Coaches Frustrated with Change in GBL Status

Next year, for the first time in its proud and lengthy history, the Greater Boston League will not be competing in Division 1 football.

On October 26, the MIAA alignment committee voted to realign Eastern Massachusetts leagues beginning in 2011. The GBL, including state powerhouse Everett, will be dropping into Div.1A.

While the drop effects little more than potential postseason adversaries, some people, notably those from the Crimson Tide camp, have been upset by the decision.

While it is easy to see why a team that has enjoyed as much success over the past decade and a half as seven-time super bowl champions Everett would feel unfairly treated by the decision, they are not the only school in the league.

There are four other teams competing in the GBL, and every year, they all start out with the goal of knocking the Crimson Tide off their seldom vacated throne.

Dropping Divisions Means Facing Similar Schools

As Malden High School Athletic Director Dan Keefe explained, if his school's team was to knock off Everett, they would prefer to play a team of similar size. Keefe, who sits on the five-member committee charged with realigning leagues based on enrollment, maintains that speaking strictly by the numbers, Division 1A is where the GBL belongs.

The average male enrollment of GBL schools is 805.

Compare that with the average male enrollment of the Big Three Conference which sits at a whopping 1720.

While this certainly translates into a competitive advantage on the football field, some coaches have raised the question as to how much this move actually helps the league, and whether or not efforts to that effect wouldn't be put to better use elsewhere.

"The bottom line," said Malden head coach Joe Pappagallo, "is unless you go undefeated and make the playoffs, (realignment) doesn't mean a darn thing."

"I don't know if it helps our league at all," agreed Somerville head football coach Harry Marchetti. "Teams like us and like Malden, trying to find games is the most important thing. Our focus should be on building a competitive schedule."

"I'm pretty sure if you ask any of the players who have won the lower super bowls, they'll tell you the euphoria is the same no matter what division you play in," added Pappagallo.

Other GBL Coaches Upset by Move

Marchetti and Pappagallo are not the only GBL coaches who aren't thrilled with the planned step down.

Medford High head football coach Rico Dello Iacono isn't pleased with it either, albeit for different reasons.

"To be honest with you, I'm not crazy about it," said Dello Iacono. "Our league has always been a division one league, and to move down, I just don't see the equity in it."

Dello Iacono, a former Everett assistant, has been on both sides of the quality divide in GBL football, and when the MIAA committee voted, only his Mustangs and the Crimson Tide voted to appeal the realignment, ultimately being outvoted 3-2 by the other league schools (Malden, Somerville, Cambridge).

Nothing Changes in the Short Term

The day-to-day reality of the league will remain the same. For the time being at least, it will still be Everett looking down from the top of the standings at everyone else. But as far as Dello Iacono is concerned, that is far from written in stone. No matter what division they are playing in.

"We're still going to be in there with Everett, and it's still going to be a five-team league," said Dello Iacono. "I feel like, from now on, any of the five teams in this league have a chance to win it ... the disparity between Everett and the rest of the league is getting smaller."

The fact remains, dropping a division doesn't do anything to address what Marchetti sees as the real issue facing the league moving forward. Filling the non-league portion of the schedule with competitive games.

Somerville played Xaverian, St. John's Prep and fellow Catholic Conference school Malden Catholic this season, losing all three games.

Since 2005, when the GBL lost Arlington, Waltham (Dual County League), Peabody and Revere (both Northeast Conference), this has been the dilemma facing league coaches.

MIAA Leadership Questioned

"We're getting no help from the MIAA with what we're trying to do as a league," said Marchetti. "If we don't play top ten teams, then we can't find games ... with our numbers, it's hard for us to compete."

According to Pappagallo, the MIAA had a plan in place that he feels would have better addressed the inequities of the current Massachusetts high school football setup.

That plan, known as the Birkenhead Proposal, was defeated by a vote of 190-114 back in March, and would have done away with the state's ancient league system, realigned schools based on average male enrollment across the board, created a true state championship game and given more schools a realistic chance of making the postseason.

Pappagallo for one, wonders why the MIAA didn't just unilaterally implement the system, rather than leave the matter for a vote, noting that more teams participating in the playoffs is surely a better situation for the kids.

"If you ask any of the student athletes who play for me now if they would rather have a chance at the playoffs, or play Medford on Thanksgiving, I'm sure that almost all of them would say playoffs" said Pappagallo. "I don't understand it ... they certainly didn't have the kids' best interests in mind."

New Alignment Doesn't Change Immediate Target: Everett

The way things stand, the bottom line is this: Malden, Medford, Somerville and Cambridge will remain the "also-rans" in the GBL until one of them can knock off Everett. When that happens, they will be playing a school closer in size to their own in the playoffs.

That's not that big of a difference for a league that everyone seems to agree needs some changes.

The league needs help. And coaches such as Pappagallo and Marchetti are left to wonder, if it's not going to come from the MIAA, then from where?

"If (the MIAA) is going to be the body that governs, then govern," said Pappagallo. "Mandate it, jam it down our throats ... you take (the Birkenhead plan), you roll it out for two years then see how it goes. If it doesn't work, you go back to the way things are."

"We're desperate to get something done that's in the best interests of the kids," said Marchetti. "This is about them."

Nobody wants to see the ancient rivalries and traditions of the GBL cast aside, but on the opposite side of that coin, no student athlete wants to know at the start of the season that they have no realistic shot at competing for a playoff berth.

"The MIAA should be the governing body," said Pappagallo. "That means doing what's best for the student body."