County's Football Teams Attracting More Players

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- A few dozen of the county's top high school football players got together at Pittsfield High on Monday night.

 

It was an impressive sight -- but just the tip of the iceberg.

 

"It sounds like everyone's back with numbers," Hoosac Valley coach Dayne Poirot said during the Berkshire County League's annual media night. "It's good for the county."

 

Poirot reported that his Hurricanes program has a little more than 40 players in the fold. At Taconic, Jim Ziter reported he has 44 players and is hoping for a few more after the start of school this week.

 

At Drury, the roster is not quite that back yet, but it's a big improvement over 2014.

 

"We finished last year with 22 players, including five from St. Joseph," Blue Devils coach Seth Sheppard said. "We're at 34 right now, and we're hoping for a couple more."

 

And at Mount Greylock, "Like everyone else, our numbers are up," coach Andrew Agostini said, adding with a laugh, "We even stole a couple of kids from the soccer program, which is always good."

 

If the increased numbers are a trend, then the county is bucking a national movement. According to a report from the Maryland-based Sports and Fitness Industry Association, football participation nationally fell 21 percent from 2008-13.

 

"More and more, our game is under attack," Wahconah coach Gary Campbell said. "So many things in our society are softening up in my opinion."

 

Campbell said that at Wahconah, he has about 66 players, including 14 seniors and a "huge group" of freshmen, which bodes well for his program's future.

 

And football, Campbell said, will serve those players well in their future lives.

 

"It teaches you how to get up when you're down," he said. "It teaches you life lessons over and over that you'll take to your families and your jobs."

 

As he has every year since initiating the football media night four years ago, Campbell encouraged the team captains in attendance to be fierce competitors between the lines but recognize the bond they share with their adversaries.

 

"It takes a different breed of kid to play this game," Campbell said.

 

"Ten years from now when you see that kid, you'll sit there and shake his hand because there won't be too many of you."

 

NOTES: Monument Mountain coach Chris D'Aniello got off the evening's best one-liner. Noting that he teaches several of his players in his automotive shop class, D'Aniello said, "If the bus breaks down on the way to a game, they'll be able to get us there." ... Lee coach Keith Thomson said that while he "took a lot of flack" for comments  he made last year about the schedules of other teams in Western Mass Division 6, he "absolutely" stands by those comments. Thomson told a room filled with Lee's opponents that he always tells his players that once they get to the league portion of their schedule, "It's a meat grinder." ... The county's one non-league team, McCann Tech, did not attend Monday's media night, but it was remembered, by Campbell, who reminded the players that Berkshire County last year captured Western Mass titles in all three of the divisions it plays in: Wahconah in D4, Pittsfield in D5 and McCann in D6.