Hockomock Football League Dreams

Standing on the North sidelines, North TV microphone tucked up under my arm while frantically trying to tweet the action to the , I could barely believe what I heard. Even without looking I could tell the world had just been knocked off it axis.

It began with a ‘that’s a decent run’ groan that turned into an ‘oh no he’s in the secondary’ gasp and then the screaming slowly faded into an ‘if I put my face in my hands maybe when I look up everything will be different’ silence. Malique Clark has made a habit of game-changing runs during his junior season and his 85-yard sprint that ended the 3rd quarter created a vacuum on the North sideline. Even if people tried to make noise there was no air left to carry it.

The Bombardier tailback jolted the Attleboro fans to life and their cheers and screams suddenly reverberated around Raymond Beaupre Field. For the first time all day it finally looked like the Bombardiers had a chance and the North fans, who were still clinging to the hope that Franklin could score 35 unanswered points against King Philip to magically save a playoff berth for their beloved Rocketeers, were shell-shocked.

But this is the point in the story where things usually turn for Attleboro on Thanksgiving Day. When things start to look up, that’s almost always when North will turn around and stomp on the hopes of every Bombardier fan holding on to the memories of when this was a back-and-forth series. This is where the ‘remember when’s’ usually creep into more than a few conversations.

North was lucky. The play that got Attleboro back in the game coincided with the end of the quarter and the Rocketeers had a minute to gather on the sideline to regroup and remember why they’re in 1st place in the division and remember that they never lose on Thanksgiving Day. It was as though the pads were ripped off for just a moment and they turned into a huddled mass of stunned teenagers, but by the time the kick-off was in the air the pads were back in place right along with the swagger of dominance.

North was lucky twice. Spyro Varetimos slammed (I’ve watched him all season and there is nothing subtle about the way he runs at defenders) into the end zone for the go ahead score but the ball popped out. From the sidelines there was no way to see who ended up with it but the linesman came sprinting in with arms raised signaling not only a touchdown, but a return to normalcy. The touchdown started the world spinning again and calmed the apocalyptic fears of thousands of fans proudly wearing as much red as possible. In my earpiece I could hear Peter Gay and Steve Houle as they looked at the replays and I was told the ball that could’ve gone anywhere bounced straight back up into the hands of Varetimos and the senior, who came into the season with so many question marks and more than a few doubters, .

North is good, heck they’re very good, and yet it sometimes isn’t just about talent. Sometimes it’s about the belief that you can’t lose, the knowledge that you are better than your opponent, and sometimes it’s about an oblong ball landing flat and bouncing straight back into your hands. Sometimes it’s about all three.

The talent gap is not as big as it used to be. The size of the players is not a considerable factor anymore. No one will question the effort of the players. The biggest thing separating Attleboro from the three teams that finished above them in the league (KP, North, and Mansfield) is belief. It’s not enough to know you can compete; you have to know you’re going to win. The Bombardiers have grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years but the last step, the mental hurdle, will be the hardest of them all.