Are you ready for some football?

by Tom Condardo

For those of you patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the 2013 high school football season to begin, your wait is over. The Pioneers reported for their first practice today to begin the long journey to Thanksgiving Day. What begins in the sweltering heat (according to the forecast for this week) will end with the biting winds of late autumn. Or looking at it purely commercially, the season starts with trekking through stores for back to school supplies and by the time it ends, you'll be Christmas shopping.

But first things first. We have a season to play. And it will be a season of big changes for Massachusetts football. The Pioneers, in particular, will see significant differences. They'll be in a new league, a new division, and they'll be fighting for one of eight spots in an all new expanded playoff format that could end with a return trip to Gillette Stadium.

As always, I'll be chronicling all the action for you in my weekly articles and photos in the Lynnfield Villager and with additional material here in my Gridblog. I was down at practice this morning and my first article will be in Wednesday's Villager. I took a couple of photos and got some initial thoughts from head coach Neal Weidman.

This will be my fifth year doing the Gridblog and for those of you new here, I thought I'd spend a couple of paragraphs telling you a bit about me.

I'm starting my 35th year covering high school football. It's actually kind of unbelievable to even type those words. I've spent more than half my life prowling the sidelines, charting statistics, and badgering coaches for post game quotes. I started right out of college and my high school football reporting career  has spanned:

• My marriage (36 years and counting)
• The birth, growth, and denesting of my two sons (the oldest played four years of Pioneer football and served as a captain his senior year and my smaller, youngest made it through freshman ball before pragmatically switching to golf)
• My 35 year corporate career in executive management, sales, quality, and corporate communications with a global print/fulfillment/distribution/eCommerce organization.
• The start of my freelance commercial copy writing business (www.condardowriting.com) - yes, that's a blatant call to action for anyone in need of content creation.

I began in 1976 freshly graduated from Suffolk University's College of Journalism as a full time reporter/ad sales rep/gopher for the North Reading Transcript. I banged out my first season of articles on the Hornet football team using a manual Royal typewriter which was out of date even then (see below - that's an actual photo of my desk back then). I left the full time employ of the paper in 1977 to begin my slog through corporate life but agreed to continue to cover North Reading football. That continued through 1986 when I took a hiatus because of time constraints.

"Modern" Reporter's Workstation - 1976

I moved to Lynnfield in 1989 and Al Sylvia Jr., former editor of the Villager (and of the Transcript), decided I would now end my two year sabbatical to cover the Pioneers. I don't believe there was ever a question in that particular dialogue. That was 24 years ago and this year marks my silver anniversary season covering Lynnfield football.

In the early 90's, I spent more hours than I care to count trolling through the Wakefield and Lynnfield libraries combing through back editions of the Item and Villager to compile a statistical history of Lynnfield High football. That will answer your question of "how does he know that?" when I throw out that the Pioneers scored their 300th all time passing touchdown (which will probably happen this year by the way) or that a certain player now ranks Xth in all time Lynnfield scoring.

Being a statistical geek, let me give you the numbers. I've now covered 365 games over 35 seasons. I haven't exactly been a good luck charm for either the Hornets or Pioneers. North Reading was 44-63-3 in the 11 years I covered them and Lynnfield has been 93-161-1 in my 24 seasons here. That's a combined 137-224-4 or a dismal winning percentage of .375.

I did get to cover two Super Bowls (1979 at Boston College with North Reading and 2012 at Gillette with the Pioneers). The Pioneers also took me to two other playoff games (2009 vs Austin Prep and 2012 vs Amesbury).

I've worked with seven coaches, most of whom have been wonderfully accomodating which makes doing this job possible. I figure I've covered close to 500 players over the years. I know I've covered children of some of them. I don't think I've seen any grandkids yet, but unfortunately, I believe that is now a mathematical possibility.

I have to tell you that writing about winning years is easier, but finding the many positives as a team struggles through a tough season is extremely rewarding as well.  I've actually been more impressed with many of the players that toiled for losing squads. The drive and dedication of the those players I covered on teams that were totally outmanned against much larger Cape Ann League teams has been truly inspiring. The most fun I have is watching gangly, enthusiastic freshmen pay the price, work hard, and grow into juniors and seniors who fight for every yard and tackle. Win or lose, that's what high school football is all about.

But enough about me. Let's get this show on the road. Practice this week, scrimmage at Masco Saturday at 9 am, and we're off and running.

I look forward to your joining me for another run and feel free to comment if the mood strikes.