the following podcast is produced or sponsored by a community member the contents views and opinions expressed of those of the participants do not reflect those of the mc or the town of belmont the mc welcome to comments call us at six one seven four eight four two four four three or e mail us at access at belmont media dot org alongside all my high school head football coach young human usually sitting across from me but today you'll find out in a second here why we've got the set up the way we do course we are brought they said we're broadcasting both on the belmont media podcast network and also will to back row first for the five captains ryan noon chick pollock in the back and tyler reynolds george fitzgerald in the front unfortunately caleb killed henman the full fifth and could not be here caleb's on a college visit this weekend and you know as you know we were anticipating doing this on monday but then we had a little bit of a scheduling snafu with the v f w thanksgiving day dinner so caleb is here in spirit and i know he's disappointed that he doesn't get to do this but i will will represent fifty eight that's right he's looking to do a post graduate european oh ok that recommendation all right so well that's where he that is harry is all right well we will jump into a well i guess we'll you know spelled out watertown that's why we're all here but if you want to take a couple minutes talk briefly about we didn't get a chance to talk about the drake it game yeah well the actually last home game at harrah's fields of the season so you guys battle into overtime fell short but you want to talk about that game at all and yeah i mean i think you know  four guys in here with me would agree that you know that was kind of a frustrating game for all of us i think you know if we play that game again we we win it probably if we play that game ten times we win seven or eight of them and we just weren't really able to what it is that we needed to do when we needed to do it in order to win that football game so you know we didn't take our opportunities when we had them off fence of lee i thought our defense did a great job you know draycott only scored seven points off on civilian regulation their other their other touchdown was a pick return for a touchdown and they went all way over time obviously and we got the ball first and just weren't able to get in the end zone and they got it second and you know they were able to convert on three downs and and get in there to end the game so you know i think all of us and my players would probably agree you know we we took that one on the channel bit and it's really feeding the fire a little bit to make sure that we execute and we take advantage of our opportunities as we go into into watertown week yeah i was also on the coldest giving us a plate in all season and yeah it was a chilly i was  definitely a chilly one you know and if the winds play a factor at all in like how you secured the game play yeah i mean it was it was pretty windy and it was pretty called you know i think that speaks for for georgie that yeah we think about that stuff but you know at the end of the day we have we have faith in george's ability to throw a ball whether he's gone with the wind or against it he's been a great quarterback for us all year so i don't think they had a ton going in the game planning i mean we might not you know try to go deep over the top and we have the wind at our back because it'll sail and you know try to keep it a little bit a little bit shorter in our passing game and was definitely cold i mean you could see is it was i think tough for george sometimes to to get a good feel on the ball which can be when it's really cold hard for noone you know to get a good grip on the ball and snap and those guys did a great job on the center quarterback exchange on such a cold day and i think ryan asked georgie you know you got to give me a you got to give me an extra second getting getting up on the football because i got to get my i can't really feel it so i have to wedge it in there so i can get a get a good skydive but you know most the most part was george soros he throws go ball cuts through when you know it turns over really nicely and he's got a great throwing motion i think that really plays into it a lot in terms of his ability to throw into a big when a lot of other guys might not have that that ability well and will actually ask ryan to hear the center in the court so you know right there's old hat for you you were here last year with the captains to your to your captain now is a senior congratulations on that and so talk about you know just what it's like play in center in the cold weather do you have like an extra set of gloves or special kind of question where when you i mean i don't know how does that work with all the times you have to touch the ball so i actually i don't wear gloves at all because i guess that with them on i did su i said can you give me an extra second i use both hands to kind of shove the ball into my hand and they say i had a good grip on it before so it's cold but unlike george that though and warm ups is very cold and it's freezing but once the game started once your plane really didn't feel it all right well well and you know and that so that kind of wraps up that game and now let's just turn to head to belmont watertown as you know actually i was just reading a recap of watertown's last game and the head coach john because she called this actually said for belmont this is their super bowl any knows he needs to be right so yes so let's well all talk you know just talk about what you know belmont watertown football's all about the ninety six the dition you know actually i was going to give you guys i think i have a few extra handouts here break down the series so if you guys need to see the history of the series here you go well what should you know this is supposed to be called pre show prep that i didn't