Varsity News: Talking football preseason in May

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Good evening!

Stunningly, this is the final regular-season Varsity News of the 2025-26 school year. We’ll have you covered all through the spring tournaments. Here’s a quick schedule to prepare for the next week:

May 20: Final day of the regular season for tennis and girls’ lacrosse

May 22: Bracket releases for tennis and girls’ lacrosse

May 22-25: USTA individual tennis championship

May 23: Final day of regular season for rugby

May 24: Final day of regular season for boys’ volleyball; girls’ lacrosse tournament begins

May 25: Final day of regular season for baseball, softball, and boys’ lacrosse

May 26: North/Central/West sectional girls’ golf; boys’ volleyball and rugby bracket releases; tennis tournaments begin

May 27: South sectional girls’ golf; baseball, softball, and boys’ lacrosse bracket releases

There’s been a lot of consternation and debate about the new start date for football and its reduced preseason schedule, which cuts the preseason by two full days — while making double sessions impossible on others — and removes one scrimmage date.

Some coaches have been vocal on social media, claiming it was foisted upon them by an uncaring MIAA, while others have claimed it’s proof the Board of Directors isn’t concerned about student safety.

These claims can easily be refuted by attending these meetings, as I regularly do.

It was May 2025 and I was in a conference room in Franklin listening to MIAA executive director Bob Baldwin present the idea of a standardized calendar to the Board of Directors.

Baldwin had moved into the position in 2021, but had been on a multi-year listening tour and now was starting to chart the organization’s course more intentionally.

He presented five “areas of conversation,” which became major projects over the next year. One of them, seemingly innocuous at the time, was a standardized schedule. A subcommittee was tasked with creating one overarching schedule for the organization.

On Sept. 17, I was back in that conference room as the standardized calendar was presented to the football committee.

They were told it would move the first day of practice for 2026 from Friday, Aug. 21, to Monday, Aug. 24, to align with the rest of the fall sports (golf was also moved). It was presented as both a way to get all sports on the same timeline, as well as give families a little more vacation.

Immediately, it was unpopular.

“Nobody wanted any part of this in our district,” said Franklin County athletic director Joe Gamache. “Families will still go on vacation anyway, they don’t care when you start. Having those two extra days of flexibility and that extra scrimmage date was important to everyone in our district.”

The calendar was discussed again by the Board of Directors on Oct. 8. By that point it had been presented to individual sport committees, as well as each of the nine district athletic committees. It was presented at the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic Directors Association conference. Surveys were sent out and districts weighed in. The board announced it would vote on Nov. 12.

I can’t say I heard from any upset football coaches at that point, but they were in-season, likely focused elsewhere. On Nov. 12, the Board voted, 19-6, to implement the new start date, which is two Mondays prior to Labor Day.

“We want to start at a time that makes sense for everyone,” said Wellesley athletic director John Brown, who was part of the subcommittee that formed the proposal. “This [school] year started on Aug. 15. That’s not fall. That’s summer. Why are we starting a fall interscholastic sport for educational athletics on Aug. 15?”

Before the vote passed, Baldwin praised the subcommittee for its vetting.

“This is a great way to vet something. They were awesome along the way,” he said. “I really commend the process.”

What was missing? Recognition of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which would prevent some schools from playing on Friday, Sept. 11 or Saturday, Sept. 12. Those schools would normally switch to Thursday, Sept. 10, but that left no breathing room for the mandatory 15 days of practice. If a team, or an individual, missed a single practice, they would be ineligible to play Thursday, making the next available game day Sunday, Sept. 13.

The first mention I heard of this specific issue came from Mansfield AD Tim Selmon in a January football meeting as they worked out the new preseason practice schedule.

At its following meeting, March 3, the football committee spent nearly an hour discussing the difficulties presented by the preseason calendar and decided to write the Board of Directors asking for the start date to be reconsidered for the 2026 season.

At its May 13 meeting, the Board of Directors rejected that request, leading to an upset football committee at its gathering the following morning, with some members feeling they were lacking agency.

“I don’t feel like there’s much value to these committees,” Gamache said.

