurting the football team! With an enrollment as small as FHS in comparison to some of the Hockomock League giants, we need all our best athletes playing football if we have any chance of competing.
And now Foxboro High has a swimming team (albeit just a club team at this point, but with plans of making it a varsity team next year). How is Foxboro ever going to regain its once proud status as Hockomock King with all of these new teams popping up and stealing away athletes? Foxboro may never be a top dog in the Hockomock League with all these new varsity sports.
Well, I'm here to say, no matter how exaggerated that sounds, even if it's true ... so what?
Is it really a bad thing that there are more and more varsity teams for the kids? Do we really want to force kids to play football, even if they'd rather be playing another sport instead. Where do you draw the line? The Warriors could have the greatest kicking game in Eastern Mass. if we abolished the boys' soccer team. Imagine it.
The point is it's not worth sacrificing an expansion of the varsity sports programs in order to stay competitive in the sports Foxboro currently competes in. For all we know the next Michael Phelps lives right here, in Foxboro. Without a swimming team, maybe he never tries to swim, figuring there is no point since he can't do it in high school. Maybe he joins the football team and is a decent wide receiver. But now, with a team at the high school, our imaginary Phelps II hits the pool and eventually earns 10 gold medals.
It's hyperbolic, but it gets the point across. The last thing the Foxboro High School athletic department would want to do is deny any kid the chance to play his or her sport of choice if there is enough interest in the school to field a varsity team, especially with nearby Bishop Feehan and even Xavieran Brothers offering every and any sport.
This hits home with me, literally. As a high school athlete I really wanted to play lacrosse in the spring. I played sports in the fall and winter, and the overachiever/competitor in me needed a spring sport to keep busy. Alas, my high school did not field a lacrosse team (despite being located in a lacrosse hotbed of mid-upstate New York) and I went to the track team. Now, for all I know I was the second coming of Jim Brown at lacrosse, point is I'll never know, and it's something I'll always wonder about. Luckily, Foxboro athletes will never have to wonder that about lacrosse, or hockey, or now even swimming. If you want to try it, it's there, and that's the way it should be in high school athletics.
Some of the teams may indeed suffer as the talent gets stretched thin. But I think the last thing we have to worry about is the turnout and talent on the football team.
The football team had nearly 100 kids this year. It's not like football is going to stop mattering to every kid, every adult in this town. Kids join the midget football program with dreams of once taking the field at the Ahern School under coach Martinelli, and that isn't going to change.
And there's no reason to panic about the football program despite the 3-8 season this year. Next year the Warriors figure to have the best backfield in the Hockomock League with Mike Delaney and Luke Soccorso returning. Arguably, the Warriors' best offensive lineman was an underclassman. Soccorso was an all-league performer at linebacker. This team has talent and great coaching. As Mansfield's Mike Redding said, it could be another 27 years before the Warriors see another season like this.
So everybody take a deep breath. Sometimes a team hits a bump in the road, but it's not worth veering off that road. Smoother rides are ahead, we just need to be patient.
James Schneider can be reached at 508-236-0341 or at foxborosports@yahoo.com.
For 26 years under Jack Martinelli, the Foxboro football program was as good as any in the state. No years below .500. Multiple Super Bowl championships. Foxboro's enrollment never seemed to matter then.
But now that the football program has finally stumbled, for the first time in seemingly forever, it's as if the sky is collectively falling on the town of Foxboro.
Our enrollment is too small to compete with the Mansfields and the North Attleboros of the Hockomock World. Hockomock League fans are salivating at the thought of the Warriors' reign at or near the top of the Hockomock League being over, quickly putting King Philip in the "new big three" at the sake of Foxboro.
Warriors fans are bemoaning the addition of new sports to Foxboro High School. Ice Hockey, lacrosse - these are only hurting the football team! With an enrollment as small as FHS in comparison to some of the Hockomock League giants, we need all our best athletes playing football if we have any chance of competing.
And now Foxboro High has a swimming team (albeit just a club team at this point, but with plans of making it a varsity team next year). How is Foxboro ever going to regain its once proud status as Hockomock King with all of these new teams popping up and stealing away athletes? Foxboro may never be a top dog in the Hockomock League with all these new varsity sports.
Well, I'm here to say, no matter how exaggerated that sounds, even if it's true ... so what?
Is it really a bad thing that there are more and more varsity teams for the kids? Do we really want to force kids to play football, even if they'd rather be playing another sport instead. Where do you draw the line? The Warriors could have the greatest kicking game in Eastern Mass. if we abolished the boys' soccer team. Imagine it.
The point is it's not worth sacrificing an expansion of the varsity sports programs in order to stay competitive in the sports Foxboro currently competes in. For all we know the next Michael Phelps lives right here, in Foxboro. Without a swimming team, maybe he never tries to swim, figuring there is no point since he can't do it in high school. Maybe he joins the football team and is a decent wide receiver. But now, with a team at the high school, our imaginary Phelps II hits the pool and eventually earns 10 gold medals.
It's hyperbolic, but it gets the point across. The last thing the Foxboro High School athletic department would want to do is deny any kid the chance to play his or her sport of choice if there is enough interest in the school to field a varsity team, especially with nearby Bishop Feehan and even Xavieran Brothers offering every and any sport.
This hits home with me, literally. As a high school athlete I really wanted to play lacrosse in the spring. I played sports in the fall and winter, and the overachiever/competitor in me needed a spring sport to keep busy. Alas, my high school did not field a lacrosse team (despite being located in a lacrosse hotbed of mid-upstate New York) and I went to the track team. Now, for all I know I was the second coming of Jim Brown at lacrosse, point is I'll never know, and it's something I'll always wonder about. Luckily, Foxboro athletes will never have to wonder that about lacrosse, or hockey, or now even swimming. If you want to try it, it's there, and that's the way it should be in high school athletics.
Some of the teams may indeed suffer as the talent gets stretched thin. But I think the last thing we have to worry about is the turnout and talent on the football team.
The football team had nearly 100 kids this year. It's not like football is going to stop mattering to every kid, every adult in this town. Kids join the midget football program with dreams of once taking the field at the Ahern School under coach Martinelli, and that isn't going to change.
And there's no reason to panic about the football program despite the 3-8 season this year. Next year the Warriors figure to have the best backfield in the Hockomock League with Mike Delaney and Luke Soccorso returning. Arguably, the Warriors' best offensive lineman was an underclassman. Soccorso was an all-league performer at linebacker. This team has talent and great coaching. As Mansfield's Mike Redding said, it could be another 27 years before the Warriors see another season like this.
So everybody take a deep breath. Sometimes a team hits a bump in the road, but it's not worth veering off that road. Smoother rides are ahead, we just need to be patient.
James Schneider can be reached at 508-236-0341 or at foxborosports@yahoo.com.
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| Girls' basketball preview: Size may power Warriors to top of Hock | Warriors fall to Hornets, 28-0 |
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