Let me tell you what I love about high school football

To The Daily Sun,

Now that the high school Fall sports season has arrived, I thought this might be a good time to write a few things on what I’ve always liked about high school football.

The fact that past experience is not a requirement for participating is what I like most about it.

I also like that the game welcomes students of all shapes and sizes. Some players are tall and thin, some hefty, some fast and some not so fast. Yet, all of them get chances to succeed in various positions suited to their personal physical gifts.

Another aspect to like is the exceptional camaraderie visibly inherent in football programs. Dr. Craig Gruskowski, a dentist from Littleton, Ma. and former Littleton High and Stonehill College football standout is an early riser and weekend coffee guy at Meredith’s Circle K. In a recent visit there, he mentioned how much he enjoyed reconnecting with many of his former high school football teammates at a New England Patriot game last year. In looking back at his high school years, Dr. Gruskowski places team "camaraderie" as his most meaningful experience during his playing days. He also said the game taught him not to be afraid of anything.

Through football, players get to know quickly of life’s treasured values such as self-discipline, self-sacrifice and self-reliance. Sportsmanship is tested too particularly following games that don’t turn out as hoped.

It’s a risky sport but being fearful is an appropriate emotion when confronting unseen challenges. The great novelist Herman Melville makes this point clear in a passage out of Moby Dick. Chief Mate Starbuck, in need of brave men to board the Pequod (ship heading to sea to hunt whales) looks out at the folks seeking to be chosen and says: “I will have no man on my boat who is not afraid of a whale”.

Former I-LHS Varsity Football Coach Paul Lavigne, after more than 40 years of coaching at both the high school and college level, has "social growth" topping his high school football benefits list. Lavigne estimates 50 percent of high school football players do not participate in other school sports. As he sees it, most of these players commit themselves to year-round weight room conditioning, which he sees as a healthy and wholesome investment of their time. “They study hard, work hard at the sport they love and return home to sleep like lambs,” according to Lavigne.

Stepping out onto a high school football field isn’t easy. It takes strong willed, tenacious and goal oriented young people. The same brave and high-type character traits displayed by Native American teenagers mounting ponies on buffalo hunts. Same with early colonist teenagers running in haste to Lexington and Concord to heed the call of Paul Revere. Events change in life, but daring adventurous spirits among young people stay the same from one generation to the next. Only the names change.

Football practices are demanding. As for games, players need to stay in sync with other teammate responsibilities. Otherwise, the field can become a "lonely island." One missed assignment can botch-up what might have been a successful play. Yet, for good or for bad, there can be no finger pointing. When a play succeeds, it can be euphoric. When a play fails, it’s disheartening. The game needs players to root and pull for each other at all times.

As I see it, a high school football scoreboard should be trivialized when compared to the exceptional student athletes representing their school on a 100 yard playing field.

Roland Jutras

Meredith