No Mercy on the Gridiron

football

For the past two seasons, Varsity Football has uncontestably been Choate’s most successful athletic team. Finishing the 2014 season at a remarkable 10-0, last year’s squad was a well-oiled machine and the most daunting competitor in New England.

This fall, the team has started once again on a rather high note, winning their first five games of the season even despite the injury of postgraduate quarterback Steven Genova ’16. Despite the losses of numerous key players this fall to graduation, great chemistry is already present between Choate Football’s seasoned veterans and the latest recruits.

The football team has also managed not only to defeat their opponents, but, since the start of the 2014 season, has also defeated their opponents by at least three touchdowns in fifteen of seventeen games played. In fact, Choate Football is now beginning to gain a reputation for obliterating its opponents.

There is no problem with soundly defeating your opponent. For one thing, a win is a win no matter how many points are scored. To be more technical, football is a timed sport with 12-minute quarters. Football is unlike soccer, wherein a dominant team can possess the ball when they are up by many goals. However, in football, the very nature of football makes this tactic impossible; Choate football’s only tactics for mercy could be for the coaches to put in the less experienced players. Unfortunately, they do, and it still makes no difference.

There are other less obvious reasons why there is no such thing as unfairly dominating a game. The football team’s roster consists of many postgraduates and dedicated football players. Many of these athletes choose to take a fifth year of high school to improve in the sport. Others have already committed to a football program in college, but have been given the advice to take a postgraduate year to prepare. To deprive these players of experience and game time, simply because they are effective, completely goes against the goal of the PG system. Granted, Choate Football has put a greater emphasis on recruitment in recent years. However, on account of their undefeated season last year, the team has proven their legitimacy and seriousness, meriting said degree of recruits. 

Team veteran Charles Rowland ’16 commented in favor of the team’s domination, “We practice so hard every day to play four quarters, up until the echo of the whistle. This is a competitive sport, and when you put on the pads, you are expected to go full throttle the entire game.”

Four-year player Kwabena Ayim-Aboagye ’16 agreed with Rowland, and commented, “When we dominate, we focus on perfecting our execution of the plays and getting our specific position’s techniques correct. That is the only way for us to compete with skilled teams and ensure consistent victory; we are more disciplined, conditioned, and we want to win many times more than any other team.”

It is tough to refute that it is unfair to dominate. It is simply the nature of sports. Choate’s football program is so far unmatched by New England schools, but that does not mean that Choate has to push on the brakes in order to make it a fairer game.  The integrity of football and sports altogether would be compromised if other measures were taken.

Continuing on their quest for perfection, Choate Football’s margins are not likely to change; to stray away from its tradition could cost the team its most prized, and currently held, possession: the New England Football Championship. Postgraduate Julian Fraser ’16 and the rest of the gang is determined to keep  “making teams know it,” if they weren’t ready to face the Wild Boars.

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