do this or try to do some other stuff but anyway yeah so watertown's won the last five years so obviously you know for you seniors you know this yaseen a lot more for you guys because you want to you know you want to finally beat watertown right i mean this is it it makes a little extra special looking ahead to this matchup absolutely it's always a fun game for  so much hype going up to it at the beginning this season is one of our goals to be watertown it has been the past few years so to finally accomplish that will definitely be important to us yeah the games have been you know the last couple of seasons especially they've been so close i mean you know they they beach in the final minutes two years ago victory field and then last year the game that we broadcast on v h s sports t v that game again you know went right down to the end you guys were fighting and yeah it was a six point game so yeah i mean that's  just right i mean you guys have gotten so close to a woman and you've seen you've obviously you've had guys who had a chance to see you know at least read about what they've been doing this year and the fact that you know last week they were one win away from making it into the vision five super bowl you want to talk a little bit just take your experiences the belmont watertown from your previous years even competing in that rivalry yeah freshman year i actually nine hundred forty no game due to snow fresh and yea pre game show so we like grab this giant desktop or we'll let it out there and they had to scrape you know you guys had to clean off the snow just as much for that than than anything else and yeah i mean you know certainly the pictures you guys running around in the snow was i think i mean i must say that was a fun and they've had you know some success this year they were think a six and six and four team going into the going into the well i mean yes finally i could make the playoffs at three and four and then they pull off three straight playoff wins by combined total of nine points if i got the last two wins came in the final handle them pretty good you know we got a little bit of a burrow under our saddle you know we've got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder i mean you know two years ago in two thousand and fifteen it was twenty four twenty two out of the last four or three years that i've coached this game that was probably the hardest one to stomach you know  we thought we put that game away i still see it in front of my face you know we ran with johnson on the sweet left converted a first down coach because he had burned all his time outs that would have put the game away and we copped a hold on the outside and you know and i was able to drive close enough to get it can always range and you know he's a great kicker and he was able to put it through the uprights for the win so that was a game that we felt you know obviously we didn't win but we we felt we had won it in that moment and then last year was a great football game i mean we spotted them out the gate i think we spot them fourteen points maybe twenty one points out the gate and then battled back and were driving field were driving feel the tie was thirty four twenty eight and through panic and that was that was the end of that so we're just excited to get another crack at this team you know coach because he's a great coach and they've done a lot of great things you know they say it's this is this is our super bowl i go out there and say it's their super bowl two it is now you know i don't i don't think that's unique to us any time you have a game that's been playing for a century now six years of these two teams you know battling each other and going back and forth you get something that's just really for lack of a better word is really special and i think i said this last year probably or before that if you've never been involved in it you know you never and i hadn't been involved in it until i came here but if you've never been involved in if you've never been on the sideline of obama watertown game you never played in the belmont watertown game it's hard to i guess get a it's really hard to describe the feeling you know for a high school player high school coach when you go out there and you look out in the stands and every seat and stand is filled and all the way around the field everybody is just packed in there standing to watch the game there's people on the roofs and porches of houses across the street at victory field you know looking down and watching that and there are not a lot of places in the country that have this tradition and i think massachusetts is the only state that has thanksgiving day football and on top of that the the town connections into these deep rivalries you know like boma watertown or you know medford mauled and you know it's there's some this magical about that and if you don't you know if you don't feel butterflies going in and you don't feel that sort of extra juice and that extra energy you know as we would say need to you need check your because you need to go to the doctor because something's up it's special man yeah well let's let's ask these guys i mean you know the last couple of thanksgiving is a just talk about the fun playing in the game and and the battles with watertown is coach mentioned they've been extremely t more fans all the seniors it's their final game for both teams there's a little bit more urgency on both sides of the ball just so fun to play and there's nothing like it you know we'll talk about that you know one of you i don't know tyler what are your thoughts so you know playing in the game last year chris at belmont high school there's so much energy so like you're never tired like adrenaline takes you through the whole game unlike some of the other games and honestly like i feel just lucky that this is my senior year and my sophomore and junior year we lost in these close games like if i didn't have  crack at it