I’ll allow my own thoughts to interject for a minute: I believe the Board should have approved a one-year reprieve because of when Rosh Hashanah falls. But I also understand why the Board didn’t approve. They had just voted for this calendar in November after significant vetting from a multitude of stakeholders, and before making any audibles, they want to see it play out first.

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What’s often lost in these MIAA-centric controversies is that there is no boogeyman pulling strings behind a curtain with a monetary or self-serving motivation.

Each of these committees are made up of people from Massachusetts schools. They’re coaches, athletic directors, principals, superintendents, school committee members, etc. They all have a vested interest and, from my perspective, are well-intentioned. That doesn’t mean they get every decision right. But rarely are they haphazard.

The suggestion that decisions are made to harm students, or a certain sport, couldn’t be farther from the truth, in my experience.

Baseball: Ryan McDonald scored the tying run in the sixth inning and drove in the winning run in the seventh for No. 6 Walpole as it clinched the Bay State’s Herget division with a win over No. 4 Natick . . . Softball: No. 5 King Philip led, 8-4, in the seventh inning before top-ranked Taunton rallied to secure its fourth-straight Hockomock League crown on Bella Bourque’s walkoff double in the eighth . . . Girls’ lacrosse: Foxborough snapped No. 9 Franklin’s 144-game win streak in Hockomock League play, which dated back to 2012, thanks to Addie Riley’s five goals and her work in the draw circle . . . Boys’ volleyball: No. 4 Needham went into Brookline and took down the top-ranked defending champions in straight sets, riding 43 assists from Luke Vivaldi and 17 kills from Will Rozman.

Junior setter Max Dong matched the O’Bryant school record of 1,671 career assists, originally set by Son Nguyen in 2023, with 33 in Thursday’s 3-0 boys’ volleyball victory over Boston United. Dong dished 31 more in Friday’s 3-0 sweep of Barnstable to put him in sole possession of the record with 1,703 career assists.

One game after driving in five runs with a pair of doubles in Wareham’s 18-0 win over Avon, freshman Jackson Cabe put together a dominant pitching performance, striking out 18 in a perfect game to beat Atlantis Charter, 6-0. He followed that up with an inside-the-park home run in an 11-5 win over Southeastern. After a 2-6 start, the Vikings have rattled off nine straight wins.

Honorable mentions: In his latest start, Bishop Feehan senior lefthander Brody Bumila struck out 14, allowing one hit in 6⅓ innings for a 5-4 11-inning win over Xaverian . . . Malden’s Nick D’Anna scored his 32nd run of the season in a 10-0 baseball win over Chelsea, the most for a Malden player in 30-plus years, while teammate Ryan McMahon became the program’s all-time leader in games played (82) . . . With six goals in a 10-6 boys’ lacrosse win over Seekonk, Greater New Bedford’s Conner Araujo matched the school’s single-season goal record of 63, first achieved by Nate Pearson . . . Rockland junior Tommy Reyno reached 500 career saves as part of a 9-8 boys’ lacrosse win over East Bridgewater . . . Junior Greg Walsh broke Westwood’s single-game scoring record with eight tallies in a 15-6 boys’ lacrosse triumph over Norwood . . . Cohasset senior Gus Greene scored his 200th career goal in a 17-7 boys’ lacrosse victory over Moses Brown (R.I.), just one game after recording his 300th career point in an 18-1 win against Plymouth South . . . Needham junior Matthew Ledbury surpassed 200 career points during an 18-2 boys’ lacrosse win over Braintree . . . Oliver Ames sophomore Liam Newman notched his 100th faceoff win in a 20-11 boys’ lacrosse victory over Stoughton . . . Westford junior Kiley Carmichael cruised past 300 career points during a 20-6 girls’ lacrosse victory vs. Newton South . . . Waltham senior Quinn Gavin recorded her 200th career goal in a 19-9 girls’ lacrosse win over Arlington . . . Acton-Boxborough senior Victoria Thermidor exceeded 200 career points in an 18-12 girls’ lacrosse victory vs. Grafton . . . Beverly junior Annabelle Miller exceeded 100 career draw controls by winning five of them in a 14-3 girls’ lacrosse triumph vs. Peabody . . . King Philip senior McCoy Walsh fired her 800th career strikeout during a 5-0 softball win over Milford . . . Milton’s Zahria Daley notched her 250th career strikeout in an 8-3 triumph over Weymouth . . . Norton’s Bryson Chartier reached 100 career blocks during a 3-1 boys’ volleyball win over Millis

