At FHs and LHS stakes are high, a loss unbearable
One Man's View
Fran Thomas Op Ed

There were those who thought that a season was lost when a
MidWach League title became impossible; others thought a
season lost when a last-second field goal ended dreams of an
unbeaten record. 

Still others think that it is the Super Bowl that defines
success.  This is somewhat understandable because between
them, Fitchburg and Leominster have pretty much treated the
Super Bowl as reserved for them since its inception.

In reality, there has been a "super bowl" long before there
was a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association a
ratings system, leagues or conferences, and it is played in
either Fitchburg or Leominster on Thanksgiving morning.

You see, what makes the rivalry between FHS's Red and Gray
and LHS'sd Blue an White so unique and enduring is not just
the history and tradition of the rivalry of 118 years, but
the stakes.  The FHS-LHS rivalry - the teams have bet 96
times on Thanksgiving - has ever been a double-edged sword:
a 1-10 season can be salvaged, if the lone win is on
Thanksgiving morning, just as a 10-1 season can be
horribley diminished if the lone loss is on Thanksgiving
morning.  Certainly, there have been heroic efforts in
defeat, games where the members of the losing team gave their
all and had nothing over to hang their heads about, but in
this game there is no consolation to be found in defeat.
None.  There is only next year.

Football, it is a cruel and demanding game.  The calendar
says the games start in September, and camp a few weeks
before that.  In truth, however, the season begins in
weight rooms, with unyielding steel plates stamped
"YORK". but which could more accurately be labeled "Pain."
It begins in the searing heat and ends with the pre-winter
chill, with a little of every thing in between.
Thandsgiving morning, however, presents the game in its
purest form.

There are certainly other places where the talent level is
greater, for there probably isn't a bona fide, blue-chip
Division 1 prospect in the entire state, let alone in
Fitchburg or Leominster.  There is no place, anywhere,
however, where a single game means more.  There is no place,
however, where young men so clearly personify their
communities, who carry on their back the hopes of those who
have played in "The Game" before, no place where history
stands quite so ready to anoint heroes as at Doyle or
Crocker fields on Thanksgiving morning.

There is no draft, no recruiting, The communities stock the
team rosters, plain and simple.  It is that continuity
that fuels the fire, that unbroken lineage feeds the flames
of competion.

To describe the football teams of Fitchburg and Leominster
high schools as archrivals is simply inaddequate, and I'm
not sure a dictionary contains the right words to describe
what this is all about.

In many cases, you can look at a game and say it's "a high
school football game" and the intent would be to place it in
its proper perspective.  Not on Thrusday morning in
Leominster, however; it is not just a game, it is "The
Game."

The final score will be imprinted upon eternity, forever
unchange, and will mean very mearly as much to the people
who line the field as to those who played.  That is the
blessing and the curse, the opportunity for glory or to
taste the most bitter of defeats.

The players will be buoyed by history and tradition, but
they are also bound by it.  And tradition and history say
you better win, better put it all on the line, because there
is no consolation prize.

Fitchburg
High School Athletics and Competition Home Page