i think they would hurt a lot more but since we got to play them one last time i feel it lucky about that yeah georgia your thoughts at all of course this is your first year getting to be the starting quarterback in the big belmont watertown battle so game pretty well and like john dillinger on the sideline i remember j c reynolds i remember all those kids so it's a lot of fun for me to go out there and get a chance to be on that same feel that they are on that's right well let me ask you this too you just brought up you know you and tyler back in sixth grade were were water boys on the team but also your your connection playing football together goes back to pop warner and one of those we talked about before the show today you know was kind of pre show stuff we mentioned that you right now i know the pop warner program has you know fallen off their the belmont watertown joint pop warner leagues so for in the case of jake and ryan you guys you know you guys started playing the first time together with everyone else you know everybody here the four of you was freshman year right freshman football team when you got the recollections and that's all playing together that freshman year of that i was the freshman football team that year  was just like you got to play football receiver like you you're fun like yeah i never looked back and it's just so like fashion football was such a great time our freshman probably points they ended up scoring in that game too but what you guys also talk about this too i was going to get to this at some point but we'll get to it now i think you know coach will certainly stand by so i know you kind of alluded to it in our last podcast that it's a special  but i never played football before freshman year so everything i know about football is from coast to in these coaches and deathly been an awesome experience playing for them and just really so happy i played don't get anything about  it these coaches everyone everyone loves on the team and definitely put so much time and effort into everything and we all really appreciate that so was there anything you guys remember like about your first practice with a coach who had already been like that for just you know just because of the first time you met from play running back and i remember like i did all right i got to started do you like to play coach to pull them all together you know ring them out and the next three plays i got my head taken they're not happy about that so those are those are fun experiences that i never want to have again some are going into freshman year when i kind of committed to playing football or doing d m c i mean i mean table and you say you know you kind of look like that kid from the movie yeah that kid sunshine and ever since they just call me sunshine i he's not mavericks so he's got to be right and it just kind of i don't know it just kind of filters on i mean i would actually say that you know the vast majority of the guys on our team carry nicknames i don't i don't think there are too many guys on the team has some sort of you know moniker that the coaches are or that their teammates have attached to them and you know we can have a lot of fun with that so yeah so you're right so you said the coaches pick out some of the nicknames and you guys pick them out amongst each other we kind of has this you know very affable just going through going through life loving life attitude very a very blue bear attitude you know the bare necessities the simple bare necessities forget about your worries and your strife and that's running now i know there's a lot there are some limitations like the numbers you guys can pick out for yourself because you know based on the position to play but do any of you have any kind of connection with the numbers that you perform numbers that you guys have a good question so freshman year when i got called up at the end of the year to play for into numbers or you're not but it depends on the guy i mean i think some guys are some guys develop like a deep attachment to their number you know and then some guys don't i mean it's really i think one of the things that's cool about football generally is a sport and this kind of speaks to it  there's so many different personalities and attitudes towards what we're doing in attitudes toward the game and attitudes towards you know what's important i mean some guys are you know wickedly superstitious and have to do everything the same way or wear the same shirt or the same pair of socks and some guys don't do that you know and don't need that in are just kind of like yeah i'd wear forty five or seventy two if i was a quarterback and just as long as i can go out there and play football you know and i think that speaks to like you know even in these four guys that we've got these guys who are very very different you know as human beings very very different personality types and approaches to life and all good ones but you know different and they can come together and you know create this kind of common identity and this push for a common goal and all that stuff i mean number selection is kind of a microcosm of that you know so it's cool well you know why don't i turn the tables on you here i mean we asked the players what their first interaction with you was like what about your first interaction with the each of them if you could keep it keep it a little brief just will keep the shell moving along here but man i mean i think my first interaction with all these guys definitely was was going down to china and in that first spring and meeting the eighth graders who  coming up to be a part of the football program you know and we talked i think in that in that moment with all of those guys about how we were holding to and planning to kind of redirect where belmont football had been and that they were going to be a huge part of that you know and so like in terms of command i mean in terms of first like individual