Drury, Mount Greylock Form Gridiron Cooperative
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Due to anticipated low numbers, Mount Greylock Regional School has decided to merge its football program with Drury High for the 2019 season.
Drury will serve as the host school for the cooperative team, which was approved by the Berkshire County principals at their May meeting, Mount Greylock Athletic Director Lindsey von Holtz said on Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, von Holtz and Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald send a letter to the school community explaining the change and inviting interested families to an informational meeting on Monday at 6:30 at the middle-high school.
Von Holtz said Friday that the school was expecting between 13 and 15 students to come out for football in August. That number includes two eighth-graders.
“Realizing that we have to be realistic, this is a sad day at Mount Greylock, not to have football,” von Holtz said.
The Mounties have a storied tradition of success in the old Berkshire County League. The school won three straight Western Massachusetts titles from 2010-12.
As recently as 2016, it went to the Western Mass final before falling by two points to Turners Falls.
Last season, Mount Greylock went 5-5, and over the last five years, the Mounties were 26-2.
Drury is 11-36 over the same span, going 2-6 last season.
This is not the first time the two schools have talked about forming a cooperative. Three years ago, they appeared close to joining forces, but “I don’t think either team was ready to give up on hosting at that point,” von Holtz said on Friday.
This merger means that Mount Greylock students will wear another school’s colors in a third sport. The school already is in co-ops with Drury for hockey and Wahconah for swimming.
The Blue Devils will continue to play their games on John J. Del Negro Field, and Mount Greylock families will get used to having more of their Friday nights off in the fall. The letter from von Holtz and MacDonald noted that “the Drury administration is working with us to host a game at Mount Greylock,” presumably under the lights.
Von Holtz has notified the schools that were on Mount Greylock’s schedule for the fall that they will not be able to play those games, and she hopes the affected the schools will have enough time to fill the holes on their schedules.
At Drury, Mount Greylock’s players will help the Blue Devils compete in the Tri-County League against McCann Tech, Pathfinder, Ware, Palmer, Smith Vocational and Mohawk.
Von Holtz said Friday that the co-op is a done deal and the paperwork has been submitted to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The move comes at a time when Mount Greylock is in the process of designing and putting out to bid a potential artificial turf athletic field. Von Holtz said Friday that the ad hoc committee working on developing plans for that field was aware of the move to a co-op but still plans on a field with lines for football and goalposts.
“They realized [the co-op] may not be permanent,” von Holtz said. “Or it could switch. And there might be opportunities for the [Drury-hosted] co-op team to play games at Mount Greylock.”