Few teams have been itching harder to get back on the gridiron more than the Mahar football team.
Following a 3-7 campaign in 2018, the Senators turned things around quick last season, going 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the Intercounty League North. They outscored their opponents 176-93 in league play, earning a Western Mass. Div. 8 playoff berth.
All the regular season success was for not, as Mahar fell to Ware, 14-0, in the Div. 8 semifinals, leaving a sour taste in its mouth. Graduating just three seniors, the Senators were ready to get back on the field this fall and take the next the next step with a talented senior class, but COVID put a wrench in their plans.
“It’s very frustrating,” senior Jakob Carron said. “We all felt like this was going to be our year. We only lost a couple guys and most of our team are seniors. We were super motivated to get back to work before COVID happened. At this point, we’re doing everything we can do to get ready as if a season is going to happen, but it’s definitely discouraging.”
This summer, the football season was moved to the Fall II season running from February until April, but Mahar has still been practicing twice a week this fall. With COVID restrictions in place, the Senators didn’t even practice with a football until last week, focusing mostly on technique and conditioning work.
The turnout to the workouts has been strong, with over 30 kids showing up to each practice.
“The practices are going well,” senior Jacob Tenney said. “It’s definitely been different than having a regular season but we’re still working hard to get to where we need to be if the season does happen. We’re working with what we’ve got and are just trying to get back to the fundamentals again. These practices gave us extra time to build chemistry. It got the young guys more comfortable and used to the offense. We were able to develop those relationships on and off the field. We’ve had some new guys who are getting used to it but there’s a lot more guys showing up than we’re used to seeing. We’re excited to see what the new guys can do for us.”
Carron and Tenney were both named to the Intercounty League North Division All-League team a season ago; Carron at defensive tackle and Tenney at running back. Now seniors, they’ve both been looked to for leadership this season and through the fall, they’ve made sure the team is working hard even without games under the lights on Friday to get excited about.
“I think we’ve all been putting in a good effort despite the circumstances,” Carron said. “Not having the season hasn’t changed anything. We’re all hard workers, we were working hard during the summer to get ready for the season.”
The fall practices will stop for the Senators next week, and the three month await for the Fall II season begins. Some players will play other sports this winter, while others will be left to keep the conditioning and skill work going on their own time.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the Fall II season, getting the extra time to install some of the offense and defense could prove to be extremely beneficial, as there might not be a long preseason before the first games in February. Mahar feels its team is ready to get things rolling when the pads finally go on.
“From what I’ve seen, we look like we’re ready to play,” Carron said. “It’s not what we wanted from the fall football season but with everything going on, we’ll take what we can get. It’s been fun being with the team but I’d much rather be with them while playing games. We hope some of the stuff we’re working on carries over when the season starts. I don’t know how much of the conditioning stuff will, but it does help having all this where we don’t know how much time we’ll have before out first game.”
Despite all the positivity toward the fall practices, it’s still not the same as getting to play games. For someone like Tenney who is coming off a 1,124-yard season on the ground and a Franklin County-high 17 touchdowns, the delay to his senior football season is frustrating but he hopes all the extra time on the field this fall will pay dividends later on.
“We’d give anything to be about to go out there and be able to play right now,” Tenney said. “Everyone is looking forward to it and hoping it happens this year. We’ve been putting in the work all offseason and trying to get better and do whatever we can so we’re ready when and if the season starts.”
Another loss of the delayed season is the lack of a postseason. For a team like Mahar who was gearing up to make a run at the Western Mass Div. 8 title, the lost playoffs are extra frustrating, but hasn’t derailed any excitement about the potential of having games in February.
“You want to win a championship, that’s always our goal,” Tenney said. “This year, with everything, just being able to play the game and be able to be out there again will be pretty sweet.”