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Now to the business at hand.
Although the snow has barely melted and spring is still struggling to arrive, it's time to mark your calendars: The 2010 Lynnfield Pioneer football season starts six months from tomorrow night!
The 11 game season has some interesting highlights. Three opponents from 2009 are gone replaced with a first time Pioneer foe and the return of two others. As was the case last season, the first half of the year is loaded with non-league contests setting the stage for what promises to be an even tighter CAL Small race in the final five games of the season.
The Pioneers will play almost half their games under "Friday Night Lights" and will have only four games on Saturday. They have one Friday afternoon contest and will wrap up the regular season with the traditional Thanksgiving morning game.
Perhaps most notably Lynnfield will not be facing any CAL Large teams this year, the first time since the Cape Ann League was formed in 1973 that the Pioneers will not play at least one of the larger schools in the league.
Last season, Lynnfield split their two games with the CAL Large teams, handing Triton their first loss in a last minute 21-19 win and suffering their only regular season loss to Wilmington 28-7. Neither is back on this year's slate.
Playing the larger schools "hasn't been a requirement for a few years," explained Lynnfield head coach Neal Weidman. "But we had two year committments to those teams and they ended last year so we were free to add other teams."
The other school not booked for a return engagement with the Pioneers is Matignon.
Filling those holes this season will be Manchester-Essex, Chelsea and Bishop Fenwick.
The Pioneers kick off the season under the lights against M/E on September 10 marking the return of the Hornets to the schedule after a one year absence. The Pioneers lost a 21-14 heartbreaker to M/E in 2007 after taking a 14-0 lead into the fourth quarter. In 2008, Lynnfield battled what would eventually be an undefeated Division 4 Super Bowl Champion Hornet team in a 35-21 loss.
"We had a couple of good games with them so we wanted to get them back on the schedule," Weidman explained. "We lost the tough one in overtime in 2007 and their coach told us we were the toughest team they played in 2008."
The Hornets returned much of that Super Bowl team in 2009 and finished 9-2, one of those losses to Whittier who went on to capture the Division 4 Super Bowl. M/E graduates a boatload of seniors but will return starting quarterback Alex Carr.
This will be a non-league game, but that could change in 2011. If the proposed massive restructuring of Massachusetts football does not come to pass in 2011, M/E will be joining the CAL Small as a league member.
Speaking of the reorganization proposal, Weidman said he wasn't certain how Lynnfield would be voting on the plan but he did say that he and co-Athletic Director and former Pioneer head coach Bill Adams have been discussing it and are "leaning toward what is 100% best for Lynnfield."
When told that according to preliminary breakdowns, the Pioneers would be the smallest school in their division, Weidman replied "You never want to be the smallest school in a division."
Asked to predict the outcome of the vote later this month, Weidman said he felt it "is going to be very close."
Back to the schedule.
The Pioneers will open defense of their CAL Small title on Friday afternoon September 17 against Georgetown in what will also be their home opener. The start time is in deference to Yom Kippur which is observed that weekend.
Lynnfield's title march last year catapulted from a stunning 32-6 win over the Royals who would go on to finish the season 1-9. They graduate 10 seniors including key two way captain Chris Esposito.
Following the CAL Small opener, the Pioneers will play four non league games before getting back into league play.
The first will be on Friday, September 24 for a first ever meeting with Bishop Fenwick under the lights on artificial turf in Peabody.
"We let it be known that we were looking for a week three opponent," said Weidman. "Fenwick had an agreement lined up but the team is struggling and told them they might not even have a team this year so they asked to be excused and they called us."
The Crusaders have a strong football history winning seven out of nine Catholic Central Large titles from 1995 to 2003 including back to back Super Bowl Championships in 1999 and 2000. They have struggled recently and are coming off a 4-7 season last year and a 5-6 mark in 2008.
The CCL is a Division 3A league, the same as the CAL Small.
The Pioneers return home to host Cathedral on Saturday, October 2. The Panthers came to Lynnfield last season as well, losing 34-8 and the normal protocol would be for the Pioneers to travel to Boston for this year's game, but that will not be the case.
