Today is Friday November 11, 2005 and there are only two teams in the New England Football Conference that are preparing to play tomorrow, Fitchburg and Curry College. Tomorrow is the conference championship game for the NEFC and potentially the last game that the seniors on the field tomorrow will have a chance to play.

Today is also potentially the last practice for a group of seniors that I have had the privilege to play with for Four years. Us seniors that were honored this past Saturday have compiled the best record in school history with a record of 26-13.

After practice today the team will get together at a certain location at Elliot field to go through what we call “The Burning of the Shoe” which is when coach puts a cleat into a whole and sets it on fire while the team stands around the flames and the seniors get to tell their stories to the younger guys and thank everyone that has been involved in the program. The “Burning of the Shoe” usually is an emotional time for everyone as it could be the last time that that group will ever be together.

Saturday will be a special day for us Falcons as we have been waiting for this day for an entire year. Last year in the championship game we were beat by Curry College in a very tough, hard played football game. Well this year we get the chance to avenge that loss as both teams have taken care of their side of the division and will meet for the right to represent the conference in the NCAA playoffs.

Earlier this year we opened our season with a 28-13 win against Curry, however I expect that both teams will come into the game tomorrow very well prepared and that the game could come down to who has the ball last. Although I have had a tough season I am looking forward to the opportunity to redeem myself tomorrow either by punting well and putting our defense in good field position, or with a big kick that will help the offense.

In all of my years of playing organized football I have won a couple of championships on the Pop- Warner level, but nothing ever as big as the game that will be played tomorrow. Out of all of the DIII football teams in the country only 32 teams are going to play for a national championship, and with a win tomorrow we will get that opportunity

To all the seniors playing their final game tomorrow congratulations on playing four years of college football. Everyone else playing tomorrow enjoy every opportunity because it is going to go fast.

Well it has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been a little busy lately with practice and my internship. The internship requires me to put in 450 hours throughout the semester and at the half way point I am at about 200 hours, so I have been doing some nights during the week and also a couple of hours on the Sunday nights. It is going well right now, I am having a lot of fun, learning a lot and definitely making some good contacts that will be useful after graduation.

The last time I wrote in we were preparing to play on the road against Endicott College. That weekend was not a very good one for Falcon fans as we were beat 21-7. The story of that game was turnovers. Our offense just couldn’t get anything going and with 6 turnovers it left our defense on the field for a long time. Nonetheless they played well and beat us on that day.

The following week against Maine Maritime Academy we got back on track with a 21-0 shutout victory. MEMA came into the game with a very high-powered ground game that our defense was able to shut down.

The game against MEMA was also the first football game played on the newly renovated Elliot Field. Even with terrible weather there was still a good turnout of family and friends to support us in our first true home game of the season. The win improved our record to 5-1 and 4-0 in the Bogan division.

This past Saturday was our second straight contest against a maritime academy as we traveled down to scenic Buzzard’s Bay, Cape Cod for a match up with Massachusetts Maritime Academy. It was a successful trip as we came away with a 39-19 win and put ourselves into the driver’s seat in the division.

Although it was a successful trip, it was not a good game for me. It was the first time in my career at Fitchburg that I was pulled from the game. My kicking struggles continued as I missed my first 3 extra points; backup John Hirko came in and did a great job making all 3 of his attempts.

With a win this week against Framingham State combined with a Worcester State College loss, we will win our second straight divisional championship. However, a Worcester State win will set up a division championship game next week at home against Worcester State.

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.