memories with each of these guys is really hard to it's honestly really hard to pick one  there have been you know one of the things that's really emotional for me going into this year is this game is that you know you think about the number of hours you know just the number of hours just purely that we've spent together you know be it practice be it meetings be it seven on seven xp be it going to elite camp left in the offseason i mean it's thousands and thousands and thousands of  hours you know and so when you when you start to think about individual moments like my favorite individual moments for a lot of these guys come towards the end of their career you know where like you know tyler kind of how a little bit of a slow start this year running back and he has high expectations for himself and then he rattled off i think three or four hundred yard games in a row and so one of my favorite memories will be you know walking off the field after a one hundred yard games with ty and kind of seeing that affirmation you know that he deserved you know and that's really that will always stick in my mind for tyler for george you know george sat behind cal for two years on the varsity level you know and never and went through two tough injuries sophomore and junior year as well and never wavered you know never doubted his ability to be successful once he got the opportunity and did a ridiculous amount of work you know to get himself to get himself ready to go and so my favorite moments with george throughout this season have been the little moments that we get to have on the sideline when he comes over for play call or when we get a twenty know and it's really cool to have a you know quarterbacks in head coaches have a special relationship a unique relationship and it's really been been cool to learn who george is you know because sometimes you don't get to do that as much with your with your backup quarterback you know and this year i've really gotten a good complete picture of who george fitzgerald is and i'm just really impressed by it you know really impressed by him and so we get to have a lot of kind of cool moments and but my favre moment probably walking off the field with george after after burlington one point when we both had big fat smiles on our faces and kind of joking back and forth off the field you know my favorite moment with my pheromone with sunshine was i forget i think it was maybe sophomore year he made a catch at elite in the in the showcase type deal a one on one type deal and i don't know if he remembers this but he made a filthy catch and i trotted up out him and afterwards or something like that i just said you know you're going to be here to be an absolutely fantastic receiver man and i'm just so excited week it was right before we got him on to the field as a junior and he went out and had a great year you know jake  been jake has been fantastic to watch as as a wide receiver man i mean he's just a cheat i think he's i think he's the best receiver in the mills and it's league man i don't think there's anybody out there who's better there might be a couple of guys with better numbers but you know he's got great hands runs great routes and all that stuff but you know seeing that he made that catch and you can flip the ball to the whoever was running the ball back and i caught him at the side and we said that but like to me it was kind of like this moment where really you could see it in his face where it really shone you know in his own mind like man i'm good at this you know like i'm pretty i'm pretty dang good at this i can i can do ok i can do this and like that's that's a cool moment with jake  my favorite moment when new and i've told this story before it's hands down my favorite my fave i'm sorry ryan my my favorite moment with ryan noone is is we call them up in his freshman year and ryan was on the sideline  something and we needed him on the sideline to talk to him and so you know ryan was the next guy up we were pretty we were very deep that you're on the line and so i look at noon to run yes coach i go get in their left guard and he drops the water bottles he go running out full full ballou sprint right to the huddle and he gets into the huddle and boston latin has this really big and imposing middle linebacker who's a senior and the kid came came up to the line of scrimmage and gave him a stop you know right on the line of scrimmage and freshman ryan just kind of went in and stood up in a stance a little bit they called a false start by that time we had we had talked to windy so we sent about no get back here so that was ryan's i think i was ryan's first varsity play was a five yard false start against boston latin and that moment has been will always stick in my mind as a funny moment not because of the moment itself but because we had we got a hell of a player you know this this kid is handled every snap that we've taken since thanksgiving day of his freshman year you know with a quick knock on wood or i knock on wood and i think all the guys you know not to keep talking i'm really sorry boys like i think all the guys would agree that you're hard pressed to find somebody who works as consistently as ryan always it just never stops it's just it's like him i don't i don't understand it's like a machine and i don't think i've ever seen him like angry i don't think i've ever seen him disparage he's a bear to block and to play against i wouldn't necessarily want to play against ryan especially at the five technique you know he's really good but you know he's never like down or all of us have grown up together you know and this thing and it's going to be a really emotional thursday not just with these four guys sitting here but with all of our seniors especially the for your seniors you know this is  you know we talk about family we live it to you know we like to think we live it and our coaches love it and our players love it and so this thursday