'Team of Rivals' Joins Forces in Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Pittsfield High senior Aldy Badolo was ready to go when fall sports practices got underway in Massachusetts on Monday.

 

“First day of practice feels nice, you know, being back on the field,” Badolo said during a water break on Monday afternoon. “It’s a really nice experience, coming back. … I really want to enjoy my senior year, you know, the last year. I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can.”

 

It just is not the senior year that Badolo imagined for most of his high school career.

 

“Definitely not,” Badolo said as the sun beat down on his green Taconic High practice jersey.

 

Monday marked the first practice for the newly formed Taconic-Pittsfield cooperative football team. The city rivals joined forces last spring and will compete as the Taconic Thunder under the tutelage of longtime PHS head coach Brian Jezewski.

 

“I wasn’t even thinking about Taconic and PHS being together until now,” Badolo said.

 

“When I found out it was going to happen, I thought it was something that I think both teams really needed. Both of our teams were struggling with lack of players and stuff like that. … I’m sad seeing the team disappear. … But I think it’s better now, you know, seeing Taconic and PHS as a team of rivals coming together.”

 

Numbers are not a problem this fall. Well more than 60 players worked out Monday on Taconic’s practice fields, and Jezewski said he expects 27 seniors on the roster this season and more underclassmen to come on board after school starts next week.

 

“I’ve got seven quarterbacks,” Jezewski said in disbelief during one break in the action.

 

“Last year, we had seven skill position players,” one of his assistant coaches quipped.

 

Hoosac Valley saw a similar bump in numbers last fall when Drury and Mount Greylock joined the Hurricanes in a co-op.

 

This year’s merger of the Generals and Thunder means that of Berkshire County’s six high school football teams, only two – McCann Tech and Wahconah – are single-school programs.

 

It is not a phenomenon that applies solely to football. Monday also marked the inaugural cooperative season for Drury and Hoosac Valley in boys soccer.

 

Of course, sometimes, the trend is broken. On the county’s golf links, Pittsfield, which had merged with Taconic for a couple of years, fields its own varsity team again for a season that gets underway on Monday at the Country Club of Pittsfield.

 

The gridiron set has just a few more required practice dates than golf, and the long road to Gillette Stadium started on high school fields across the commonwealth on Monday.

 

That is, the official, on-field practices got underway. The work that will make teams successful got started long ago, out of the limelight, in the weight room. And this year’s preseason workouts were a place of bonding and building for the former rivals of the Shire City.

 

“We were at Rip City training, getting our strength training in,” Taconic High senior Owen Letalien said. “I’ve been with all these guys for months now working out and getting to know them. Getting stronger, getting better and getting prepared for the season.”

 

And as much as any new cooperative, the Taconic and Pittsfield players shared athletic bonds that went back years, often to their days in the city’s youth football programs.

 

“It’s definitely a big community, Pittsfield and this part of the Berkshires,” Letalien said. “We know a lot of people if we don’t go to the same school as them. Jackson [Satrape] is my buddy. I’ve known him since kindergarten, but we never went to the same high school. We’re reuniting with a lot of people that we’ve seen growing up.”

 

One thing they will miss is the reunion, of sorts, that historically has taken place on the gridiron, usually in late October while wearing different colored jerseys.

 

“Yeah, it was the big city game,” Letalien said. “But, you know, we’ve got Wachonah and Hoosac. Those should be just as big if we bring the energy.”

 

Taconic’s season gets underway under the lights against West Springfield on Sept. 11. It then goes to Hoosac Valley for a Saturday afternoon game , the first of three straight road games that conclude with the Suburban South league opener at Wahconah on Oct. 2.

 

Jezewski at the start of Monday’s practice was keeping his players focused not on the big Friday nights to come but the big opportunity immediately ahead of them.

 

“This is an historic day for you,” he told the squad in its first on-field gathering. “It’s a big day for the coaches. It’s a big day for the city of Pittsfield.”