"They're a city school," Weidman explained. "They share fields with a lot of other schools and have to get permits. Sometimes it's helpful to them to play an away game. We are going to play the varsity and JV games that day."
On Saturday, October 9, the Pioneers will host Danvers in a rematch of last year's thrilling 14-6 Pioneer win in the rain at Danvers. The game against the Falcons will be the only one in which the Pioneers will be stepping up in division, as Danvers plays in the Division 3 Northeast Small conference.
The Falcons bolted out of the gate last season with a 3-0 mark, but finished 6-5. They graduate 23 seniors but Weidman is quick to caution. "They are a little different from us. They had 35 kids on their freshman team."
Danvers will also be playing under a new head coach as Sean Rogers, the offensive coordinator for the Falcons for the past three years, succeeds John Sullivan who is stepping down.
On Friday, October 15, the Pioneers will travel down Route 1 to take on Chelsea under the lights on artificial turf. Chelsea head coach Mike Stellato resides in Lynnfield.
"He and I talked about how good it would be if we could play," Weidman said. "They have a nice complex down there. I also wanted to schedule the night games to get the team used to the Friday night schedule which we will be following the next two weeks against Amesbury and Newburyport."
This will be Lynnfield's second meeting with the Red Devils. In 1999, the Pioneers won 12-6 in Chelsea. Current Pioneer assistants Pat Sheehan and Mike Geary played in that game.Sheehan captained that Pioneer club and Geary was a standout two way junior lineman.
The rest of the season figures to be Big Boy Football, as the Pioneers drive straight into the teeth of their CAL Small schedule. They start off with back to back Friday night away games with Amesbury (October 22) and Newburyport (October 29) and both teams figure to be gunning for the Pioneers.
Lynnfield returns home on November 6 to host Ipswich. The Tigers finally broke their 31 game losing streak by beating Hamilton Wenham on Thanksgiving Day.
On November 13, the Pioneers will travel to Hamilton Wenham to face the Generals in their final road game of the year.
They will conclude the regular season as always with the traditional Thanksgiving Day game against North Reading in their final home game of the year.
"Amesbury and Newburyport are the two teams to beat," said Weidman. "Both are returning a lot of players. Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich will also both be improved and North Reading is always a tough rivalry game. It's a tough schedule."
Check back on April 9th for my next post. I'll be discussing the outcome of the realignment proposal and other offseason items of note.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Big Changes in 2011?
The CAL Small Champion Pioneers will be defending their crown this fall, but will that be the last time they ever get a chance to win the league title?
Perhaps.
Why?
Because the CAL Small may not exist beginning in 2011. The CAL Large may not be around either. For that matter, every league in the state may be extinct.
Under a proposal being considered by the MIAA, beginning with the 2011 season, all leagues will cease to exist. Instead, all schools will be grouped by enrollments into six divisions of approximately 16 teams divided into North and South sections. There will be a seven game schedule within each division and the top half of the division will quality for a post season playoff.
The teams that do not qualify for the playoff will continue their season with games assigned by a committee or a commissioner. Thanksgiving Day opponents would remain. Week 10 would be left open for schools to schedule any team.
The winners of what would be a three game playoff would advance to a statewide Division Super Bowl to be played at Gillette. For the first time, this would include teams from Central and Western Mass so true State Champions would be crowned.
The MIAA Football subcommittee which has been working on the proposal for over a year and unveiled it last May, has given several reasons to justify the changes.
First, they have pointed out that every other sport allows nearly 50 percent of schools to make the post season tournament, but football, restricted to league champions, allows only 28 teams to make the playoffs.
Also, they are hoping the new format would stem the tide, growing in recent years, of schools switching leagues, leagues dividing in two, all jockeying for a position to earn one of those few playoff spots. They feel this proposal gives every team a more realistic shot at going to the postseason.
Third, the proposal would eliminate the three games in nine days scenario that schools face under the current system.
So how would the new format affect the Pioneers?
