Magical Season for Berkshire County Football
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — It can’t get any better than this for Berkshire County high school football.
Literally. It cannot.
The most successful season in recent memory for the county’s gridiron heroes will continue in full force next Saturday as three teams compete in the state semi-finals.
This weekend, McCann Tech, Pittsfield and Wahconah each won its respective Western Massachusetts sectional championship — one for each division of football in which Berkshire County competes.
Three of the four Western Mass teams competing next weekend in Leominster and Westfield call Berkshire County home.
But the county’s dominance is deeper than that.
♦ McCann Tech and Wahconah are both undefeated, each 10-0 as they get ready to take on the champions of Central Massachusetts in Division 6 and Division 4, respectively. Pittsfield is 8-2, but one of those losses came to Wahconah and one was an overtime heartbreaker against Hoosac Valley, the team Pittsfield beat on Saturday to win Western Mass.
♦ McCann, the only Berkshire County team that does not play in the Berkshire County League, was a monster in the Tri-County League, winning its games by an average margin of 39 points in the Hornets’ first ever undefeated regular season.
♦ Not counting the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Western Mass playoffs, where the Berkshire County League teams were 4-0, the league’s eight teams were a collective 18-6 this fall against non-county opponents, a combined winning percentage of .750. Add in the playoffs, and that percentage jumps to .786.
♦ The Lee Wildcats, who were shut out of the Division 6 playoffs after going 5-3 with losses to D4 Wahconah and D5 Pittsfield, rolled through its games in the non-qualifier bracket the last two weeks by a combined score of 88-0.
♦ The Drury Blue Devils, who did not win a game inside the Berkshire County League this fall, were 3-0 outside the county, beating those opponents by a combined score of 100-30.
To be sure, there is plenty to cheer about on other athletic fields around the county this fall.
Berkshire County already has one Western Mass soccer champion, Wahconah’s girls, and will try for a second when Mount Greylock’s boys take the field at Westfield State on Sunday afternoon. The county’s harriers were dominant at last weekend’s Western Mass meet and acquitted themselves well at the all-state meet on Saturday.
But as Wahconah coach Gary Campbell said at a preseason gathering of Berkshire County players and coaches, "Football is a different kind of sport."
"And I love the other sports," Campbell said. "I was lucky enough to be on a state championship basketball team at Wahconah, I ran track, I did all those other things. And I loved the other sports. But there's something about putting on that helmet and all of a sudden you've got the butterflies and you've got to run 90 mph at a dude who is coming to get you to."
Listening to Pittsfield coach Brian Jezewski after Saturday's win at Hoosac Valley, you get the feeling he agrees.
"I don't know when the last time was Pittsfield High won the Western Mass Championship in football or any other sport," Jezewski said. "This speaks volumes about our community. We've got tremendous support.
"We said this last night at our [team] dinner: We are the city. We truly believe that. We're the only thing that matters in Pittsfield.
"And I love these guys. These guys did a great job today."
