You don’t have to look any further than high school athletics to get a true sense of the change in seasons.
The regular season is complete and high school playoffs are what remain for the sports that dot the autumn landscape. For Franklin County, thankfully, a number of schools remain in the hunt for statewide bragging rights. Saturday will see a number of athletes and teams in action battling for the right to be called “state champion.”
Let’s start with cross country, where the girls from Mohawk Trail Regional School and the boys from Frontier Regional High School will lead a contingent of harriers at the Gardner Golf Course in the state meet. Two girls from Greenfield High School are included in the Division II field. Meanwhile in the boys’ race, two runners from Mohawk and one each from Greenfield and Franklin County Technical School have earned the chance to compete.
Meanwhile inside the gymnasium at Shrewsbury High School, the Frontier’s girls volleyball team finds itself at center stage seeking another state title. Should Frontier defeat Joseph Case High School from Swansea, it would be seven straight state crowns to go along with a dozen western Massachusetts championships. What makes this even more remarkable is that the Red Hawks this year didn’t return any starters from last year’s team and there were no seniors on the squad.
One other team looking to finish atop the state ladder hits the gridiron on Saturday when Turners Falls High School travels to Leominster’s Doyle Field to face Maynard High School in a MIAA Football Division 4A state semi-final game. With a win here, TFHS would find itself facing the victor of the Millis/Hopedale and Boston Latin Academy for all the marbles.
These are the schools and teams still standing. But we would be remiss if we didn’t offer a tip of the cap to a couple of schools that came up just short in the state title drive. Greenfield’s field hockey team and Frontier’s boys soccer squad both saw their seasons come to a close in the state semifinals this week.
And let’s not forget Pioneer Valley Regional School’s golf team making it to the Division III state championships. Or that a Frontier golfer participated in the Division II state finals.
It’s been a good fall for high school athletics. Join us in wishing the teams still playing the best of luck.