Well Beano's Blog, a site that looks at all eastern mass high school sports, took a hypothetical swing at what this system would look like in an entry he posted in October. EMass football - What if there was a new playoff format?
Beano figured Lynnfield would end up in Division Four North and that brings up the first disturbing issue. The grouping is by male enrollment with some adjustments. As an example, Catholic school enrollment would be multiplied by 1.3 to adjust enrollment up. Beano's cut on the Pioneers' division has an enrollment range of 317 to a high of 412. And guess where Lynnfield would fall in the 16 team grouping? How about third smallest at 337? The biggest teams would be Pentucket (412), Stoneham (401), Bedford (391) and Swampscott (388). The only schools smaller than Lynnfield would be Austin Prep (324) and Bishop Fenwick (318).
So are you excited about the Pioneers playing in a division with Pentucket and Swampscott?
Ironically, guess who was atop the standings after seven weeks this past season? Your Lynnfield Pioneers with a 6-1 record. So they would have ended up being the top seed and their first round opponent would have been either Pentucket, Newburyport or St. Mary's who were all tied for 8th place at 4-3. Of course the schedule would have been different since all games would be within the division, but it is an interesting scenario.
Mathematically, the new plan increases the odds of the Pioneers making the postseason. Right now the odds are one in six and under the new system, it would be 50-50. However, the odds of actually making a Super Bowl, decrease to 1 in 8 in the new proposal vs 50-50 once they make the playoffs under the current system.
However, the real concern is the stability of the current system. With the non stop jockeying between leagues, who knows how long the CAL Small as currently constructed will actually be around?
In December, the MIAA board of directors agreed to forward the proposal to the March 26 membership meeting. At that meeting each school, represented by its principal and athletic director, will vote on whether to accept the new format or keep the current system.
Pioneer head coach and co-AD is reserving judgement on the proposal until he hears more about it.
A couple of his assistants, though do have some opinions on the plan.
"I'm not crazy about the new format," said assistant coach Mike Geary. "But I prefer the BCS system instead of a college football playoff so I may be in the minority on this one. I don't like the idea of having 50% of the teams make the postseason. I think the fact that each and every game in a footbal season is meaningful is something that high school football has that none of the other sports have. The pressure is there to win every game on your regular season schedule or your season could be done."
Geary goes on to make an interesting point.
"I think with the new format you would run into teams starting out their season 5-0 or 4-1 and knowing they're already in the playoffs. Then how do you treat the last few games of the regular season? My vote would be to give the starters a few weeks rest. Then you would have a couple of teams in each division playing backups for a few weeks in mid October. Is that a good thing?"
Assistant coach Patrick Sheehan has a different take on it.
"I think the kids would embrace the proposed divisions," Sheehan said. "I have seen a breakdown of how the divisions would be broken up and our division would keep most of our Cape Ann League foes anyway. I think it would be cool for Lynnfield to play some other towns that we don't traditionally play. Swampscott, Marblehead and Manchester Essex are all teams that I feel are similar in size and would probably be in our division."
One of the things that I like about it is that it eliminates the total mismatch games which is a good thing although I still don't get Pentucket being in the same division as Lynnfield. Hopefully if this passes, those types of issues will be sorted out.
The passage of this proposal would arguably be the biggest shakeup in Massachusetts high school football ever. We'll have to wait and see what happens on March 26.
Check back for my next post on March 9th.
Perhaps.
Why?
Because the CAL Small may not exist beginning in 2011. The CAL Large may not be around either. For that matter, every league in the state may be extinct.
Under a proposal being considered by the MIAA, beginning with the 2011 season, all leagues will cease to exist. Instead, all schools will be grouped by enrollments into six divisions of approximately 16 teams divided into North and South sections. There will be a seven game schedule within each division and the top half of the division will quality for a post season playoff.
The teams that do not qualify for the playoff will continue their season with games assigned by a committee or a commissioner. Thanksgiving Day opponents would remain. Week 10 would be left open for schools to schedule any team.
The winners of what would be a three game playoff would advance to a statewide Division Super Bowl to be played at Gillette. For the first time, this would include teams from Central and Western Mass so true State Champions would be crowned.
