Winchester Football Holds First Practice of the Season

The rain steadily collided into the new artificial turf. The wind whipped through the stadium and crashed off the back of McCall Middle School.

Coaches, parents and spectators who were in attendance wore their Winchester windbreakers and sweatshirts. And with the football team sprinting around the field in their helmets, everything on Monday afternoon felt as though it would be that Sep. 23 practice that every Winchester football player has circled on their calendar. The day before their rematch with last year's Super Bowl winner and defending league champ – Reading.

Well, everything felt like that day, except the month. But, while Monday may not be as big a day, it still marked the first football practice of the new season for the Sachems.

"We're excited," said Winchester coach Paul Sobolewski. "We're coming off our best season Winchester has had since 1990, we finished last year with an 8-game winning streak and we're here with the right attitude and emotion. We're ready to go."

Last season the Sachems finished the year 9-2, losing an early-season game to Reading, which ended up giving the Rockets the league title and propelled them to the championship.

"We're definitely shooting to win the league this year," said senior wide receiver and defensive back Will Herbert. "Last year we lost to Reading, but they're definitely on our radar. We're definitely aiming for them."

"That's the team we're gunning for," said senior linebacker Alex Kohn. "Last year's team was close to unstoppable, but we feel we'll be ready this year."

The summer has definitely not been wasted on the players, as they prepare to continue one of the state's longest winning streaks.

"Over the summer we did a lot of lifting," said senior linebacker Brandon Nowell. "We feel like we have good chemistry. And a lot of good seniors are going to step up. We have good skill players with a lot of speed."

"We definitely want to keep that winning streak going," said senior lineman Rob Pantrelli. "We want to keep winning and keep our streak going into this year."

But for most of the players and coaches, right now they're just enjoying being on their own field. Most of this current team hasn't really experienced a home game.

It's been three years since the Sachems had a true home-field. The team played one game on the newly built Manchester Field, last year on Thanksgiving, now this season, on top of practices, Winchester will play eight games on the state-of-the-art field.

"We're real excited, it should be a fun year," said senior running back Richard Mpanga. "We finally have a home field to play and practice on."

"The field's awesome," Soboloewski said. "We haven't had a home game in so long, we're real excited and ready to start this season."

The Sachems open play on their new field on Sep. 1 at 1:30 p.m. against Stoughton.