Page 16 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 No Thanksgiving football for Everett By Greg Phipps B y now, the Everett High School football team may have been pursuing a 13th state title had the 2020 season played out as planned. The Crimson Tide have been a perennial state Super Bowl contender over the past two decades, with 12 state championships on their resume – the most recent in 2017. But Thanksgiving Day this year will be one without football, as the fall season was cancelled statewide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Crimson Tide will have to wait until next year to resume their Turkey Day battle with the Masconomet Chieftains. Everett has gone 5-0 in its holiday meetings against Masco, including last year’s 41-7 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium. That was the first home Thanksgiving game for Everett since 2011 when the Tide won the last-ever game against Cambridge Rindge & Latin. That holiday series ended after 2011, and Everett remained idle on Thanksgiving until resuming a new series against Masco in 2016. The decision to cancel high school football statewide this fall came back in August, when the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) delayed the fall start and approved a gridiron season that would commence this coming February and run through April. If the season does actually take place – dependent on the status of the pandemic at that FOOTBALL | SEE PAGE 17 2019 EHS Crimson Tide Football Team Coaches: Shown in the back row, left to right: Vondell Langston, MacClure Powell, Mike Ruth, Head Coach Theluxon Pierre, Chris Miller, Rob Doherty, and Claudy St. Juste. Shown in the front row, same order: DJ MacDonald, John Capra, Brenden LaRosa, Greg Bluestein and John Romboli. (Courtesy of EPS) They’re coming! Lynn Classical and Lynn English cleared to join GBL in 2021 NEC votes 12-0 to let “Lynns” leave league as of June 2021 By Steve Freker A nd then there were EIGHT! That’s how many teams are now in the fold as the Greater Boston League (GBL) got the great news it had been waiting for on Friday morning when officials learned that Lynn Classical High School and Lynn English High School will be officially joining the GBL as full members beginning in June 2021. The final hurdle was passed Friday when the Northeastern Conference (NEC) principals voted unanimously, 12-0, to approve the petition of the two Lynn high schools to leave the NEC immediately, without a potential two-year wait period. The Bulldogs of Lynn English and the Rams of Lynn Classical will be ready for competition as “GBLers” for the fall season of the 2021-22 school year. The addition of the two Lynn schools, which officially came about in lightning fashion, in a span of just two weeks, bolsters the GBL to eight teams, the largest the league has been since the early 2000s. The league already includes Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, Somerville and Chelsea (rejoining the GBL in the fall of 2021). The addition of Lynn Classical and Lynn English in June will make it an eightt eam league . M a n y ar ound the re - gion have stated that with the addition of the two Lynn schools the GBL will become the top urban-based high school league in Massachusetts. There has been talk of the Lynn Classical football celebrated a 22-9 Thanksgiving win over archrival Lynn English last year. (Courtesy Photo) two Lynn schools picked up steam when it became known they had officially petitioned the NEC to leave the league in which they had been charter members for over 30 years. On November 13, the GBL two Lynn teams coming in the GBL ever since the four GBLers – Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville – indicated they’d like to end their brief, two-year pilot program stay in the NEC at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. Revere quickly left the NEC and joined the GBL midway through the summer of 2019 as the league grew to five members. The move of the Board officially voted unanimously, 6-0, to officially welcome the two schools as members to join the GBL. “It was an easy decision and we are thrilled as a league that Lynn Classical and Lynn English wanted to become part of the Greater Boston League,” Malden High School Principal and GBL President Chris Mastrangelo said at the time of the Lynn English girls’ basketball played Lynn English in a rivalry matchup last year. (Courtesy Photo) vote. “We will become a stronger, eight-team league with these two great additions. Moving forward, we believe the GBL will be the premier urban-based league in Massachusetts.” Immediately, the GBL becomes stronger in basketball as the Lynn English boys basketball team is the two-time defending MIAA Division 1 State Champion. The Bulldogs are also highly competitive in boys and girls soccer and track. Classical has been solid in football, soccer, boys basketball and baseball in the past several years. Both of the Lynn schools’ athletic directors were pleased with the vote and the new move to the GBL. “We’re incredibly excited to join the GBL,” said Lynn Classical Athletic Director Bill Devin. “We feel that this really is the best fit for both sides, and we’re still going to look forward to scheduling and playing our NEC foes in our non-conference games going forward.” “I’m glad to see the league [NEC] went with this and made it a smooth transition,” said Lynn English Athletic DirecJOIN | SEE PAGE 17
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