Everett High School head football coach Theluxon Pierre greeted 120 players at the opening day of practices for the 2019 season.
That is a large turnout, to be sure.
“It’s good for the city,” said Pierre. “You have Pop Warner going on and high school football going on – it means there will be fewer kids in the streets.”
First Scrimmage Saturday
One thing that Theluxon Pierre has learned in his brief tenure as head coach of the Everett High School football team is that it is difficult to find opponents willing to play the Crimson Tide.
And we’re not just talking regular season opponents. The pre-season can’t present challenges as well and that’s why the EHS team is heading north to Maine this weekend to play Thornton Academy.
“I don’t know why teams in this state [Massachusetts] don’t want to play Everett or scrimmage Everett,” said Pierre this week. “Thornton’s head coach reached out to us for a scrimmage and it just so happened that we were looking for a scrimmage.” The Tide will also scrimmage Haverhill on Aug. 31 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Everett began on-field workouts Tuesday after the oppressive heat and humidity forced Everett indoors in to the air-conditioned high school gymnasium Monday. There is an MIAA rule that prohibits teams from practicing outdoors in such hot and humid conditions.
Doherty returns as starting QB
One player looking sharp has been junior quarterback Duke Doherty who will get the start in Saturday’s scrimmage.
“Duke worked so hard in the off season and he’s ready to go,” said Pierre.
Doherty will be without wide receiver extraordinaire Mikey Sainristil, who is now playing for the University of Michigan (see related story).
“Every year we have great players coming through here and you can’t replace that player,” related Pierre. “A lot of times people are focused on whom is going to replace this great player. You don’t replace that great player – that great player has moved on to bigger and greater things. So the next person behind him just has to step and do their best. Someone else is going to step up – that’s just the morale of the story.”
Returning receivers include Ismael Zamor, Eli Auguste, Tyreese Baptiste, and Josh Nieves. “All are very capable and we expect big things out of them,” said Pierre. “They worked very hard in the off season. They look ready.”
Clarence Jules will be a key performer in the offensive backfield.
Looking ahead to Springfield
Pierre’s team will be tested right away by Springfield Central in the Sept. 6 season opener at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Springfield averaged more than six touchdowns a game last season when it won the Division 3 Super Bowl title at Gillette Stadium. Don’t be misled by the ‘Division 3’ designation. Springfield is the third largest city in Massachusetts (behind Boston and Worcester) and despite its high enrollment, Central drops in to Division 3 for the state playoffs.
A huge crowd is expected in Everett for the inter-sectional showdown that should have a lot of offensive fireworks.