To rest or not: that’s the question
Coaches tackle difficult choice
Stoneham football coach Bob Almeida is happy to finally be in a position of having to decide how to handle playing time on Thanksgiving with a Super Bowl game on the horizon.
But he is quickly finding out a solution isn’t so easy.
“There’s isn’t a cut-anddried solution,” said Almeida, whose team will face Old Rochester in the Div. 6 Super Bowl. “My initial reaction is to go out and play the game. Reading was in the same boat two years and they went out and played to win the game. It’s really a tough dilemma because the turnaround is so quick from Saturday.”
Unlike Stoneham, Old Rochester received a bye directly to the Super Bowl, thus did not play last weekend. Bulldogs head coach Justin Kogler is concerned about a potential rust factor kicking in.
“I think in our situation, because we haven’t played since Nov. 9, I think we’re more likely to play everyone,” Kogler said. “I really don’t want to give kids a three-week layoff leading up to the Super Bowl.”
Sean Driscoll came from Winthrop and helped lead St. Mary’s to the Div. 7 Super Bowl this season. The topic of what to do against a good Bishop Fenwick team was on the minds of his entire coaching staff as soon as the team defeated Cohasset, 2211, in the state semifinals.
“I just said let’s enjoy dinner (Saturday night) and worry about it later,” Driscoll said with a chuckle. “Where I came from, the Thanksgiving Day game against Revere was very important. I think we have to be able to strike some sort of balance, but it would be very hard for us to lie down against Bishop Fenwick.”
Div. 8 Super Bowl finalist Pope John doesn’t have the luxury of dressing 70-80 kids on a weekly basis. For that reason, don’t expect head coach Paul Sobolewski to deviate too much tomorrow against a Matignon/St. Joseph team Pope defeated, 42-0, during the regular season.
“We’re dressing about 30 kids,” Sobolewski said. “We’ll be smart about it, but we’re looking at it as we would like to try and have a perfect season.”
Numbers certainly play a role in how teams look at Thanksgiving. Smaller schools like Millis and Middleboro have riled the traditionalists by essentially trotting out backups and junior varsity players on Thanksgiving, but both went on to win Super Bowls.
St. John’s Prep hasn’t won a Catholic Conference title since 2012 and has the opportunity to do so at Fenway Park against Xaverian in a winner-take-all for the league crown. Don’t expect to see the Eagles treading lightly even though the Hawks paid a price in 2013 when several players were hurt in the game.
“I think if I tried to keep some kids out, they would think I was out of my mind, and they would be right,” St. John’s Prep coach Brian St. Pierre said. “We’re playing at Fenway with the Catholic Conference on the line against one of the best teams we’ve faced this year. Our plan is to go out there and play very hard.”
King Philip coach Brian Lee is a veteran on the subject as his team is going to Gillette for the third straight year. The extra experience doesn’t mean the issue is any easier to deal with.
“It’s something the coaching staff goes back and forth a lot about,” Lee said. “I don’t think you can go into a game worrying about a kid getting hurt. I think it’s unfair to Franklin, they deserve to have that shot to beat us. I just think we have go out there and try to win the game.”
North Andover coach John Dubzinski, whose team will play King Philip in the Div. 2 Super Bowl, echoes many of the same sentiments as Lee.
“I’m going to be perfectly honest. We signed up to play an 11-game schedule,” Dubzinski said. “We are going to approach the Thanksgiving Day game with Andover like we have every other year. I think we would sending the wrong message if we didn’t go out there and do that.”
Around Catholic Memorial, the words Super Bowl and bowl opponent St. John’s Prep are taboo until tomorrow night. Head coach John DiBiaso minces no words when he talks about how his team is preparing for Thanksgiving.
“We are absolutely 100 percent thinking about BC High. No one is even allowed to think about the Super Bowl,” DiBiaso said. “It’s much easier now to play everyone than before when you had to play on Thanksgiving, the following Tuesday and Saturday if you win.
“This is a piece of cake.”