is going to be a really emotional thing these guys been a huge part of my life for the last four years man every day from next year and those guys are going to be there you know the guys that have been there for every day and that's a that's a deep and emotional moment and you know i'd like to take this opportunity for them and for all my seniors to say  you know i just really heartfelt thank you for having faith in me and having faith in us and being willing to believe in what it is that we were trying to do it always hasn't been easy we haven't always made the right call but they've never stop understanding what it was we're trying to do and they never stop working to to make that a reality and you know what care what our record says football culture in melbourne is back you know and you can see it on our field our practice to throw this back on the captains here again and guys you know any other thoughts just about this you know being your last game on thanksgiving day coming up you know the really cool for me the first time ever played ten years ago to stick with us for the rest of our lives so the most important thing is i want for the team to have no regrets for me to have no regrets and leave everything out on the field that's really important yeah i think tyler had it on the notice i mean just no rivalry like like watertown that goes back that deep in that finally these kids grew up together at the belmont a lot of town like pop warner teams so i think that's also a huge part it's like the culmination of all these years of  despise new challenge like you know the same team like just knowing each other like this is the last time i think it's just going to be something special and that's the other part of it too jake that you know if your parents and your grandparents grew up here in belmont i mean i'm sure they could say all sorts of stories about their rivalry  this rivalry is like how in twine the lives of the two communities are and how intertwined the lives of the players are you know and it's always been like there's this i mean these guys got to play ninety six year old rivalry against each other they don't like each other in the context of the game and then all the sudden game's over and no matter what you know even if they're her in the the you can see the love that exists between the two sides of the players on both sides and especially the seniors you know who recognize that our you know this is it we've been playing against each other playing with each other or whatever for a decade and that's it you know and the hugs and the and the dab's and the handshakes to come after that man is is i think just like a true testament to the power sport in general and to the power of football specifically and to the power of high school football even even more specifically so i'm excited for those guys to get that sorry reg no you know i'm definitely alright guy that's i'm sorry after stop for a second of like that and i'm usually not that type of guy and they will they keep like a level of its own kind of throw games and acid games and everything but i know that after the last game the last home game and just building up to this last game thinking about like seniors in the past years after the games it's been tough and you going up to them and you know giving them a hug after their last game and now it's our turn for it to be our last game and stuff and it's awful well i know one other thing that you guys have to try to balance here or be in senior year and everything you know you're applying to college is you getting ready to you know look ahead to next phase of your lives really briefly want you guys you know we got you here chance to update what you're going to be doing next year or what you would like to do next year or let's start with you right yes so going to be going to tufts next year to play baseball which i'm very happy to hear about only because i'm going to get to keep announcing ryan's name i am in the public address announcer over tuscans field  with anyway go ahead jake this no this summer was really weird for me i was trying to play baseball in college the grind so we had all these you tournaments and all this stuff and then i did a couple football look i've been applying to some schools i'm thinking about maybe following old captain kevin martin down southern methodist university in dallas texas one of the schools i'm thinking about mid atlantic similar to georgie like you maryland you a he's a great lacrosse going to have to be for some of those lacks schools that's a hotbed of oh yes down there in the mid atlantic fingers crossed and that's something the that he really wants to do it would be a great honor and we're really really all of us i think are really really hopeful for that because i think george make a he's a tremendous leader right now you can see it when he comes in the office of huddle there's no doubt go through mike whalen over wetland and you know hollering like and then have my color coach tell check and see if we can't agree so we'll here to there for good old george well i'm sure coach belichick i'll be glad to hear george is applying to the naval academy george is going to get some great references to and obviously you know we just it is sending congressional references and he and his dad and his mom and working really hard on getting all the package together and you know we're just keeping our fingers crossed he makes a great officer you know you make a great leader and i think one of the most important characteristics of leadership in all of these guys showed all five of them caleb to not here is you can't lead if you don't have compassion you know if you don't have the ability to understand the feelings of another human being if you don't have empathy it's impossible to lead because you can't just project yourself you know and so when you see these guys and good moments and bad moments and this goes for all of them i've been