Sheehan to Triton; Realignment for Pioneers in 2011

It's only early June but there's a lot of  big news surrounding the Pioneer football program. So much in fact, that I will be splitting the June post in two. I'll post part two of the June blog next Wednesday.

The biggest news is that Pioneer offensive coordinator Patrick Sheehan is leaving Lynnfield to take over the head coaching position at Triton. It's an impressive promotion and great opportunity for the Lynnfield native. I'll devote next week's post to Sheehan's move north.

This week we'll deal with another significant piece of news for Lynnfield football concerning realignment and I"ll also take a look at the upcoming summer activity for the Pioneers.

So let's get to it.

New League for Pioneers in 2011

Despite the defeat of the sweeping MIAA state realignment proposal, the Pioneers will be playing in a new league in 2011 after all. But this change is much more positive for Lynnfield High Football.

It was announced last week that the Northeast Conference and the Cape Ann League will merge for football beginning with the 2011 season. The 24 team super conference will be divided into four tiers of six teams each with the champion of each league earning a playoff berth.

The Pioneers will play in Tier Four with North Reading, Hamilton Wenham, Ipswich, Manchester Essex and Georgetown. The NEC/CAL Tier Four will be Division 3A the same as the current CAL Small. The difference between Tier Four and the current CAL Small is the exit of Newburyport and Amesbury, who will move up to Tier Three with Pentucket, Saugus, Triton and Winthrop. They will be replaced by Manchester Essex, who was already committed to joining the CAL in 2011.

The rest of the NEC/CAL consists of Lynn Classical, Lynn English, Masco, North Andover, Peabody and Revere in Tier One and Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester, Marblehead, Salem and Swampscott in Tier Two.

Each team will play the other five team in its division and must play a total of two crossover games with teams from the other tiers.

"The Northeast Conference had some issues and we (Cape Ann League) had some issues with Wilmington leaving and Manchester Essex joining in 2011," said Pioneer head coach/co-Athletic Director Neal Weidman. "We would have had eight small schools and four large schools (in the CAL) so something had to be done. Joining with the NEC allows for more parity by matching up schools by size. I think they did a good job lining up the divisions."

For the Pioneers, the news is all good.

Tier Four is almost a perfect placement for Lynnfield. Using the current MIAA male enrollment base (2007 numbers) LHS's 337 places them in the middle of the new league behind Manchester Essex/Rockport (371), Hamilton Wenham (347) and North Reading (346) and ahead of Ipswich (315) and Georgetown (200).

The league figures to be very competitive with the title probably not being decided until Thanksgiving Day. Since all six team are traditional rivals the Lynnfield/North Reading, H-W/Ipswich and M-E/Georgetown games on the holiday will all be league games.

"We are in the right division," Weidman continued. "Sizewise that is where we fall. And we are still with North Reading so that makes sense. Keeping the rivalries together was one thing we wanted to do."

Over the past three seasons, the Pioneers have been extremely competitive with the five teams in their new league.They have posted winning records against Ipswich (3-0), North Reading (2-1) and Hamilton Wenham (2-1) and have a 1-2 mark against Georgetown. They have yet to beat Manchester Essex having lost their only two meetings in 2007 and 2008. Overall, since 2007, the Pioneers are 8-6 against those five teams having outscored them 278-235.

As for the crossover games, Lynnfield will be looking mostly at Tier Three opponents.

"Being in Tier Four we have to go up for any crossover games," said Weidman. "Amesbury and Newburyport are logical choices since we already play them in our current league. But it's still too early to make those decisions."

The MIAA still needs to approve the realignment but since there is no request for additional playoff berths, there should be nothing holding up the approval.

All in all, good news for the Pioneers.

Summer Action

With only a couple of months to go until the opening of preseason practice, the Pioneers begin gearing up for the 2010 season with a full summer slate of 7 on 7 contests. The big Lynnfield/Swampscott Tournament at the High School on July 24 looks like a must see. Here is the complete schedule:

Sunday, June 13 @ St. Anselm's Tournament in Manchester, NH (20-25 teams participating)
Wednesday, July 7 @ Bishop Fenwick vs Bishop Fenwick and Methuen
Sunday, July 11 @Bishop Fenwick vs Swampscott
Monday, July 19 @ Reading vs Reading and Peabody
Saturday, July 24 @ Lynnfield/Swampscott Tournament at Lynnfield High (Teams committed to playing are Lynnfield, Swampscott, Wilmington, Gloucester, North Andover, Marshfield, Quincy, Masconomet, Reading, Pentucket, Lynn Classical, Georgetown, Danvers, Methuen, Winthrop, Winchester, Chelmsford, Bishop Fenwick, Salem, Lynn English, Arlington Catholic, Whittier Tech, Manchester, Pinegree, Longmeadow, Peabody, Andover, Pope John).
Sunday, August 8 @ Reading vs Methuen and Reading,

Grassi, George Hennessey in Agganis Game

One final note, graduating seniors Chris Grassi and George Hennessey will be playing in the annual Harry Agganis game to be played in July at Manning Field in Lynn.

See you next Wednesday for Part Two of the June Post.