After reading JJ McDowell’s piece (Insider, Oct. 4) I got to thinking about football at a young age and how I share a lot of the same thoughts and feelings that he does. Football has led me to some of my best friendships in life, and some of the greatest memories that I have had. As I said in my previous post, I am now engaged and with all of the planning underway it has come to my attention that everyone on my side of the wedding party are friends that I grew up with, a couple of them are guys that I met for the first time playing football. Including myself four of us played Pop-Warner together for the Putnam Redskins.

I think every young kid playing Pop-Warner dreams that they will one day become a Heisman trophy winner and go on to play in super bowls. I remember being at that age and how fun it was to dream that one day I would play in the N.F.L.

When I started playing football at age eight I remember nothing being more important than winning. Although that feeling has stayed with me, I do understand that sometimes you don’t win them all. I mention this because my nephew Shawn Jr. is in his first year of tackle football playing for the same team that my brother Shawn and I played for. He is at that age when kids cry after losses, and walk around telling everyone that they will be a professional football player when they get older. He just recently told me that if I don’t want to be a cop that I can drive his limo for him when he makes the N.F.L. (how nice of him) Last week he called me right before my game to let me know that he scored his first touchdown.

We are approaching the half way point of our season and for the first time in school history we sit undefeated at 4-0. This past week we got a huge divisional win against Bridgewater State College who came into the game ranked one spot ahead of us at #2 in the New England D III football poll. With the win on Saturday we moved up to #2 — the school’s highest ranking.

A steady effort by the offense and a great game from the defense was crucial in stopping Bridgewater’s high powered offense. Dee Whitehead had a big day for the defense coming up with a fumble return for a TD, and also a pick late in the game that sealed the win. The game had a little extra hype as a couple of Bridgewater’s players were very vocal in the papers in the week leading up to the game. The win put us atop the division with Maine Maritime who we will square off with in two weeks.

This week we are back on the road as we travel to Beverly, Mass., for a showdown with Endicott College. We are preparing as best we can right now trying to deal with some injuries as I’m sure every college team is by now. A concern for us as always when we go on the road is whether or not we will make it there. The last time we traveled one of our buses broke down and caught on fire. As long as nothing happens that prevents us from getting to the game on Saturday it should be a great game between two very good teams.