Plymouth North Prepares For Spring Football Season

PLYMOUTH, MA- Plymouth North started their season in February this year instead of in August due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The MIAA decided to move the season to February-April in a season titled “Fall II”. The official dates for the Fall II football season is from February 22-April 25.

The season started with contact-limited conditioning for the first three days of the season. By Thursday of the first week, the team was allowed to switch to pads and helmets, then Saturday the team was allowed to do full practice with contact. Some of the COVID protocols are that players need to wear cloth facemasks, practices have to be socially distanced, and huddles are allowed but has to be socially distanced.

Plymouth North Head Coach Chris Whidden is entering his second season at the position. He is coming off a 5-6 season last fall. Coach Whidden says, “from my standpoint, I can say that we’ve gotten a lot accomplished already, last year being my 1st year, we were getting to know each other, I was getting to know the kids, the kids were getting to know me.” Plymouth North will be looking to improve upon that record this season.

During the regular season, Plymouth North will only face teams from the Keenan Division. Their opponents will be Silver Lake, Duxbury, Whitman-Hanson, Marshfield, and Hingham. Their season opener will be at home against Duxbury on Friday, March 12 at 6 pm. After the five matchups of the regular season, if Plymouth North ends up being one of the top two teams in the Keenan Division, then they will qualify for the Patriot Cup tournament. If not qualified, then the team will play one of the other teams who are not in the playoff mix before the season ends. There are no state tournaments this season due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The expectations for this season according to Coach Whidden are, “We spend the first couple weeks finding out where we are as a team, and we want to make sure from now until April 23rd, that we maximize that potential, whatever that ends up being based on the personnel that we get and we get the most of what we have.”

As in all the other Massachusetts High School football teams competing this season, Plymouth North is in uncharted territory as in playing in the Spring. Coach Whidden says, “From everybody’s perspective from that who I talk to whether a player or a coach, we’re happy to play, I don’t care if it’s in the middle of February or the middle of March we’re excited to have a season.”