The MIAA Football subcommittee which has been working on the proposal for over a year and unveiled it last May, has given several reasons to justify the changes.
First, they have pointed out that every other sport allows nearly 50 percent of schools to make the post season tournament, but football, restricted to league champions, allows only 28 teams to make the playoffs.
Also, they are hoping the new format would stem the tide, growing in recent years, of schools switching leagues, leagues dividing in two, all jockeying for a position to earn one of those few playoff spots. They feel this proposal gives every team a more realistic shot at going to the postseason.
Third, the proposal would eliminate the three games in nine days scenario that schools face under the current system.
So how would the new format affect the Pioneers?
Well Beano's Blog, a site that looks at all eastern mass high school sports, took a hypothetical swing at what this system would look like in an entry he posted in October. EMass football - What if there was a new playoff format?
Beano figured Lynnfield would end up in Division Four North and that brings up the first disturbing issue. The grouping is by male enrollment with some adjustments. As an example, Catholic school enrollment would be multiplied by 1.3 to adjust enrollment up. Beano's cut on the Pioneers' division has an enrollment range of 317 to a high of 412. And guess where Lynnfield would fall in the 16 team grouping? How about third smallest at 337? The biggest teams would be Pentucket (412), Stoneham (401), Bedford (391) and Swampscott (388). The only schools smaller than Lynnfield would be Austin Prep (324) and Bishop Fenwick (318).
So are you excited about the Pioneers playing in a division with Pentucket and Swampscott?
Ironically, guess who was atop the standings after seven weeks this past season? Your Lynnfield Pioneers with a 6-1 record. So they would have ended up being the top seed and their first round opponent would have been either Pentucket, Newburyport or St. Mary's who were all tied for 8th place at 4-3. Of course the schedule would have been different since all games would be within the division, but it is an interesting scenario.
Mathematically, the new plan increases the odds of the Pioneers making the postseason. Right now the odds are one in six and under the new system, it would be 50-50. However, the odds of actually making a Super Bowl, decrease to 1 in 8 in the new proposal vs 50-50 once they make the playoffs under the current system.
However, the real concern is the stability of the current system. With the non stop jockeying between leagues, who knows how long the CAL Small as currently constructed will actually be around?
In December, the MIAA board of directors agreed to forward the proposal to the March 26 membership meeting. At that meeting each school, represented by its principal and athletic director, will vote on whether to accept the new format or keep the current system.
Pioneer head coach and co-AD is reserving judgement on the proposal until he hears more about it.
A couple of his assistants, though do have some opinions on the plan.
"I'm not crazy about the new format," said assistant coach Mike Geary. "But I prefer the BCS system instead of a college football playoff so I may be in the minority on this one. I don't like the idea of having 50% of the teams make the postseason. I think the fact that each and every game in a footbal season is meaningful is something that high school football has that none of the other sports have. The pressure is there to win every game on your regular season schedule or your season could be done."
Geary goes on to make an interesting point.
"I think with the new format you would run into teams starting out their season 5-0 or 4-1 and knowing they're already in the playoffs. Then how do you treat the last few games of the regular season? My vote would be to give the starters a few weeks rest. Then you would have a couple of teams in each division playing backups for a few weeks in mid October. Is that a good thing?"
Assistant coach Patrick Sheehan has a different take on it.
"I think the kids would embrace the proposed divisions," Sheehan said. "I have seen a breakdown of how the divisions would be broken up and our division would keep most of our Cape Ann League foes anyway. I think it would be cool for Lynnfield to play some other towns that we don't traditionally play. Swampscott, Marblehead and Manchester Essex are all teams that I feel are similar in size and would probably be in our division."
One of the things that I like about it is that it eliminates the total mismatch games which is a good thing although I still don't get Pentucket being in the same division as Lynnfield. Hopefully if this passes, those types of issues will be sorted out.
The passage of this proposal would arguably be the biggest shakeup in Massachusetts high school football ever. We'll have to wait and see what happens on March 26.
Check back for my next post on March 9th.
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