Coach of the Week: As Lynnfield girls’ tennis swept a Saturday doubleheader with North Reading, coach Craig Stone earned his 700th win in 45 seasons with the program. After winning Sunday (5-0 over Bishop Feehan) and Monday (4-1 over Rockport), he enters the postseason with a 702-126 career mark. Stone, who has coached wrestling for 50 years, owns more than 1,300 victories across the two sports . . . Bridgewater-Raynham softball coach Mike Carrozza notched his 450th career victory with an 18-0 triumph over Barnstable . . . Mansfield boys’ lacrosse coach Tim Frias picked up his 200th career win, 14-5, over Canton . . . BC High rugby coach Paul Carty recorded his 100th career victory, 34-5, over Belmont . . . Apponequet boys’ lacrosse coach Jeremy Nodelman recorded his 100th win, 9-8, over Old Rochester.

No-hitters: Marblehead’s Tessa Francis (8K), Masconomet’s Zach Ward(8K), Milton Academy’s Jameson Gray (8K, 6 inn.), Catherine Newbury of St. Mary’s (4K, 5 inn.), Georgetown’s Ty Southall (8K, 5 inn.), and Hingham’s Henry Healey (7K, 5 inn.).

100 lacrosse goals: Medway senior Justin Pillard, Stoughton senior Sean Rockwood, Bishop Feehan junior Emily Berube, Ursuline senior Rowan Luber, Austin Prep junior Jordyn Petitjean, Marblehead sophomore Zoe Dwyer, Oliver Ames junior Thomas Hern, Dighton-Rehoboth senior Gia Papa, Hopkinton junior Taylor Interrante, and Acton-Boxborough junior Charlotte Wren.

100 lacrosse points: Hanover senior Sebastian Brown, Acton-Boxborough sophomore Millie Brady, Westford sophomore Grace Trahan, Westwood junior Will Sesselman, and Central Catholic senior Cal Schoenfeld.

100 softball hits: Manchester Essex senior Penelope Riggs, Gloucester senior Emma Carrapichosa, and Walpole senior Grace Todd.

⚾ Lucas Falls lined a two-run double as Duxbury walked off No. 15 Plymouth North when Sam Szczesny raced home from first.

🥍 Here’s former Boston Latin lacrosse standout Reagan O’Brien producing back-to-back turnovers to send Johns Hopkins past Stony Brook in the NCAA D1 Women’s Lacrosse Tournament.

⚾ This chopper from Walpole’s Ryan McDonald got through the infield with the bases loaded for a 3-2 walkoff win over Natick.

⚾ Like we’ve said, just can’t get enough Bumila.

Scouts have flocked to see Bishop Feehan’s Brody Bumila and Kaiden McCarthy in Vermont. “Nobody will ever, ever slip through the cracks,” said one.

In girls’ lacrosse, Division 1 is loaded with legitimate state title contenders In the MIAA power rankings, Division 1 has 12 teams with a rating above 8, while the other three divisions have seven combined. Is this the best Lexington boys’ tennis team ever? The postseason will determine that. The Minutemen won a state title in 2023, but they’ve reached a new level of dominance this year, going 17-0 with a 4-1 victory over two-time defending state champ St. John’s Prep.

Student photojournalist Teddy Overtree of Hampshire was at the Lion Invitational at Ludlow High on May 8 when he snapped this nearly symmetrical image of two hurdlers in action.

Photo gallery: High school students deserving of their flowers

Interested in joining our free student photojournalism program and get your photos published by the Globe? Find out how to sign up.

The 2026 Will McDonough Writing Contest is accepting entries.

This year’s sports writing contest is free to enter and open to any high school student (grades 9-12) in New England. Winning entries will be published by the Globe, and their authors will be honored in June.

All a student needs to do is:

▪ Have an adult (18+) fill out this form

▪ Email their entry to [email protected]

Entries (one per person) will be judged on how well they express and support ideas, opinions, and claims, with sports as a central element. Essays will also be judged on their reporting and proper use of journalism tenets.

Deadline is May 27. For more information, please contact [email protected].

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