Middle School Football to Begin in the Fall

The Friends of Melrose Football are always trying to find ways to improve the high school football program.

Seven years ago the booster club funded the construction and purchased the equipment to build a 5,000 square foot state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility at Melrose High School. Now, the organization filled with former Red Raider players, is going another route to try and improve the football program.

Starting this fall there will be a Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School team for interested athletes. The team will consist of seventh and eighth graders and possibly some sixth graders. According to George Karelas, who's on the Board of Directors of the Friends of Melrose, they already have 70 players signed up and are hoping to have enough players to form a varsity and junior-varsity team.

"We started this league for two reasons," Karelas said. "First, we want every kid who wants to play football to be able to. Pop Warner gives them an opportunity to play, but they have [weight] restrictions. We won't have that. And this also gives kids who play middle school football a chance to learn the high school system and learn it at a young age."

Pop Warner restricts the weight of middle school-aged children to anywhere from 160 to 180 pounds. In the middle school program, any Melrose seventh and eighth grader can play, regardless of size or age.

While there are 18 teams in the Middlesex region, Karelas believes there will be about eight games, mainly against local teams like Winchester. The games will primarily be on Wednesdays or Thursdays with the potential of an occasional night game, all being played at the high school.

In the beginning of the week the middle school team will hold practice, and on Thursdays and Fridays — depending on their game schedule — the players will have access to the high school weight room and strength and conditioning facility.

"This is more of a developmental league," Karelas said. "This is more for the kids to have a chance to learn the basics of the high school system and have fun."

As far as Pop Warner goes, Karelas understands it could potentially hurt their upper-level teams. And according to Melrose Pop Warner Vice President, Rob Carrillo, Pop Warner will lose both its A and B teams. Carrillo and Melrose Pop Warner President Joe Picard declined any further comments on the middle school's effect on Pop Warner.

But it's the high school that will be benefiting the most from this new league. The middle school coach — Brendan Kent — who teaches at the school, will have assistant coaches, but at the same time, some of the high school coaches will help out during practice.

"They're ecstatic about this," Karelas said of the high school coaches. "They're completely on board. This is going to help their program by having the players learn the high school system at a young age. When they get to the age when they'll be playing for the high school team, they would already have a basic understanding of the system."

Tryouts begin Aug. 23 and will run for two weeks. After that, games will begin in September and the inaugural season will wrap up sometime in November.