Coaching's lineup

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

Hello Sports fans!

It’s hard not to feel bad for the 1-8 Oxford Pirates football team and first year head coach Mike Adams, who lost to Shepherd Hill 30-7 on Friday night. Not only is their schedule ridiculously difficult but on top of that they are in a rebuilding season.

There isn’t a team in Central Mass that would want to play Grafton, Northbridge, Shepherd Hill, Leicester, and Auburn in a row. These are all playoff-bound teams and there isn’t a weak one in the bunch. When you add Bay Path and Tantasqua to their schedule, you can see what a rough road it’s been for the Pirates.

I doubt that when Coach Adams received his welcome package that the letter looked anything like this:

“Dear Coach Adams:  Congratulations on your new job as the head coach of the Oxford Pirates.  Oxford is a small school and the team is rebuilding, but we know you won’t mind playing a minimum seven superior playoff teams in your first year here. In other words you have been awarded the most difficult schedule in Central Mass but you do get to travel 48 miles to play Nashoba Tech and you might win that game. Good luck.”

All joking aside, the MIAA is supposedly working on new schedules and a new playoff system which will be in place next season and there is even a rumor floating around that Oxford and Bartlett may play each other in football as early as next year.  We sure hope that is true. That would not only be good for the teams, but also the towns and the possibility of renewing that rivalry could be rewarding.
 

The View’s Top 5 of the week:

1. Alex Givins-Perry, Bartlett football:  “AGP” scored four touchdowns against David Prouty, all beauties.  He also went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, which was pretty amazing since he missed two games due to injury and still has two more to go.

2. Jake Gelb, Shepherd Hill football: Jake has been improving every game and has suddenly become one of the Rams' biggest and best weapons. He scored twice against Oxford, bringing his touchdown total to 7 on the season.
 

3. Taylor Daniels, Shepherd Hill girl’s soccer:  The senior star, playing in her last game of her career, scored an outstanding goal in the teams loss to Shrewsbury. Her coach Sarah Garneau called it the best goal she’s seen all year.

4. Shepherd Hill Girls volleyball team (above): Entering the districts the Rams looked pretty unbeatable.  Danielle Watkins, Jen Green and company are on a tear.  Danielle Watkins gets extra points; she usually also sings the national anthem before every home game.

5. Akeem Belnavis, Bartlett Football: “The Dream” had two touchdowns and close to 100 yards rushing in the Indians' win over Prouty on Friday and leads the Indians in scores this season.

Indians, Rams soccer season over:  Before we were able to even see a Bartlett or Shepherd Hill boys soccer playoff game, both teams were eliminated in their opening round games on Friday. The Indians (8-8-2) lost their match to David Prouty 2-0 and the Rams (9-6-4) fell to Hudson 1-0.

The Rams' Tyler Martin finished the season with 21 goals and 14 assists, leading all local scorers.

Oxford Boys Soccer: The Oxford Pirates has tough year at 4-10-3 although they did close out season winning two out of their last three games. Donny Freeland, who also happens to be one of our favorite local hoop stars, finished the season with 10 goals leading the Pirates.

Shepherd Hill Girls Volleyball: Coach Tom Caffelle has been blessed this season with an amazing senior class of excellent volleyball players (see photo).  They finished 15-3, which was pretty amazing considering they play a lot of really good volleyball teams.

Rocco: It was great to see Rocco DiStefano (View From The Sidelines Super-teamer 2012) in attendance at the Bartlett-David Prouty game on Friday night. The Springfield College Freshman is playing football at the school and was also just chosen the president of his class. 

It was also pretty ironic that Rocco would come to the Prouty game. It was a year ago that he teamed with DJ Kirby-Thomas, who was also in attendance, to make the play of the year against this very same Prouty team at a game played at Worcester Tech.

BHS Golf All-Stars:Bartlett High School senior golfers Brett Tetreault and Matt Huberdault were both named to the SWCL All Star team. Tetreault has a first teamer and Huberdault was picked on the second team.

Tetreault, who is a four-year varsity golfer, placed fifth in the SWCL tournament finishing with an amazing 78.  Huberdault, a three-year player, was 15^th with an 84.

Until next week, see you on the sidelines! Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any sports news and check out the new View From The Sidelines Facebook page with exclusive photos and news at https://www.facebook.com/ViewFromTheSidelines