really really blessed that has been great captains here and these guys have kept that tradition going and you i can tell when they speak to one another and when they speak to the younger guys that there is a a level of love and expectation there that creates trust you know and these guys these younger guys they trust them you know like you would trust an older brother to have their best interests at heart you know and we've been really lucky to have five guys who embrace that and you know we say that leadership is being the first to serve in the last to be served you know we've got five guys who really take them out heart and approach the people they lead with compassion and love and that's why above all else george would  make a fantastic naval officer so i'm keeping my i keep my fingers crossed i know he and robert is that we're talking the other night were you know you're all nervous and he said you send your kids off to us anyway and stuff like that i know rob's a little nervous and and i am too you know et's let's stop this watertown winning streak and get your coach any final words on your part as we wrap up another season of these typecast as always they've been fun you you have a lot to say and you speak passionately about football and you know just about anything else i apologize we don't have a cheese cake for you here oh no you know what the thing though is that after that broadcast we went we had team dinner the next thursday and i actually had a parent teacher night or something that i couldn't make it but i coach so it brought me a plate the parents bought two cheesecakes based off of the t o s the broadcaster got the previous week so i got a strawberry cheesecake it was fantastic good quality graham graham crust to it i was i was very pleased to see that while the power of the t it yeah you know i'm just i'm like these guys i'm i'm excited i'm really excited to go through the next three days you know and you've heard me say and these guys heard me say that you know we're really blinders on you know it's there were about monday you know we got practice on monday so we'll we'll go out have a great practice you know and then when monday is over we'll think about tuesday practice and then with think about when they practice and then we'll think about  thursday morning and i think one of the things that that enables us to do is to and it's really important for these guys you know because you know my my playing days i did a long time ago you know i'm i'm going to be back next year i'm going to i'm going to get football you know i'm going to i'm going to be on the sideline next year and all these guys will never be around unless they come to coach will never be around high school football again and so it's really  me and that they are embrace the individual moments you know over the next three days you know because like tomorrow is our last indy routed full practice where we have individual periods we had our last ends of indy oriented practice on on friday you know and it's just kind of the things that you do every day that you take for granted that you're getting down to the last couple times you get to do that you know and it's other in a water you know really small things you get you need to be in tune to those you know because for me that's where all the fun in the magic of football rests i wan every game i play but i don't need to win in order to have football sustain me you know i don't i don't i don't i want to when i don't have to when you know i think there's a big difference between the two and what makes football so special are moments like that you know and then we got our excusing ghar legacy day on on wednesday it's a real special day you know these guys walk through kind of a they stay on the fifth practice field a little late and get to kind of hang out together and they walk through this kind of gauntlet of helmets and then their teammates up to the to the upstairs locker room in the in the white and you know we close the doors and these guys get an opportunity to address their team every senior you know talk as little as much as they want and those that's probably the most emotional day in our program you know and i tear up thinking about it here you know just because the messages they get and there are messages they belong to us and nobody else  and the messages that get spoken that day are so deep and personal and we talk about legacy a lot leaving something for future generations right leaving something for future generations so that when you walk out of the doors of this program who you were within it remains and that's when those guys really make that happen and make it real and it becomes real i think for them on that day you know when they stand up to talk about what belmont football has been to them for four years and they realize that this is it that's a that's a big day so we're just kind of here you know go through monday have a great practice fun practice fast go home sleep come in early in the morning man that that special morning you know you drive and then you got your you know you done keys you guys starbucks or whatever and you just you know you got your you got that feeling you know some magical in the air in and we'll live in the game you know one  minute time when repetition time forty four minutes to victory you know and that's where we're going to be so i'm really excited for these guys and i'm just so proud of them i'm bursting and i'm bursting so proud of what they've accomplished you know that thanksgiving morning you get on the bus and you know you had to victory literally well they opened literally you know you know that you know will be there for a nice you know early warm up time we like to we like to get there early all right well hey you coach he's always been a fun season again thanks thanks you guys for coming in sorry caleb couldn't you for a check it out type cast right here on the belmont media podcast network