A Massachusetts Thanksgiving Football Tradition Interrupted

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly High football coach Andrew Morency is ready for the challenge that awaits him this Thanksgiving.

He has a game plan all written out. He has been dutiful in his preparation. He expects to have some great assistant coaches by his side for one of the holiday's most enduring traditions.

Only this year, for the first time in five years, that challenge will not be scheming up ways to beat Salem High in one of the country's oldest Thanksgiving rivalries. This year, for the first time in nearly 40 years for the 1987 Beverly High graduate — who has coached at Salem High and Hamilton-Wenham as well the Panthers over the past three decades— there is no counting down the seconds on the scoreboard in hopes of securing gridiron bragging rights that will last the whole next year.

Because of the coronavirus health crisis, and the postponement of the season to at least late February, the quintessential New England experience that is Thanksgiving morning high school football will not happen in Massachusetts in 2020.

So, for the first time in his life, Morency is cooking a turkey.

"Never had to cook a turkey before," he told Patch of his plans. "I decided I wanted to do this because I have the opportunity this year — as well as that I love turkey."

It's a relatively small turkey. About 20 pounds. One of them Butterballs. That's about the most detail Morency would reveal ahead of kickoff. Don't want to give too much away to the opposition.

"It's defrosting as we speak," he said Tuesday. "I am going to try it. This is going to be interesting. I got the recipe and everything. I think I may have to be supervised. But I think I'll be good."

While Morency is trying to make the best of a holiday like no other, the loss of that one game where most seniors take the field for the last time — and the cliché of the turkey tasting better after a victory really does ring true — hits hard for coaches across the state who have been on the sideline every Thanksgiving morning for 10, 20, 30, and for some even 40 or 50 years.

"It's definitely surreal," Morency said. "It is something that you can probably not prepare for as much as you think you can."

Ted Dalicandro spent years anticipating this Thanksgiving on two fronts. The Newton South football coach is always willing to take his chances in the daunting task of trying to beat perennial state power Lincoln-Sudbury. But this year he was also looking forward to his son, P.J., getting to enjoy his final Thanksgiving football trip to the turf as part of Natick High's game against archrival Framingham.

"I am definitely not used to it and it's something I don't want to be used to," said the 1991 Newton North graduate, who said he has coached, played or attended a Thanksgiving game every year since he was 7 years old. "It will be a strange day in a strange time. I was really looking forward to that whole pomp and circumstance that comes with Thanksgiving for (P.J.).

"I am really upset for the players. I'd coach in the North Pole in my socks and my underwear if it meant another football game for the kids. I am selfish a little bit like that. I really wanted this for my own son."

With football considered a "high risk" sport due to the virus, according to the state Executive Office of Energy and Environment Affairs, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association decided to push the start of the season to what it is calling "Fall 2" starting in late February. The idea is that virus metrics may better allow for games to run from the beginning of March through the end of April in hopes of salvaging those senior football memories that survive long after the box scores have faded.

"It's been 20-odd years in a row that I've been doing it and it's insane that it's not part of our lives this year," said Marblehead football coach Jim Rudloff, who grew up going to games in Swampscott, played at Natick High where he graduated in 1987 and has coached at Beverly and Marblehead over the past 18 years. "This week would have been every minute of every day accounted for from school to practice to all of the other activities we do each year."

In a typical Thanksgiving week, the Marblehead and Swampscott players would attend the "Old-Timer's Banquet" on Monday that drew players from rivalries past going all the way back to the 1940s, a "Steak Feed" on Tuesday that last year included former New England Patriots lineman Matt Light as a keynote speaker, a pep rally and a Rotary Club banquet on Wednesday and then the game Thursday morning.

"Not to have that this week, though as a human being it's nice to have that freedom, it's just bizarre," Rudloff said. "We are giving the kids enough things here and there to make the freshmen, sophomores and juniors feel good about it. But, for the seniors, it's devastating. There is nothing you can say or do to replace that loss.

"If you are not going to the Super Bowl every year, then Thanksgiving is everything for them."

While "Beverly vs. Salem on St. Patrick's Day" or "Newton South vs. Lincoln-Sudbury on Easter Sunday" or "Marblehead vs. Swampscott on Patriots Day" doesn't have quite the same nostalgic ring of the annual Turkey Day clashes, the coaches said the players have done their best to stay engaged, keep in shape and remain focused on the promise of better days ahead this spring.

"At least give it a try," urged Dalicandro, who was encouraged with how he saw sports like soccer and field hockey pull off seasons that were rewarding — albeit very different with extensive rules modifications — for athletes this fall. "If you make it a couple of games, that's fine. I think the state owes it to these kids to play football. They have had so much taken away from them."

In Beverly, the players at least got a taste of the holiday mix of rivalry and friendship so many classes before them have enjoyed. On Tuesday, Beverly and Salem players took part in the annual Rotary Club banquet virtually, and there was a socially distanced, non-contact pep rally game with football players and cheerleaders — who also had their competitive cheer season pushed back to February — on Wednesday. On Thursday morning the plan was to have players head to Hurd Stadium for pictures and perhaps a few 7-on-7 plays allowed under the MIAA fall guidelines.

"We have such a great group of kids," Morency said. "Our numbers are still strong. This senior class is one of the strongest I've had since I've been here.

"These kids love playing for the city of Beverly. It's a close-knit group. I am really proud to be their coach. This time of year, you don't think as much as a coach. It's not about the Xs and Os as much as it's about all the other abstract things being around the kids that you appreciate the most."

Whether it be when making tracks in the snow in the first practices this February, settling that score from Thanksgivings past as the spring flowers bloom, or that time one year from now when players and coaches step on the field Thanksgiving morning once again as the turkey roasting away at home awaits them win, lose or draw, that appreciation of every moment is sure to be stronger than ever.

"Hopefully, what this has taught everybody is don't take anything for granted," Dalicandro said. "The ability to play sports, the ability to live your life, has been taken away.

"Of course, there were years when I dreaded going to Lincoln-Sudbury. With our records, I wondered what that was going to be like. But I would give anything to get that back.

"I would give anything to let the kids play and see my son play again."

(Scott Souza is a Patch Field Editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)