Hanover
So when he heard last year that due to a shortage of athletes, the Hanover Recreation Department had cancelled its youth football program — a development tool for seventh- and eighth-graders and a feeder for Hanover High’s varsity football program — Creelman started getting worried that his son would never see the field again.
He was terrified when it happened again a year later.
So Creelman got to work. Hanover Recreation Department deadlines, kept to save neighboring middle school programs from adjusting their youth football schedules mid-fall, came and went with Hanover still without a team. Creelman remained determined to make sure his son had somewhere to play.
“I kind of made it my mission to make sure there was some sort of program,” he said.
Creelman spent Labor Day weekend on the phone recruiting potential athletes. When Frances C. Richmond Middle School began classes, word was passed around that a team was still being organized. It was late in the season, already mid-September, but a youth program slowly started to form.
Friends of Hanover Football got involved, as did Marauders head coach Sam Cavallaro. Sixth-graders were added to the mix, bringing the total number of athletes to more than 20.
Hanover High athletic director Mike Jackson granted the program permission to use the high school’s practice field three times a week before the varsity team’s workouts. Hanover offensive and defensive line coach Jon Young jumped at the opportunity to be the team’s coach.
Eventually the team was formed, practicing for an hour and 20 minutes as Hanover’s varsity athletes warmed up on the other side of the practice field. While scrimmages against neighboring teams this season are still in question, the Hanover youth program, it seems, has been pieced back together.
For now, at least. Creelman knows Hanover football’s shaky foundation relies on increased participation next year and for years to come. If not, the Marauders’ football future will be back to square one, searching for warm bodies to fill pads.
“This is a duct tape year,” Creelman said.
Make no mistake: Hanover’s football program, in a country obsessed with the sport, is not out of the woods yet. Creelman’s efforts have only stopped the bleeding.
Hanover High’s athletic department recognizes the stakes, which have come into focus with the Marauders’ annual showdown with neighboring Lebanon, scheduled for tonight at Merriman-Branch Field. While declining enrollment numbers in New Hampshire schools and concussion fears that have hit football on a national scale, declining youth participation has been Hanover’s biggest issue.
“It’s our only feeder system for football,” Jackson said on Wednesday. “That’s a scary thing. It definitely was scary for us. It was one of those things we charged Sam (Cavallaro) to take on. We had to do that. I think we were on the same page there, to support the rebirth of youth football. It’s a huge deal, same with any sport.”
Cavallaro, in his second year with the Marauders, has led his team to a 3-0 record heading into tonight’s game. Hanover drew 41 athletes for football this season; in many cases, success breeds participation, no matter how short-term. But Cavallaro, like many coaches, recognizes the competitive advantage of introducing athletes to sports at an early age, allowing athleticism and skill to develop and grow.
“It’s a big issue,” Cavallaro said earlier this week. “Having seventh- and eighth-graders playing is important. Fifty percent of the kids on our team didn’t play youth football. That means we have to accelerate their progress.
“The way I look at it, my job first is to recruit kids in high school. That’s doable. We get about 12 (new) kids each year.”
The problem arises when athletic talent doesn’t meet competitive standards, creating lopsided games that can foster discontent and frustration among student-athletes. The Marauders haven’t had a winning regular season since 2009 and haven’t beaten Lebanon since 2012. While fluctuations in talent and coaching may be a culprit for Hanover’s recent lack of on-field success, the disappearance of its middle school feeder program and a shrinking student body suggest that Hanover football’s problems reside much deeper.
If Hanover football ever found itself in a position to fold — a so-called nuclear option — its choices could be limited.
While cooperatives between New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association schools have given more athletes opportunities to play sports that were previously unavailable to them, the act of joining forces usually comes with an unexpected consequence. For Hopkinton High, which entered into a cooperative with Hillsboro-Deering six years ago, that cost is a competitive advantage against established football programs in NHIAA Division II.
“It’s great that we could provide the opportunity to those kids. They’re able to play football,” Hopkinton athletic director Dan Meserve said. “It’s nice in that way. We’re just not playing to the level we had hoped. We haven’t had much success, especially against the established programs.”
At first, Hopkinton’s plan was to join forces with John Stark. The call from athletes wanting to play football, from a school that did not offer the sport, had become too loud for athletic director Dan Meserve to ignore. The NHIAA, however, had other ideas.
The football committee approved the cooperative. The classification committee denied it. Their rationale stated that John Stark already had enough athletes to field a team, therefore giving the Generals an unfair advantage.
Creating a cooperative is something Jackson has put some thought into; Hanover’s lack of a feeder program last season pushed the need for options to the forefront. But for many, including Cavallaro, combining forces with a neighboring school would create an unfavorable situation for all involved. But doing so, especially when other options have been exhausted, is not unheard of in New Hampshire.
“I’ve thought about it,” Jackson said. “There are a number of factors involved. The big ones include the NHIAA’s policy of combining enrollments. We’d likely be competing in Division I, which I don’t know is necessarily a good thing. I have doubts that we could compete at that level. … I’m also not sure if that would be something the Hanover or Lebanon school districts would be interested in doing.”
Hanover has a listed enrollment of 702 students, according to the NHIAA handbook and member school directory, 298 less than the 1,000-student limit to be classified as a NHIAA D-I football program. While a cooperative would likely push the Marauders well over that limit, the likelihood of a Hanover-involved cooperative receiving approval from the NHIAA is doubtful.
For starters, according to NHIAA handbook, “no more than one of the schools involved may have offered the sport in the previous year.” With football programs at Lebanon, Mascoma, Stevens and Newport, it’s unlikely that Hanover would find a willing partner in a similar position participation-wise in order to create a cooperative.
But for those involved, a cooperative would do more harm than good to regional football.
“I don’t see how we could ever do a co-op,” Lebanon coach Chris Childs said. “We’d have to take (it) to Division I. That would be crazy for either one of us to do that. I also think you would lose the feeling of, ‘Are we Hanover or Lebanon?’ If you’re a co-op, then who really are you? You’re in the middle.”
Even with the feeder program still in flux, Cavallaro remains optimistic.
“Newport, they have like 300 kids in their school (346, according to the NHIAA),” Cavallaro said. “To me, there’s a model of success out there; we can’t sit here and use excuses. If we can’t get it done, if we’re unable to do it, then maybe someone else will. The way I look at it, if we’re not getting it done, then we have to do something different.
“Hanover has a great football program,” he added. “Hillsboro and Hopkinton, they had no option. They didn’t have enough kids. That was their own reality. Hanover, we have a great football program. (A co-op) is not even on my mind. … At this point, that seems like a reach.”
The fall’s annual football game against Hanover and Lebanon has always been special. Jackson has seen the rivalry evolve in his tenure at Hanover, from its tumultuous — often hostile — past to the more sportsmanlike partnership it is today. “It’s a much healthier rivalry than it was, say, 15 or 20 years ago,” he said.
But with Hanover’s football future still in question, it’s hard to know how much longer the rivalry can survive. Creelman said at the end of the season he hopes those involved can get together and solidify a more stable plan for the feeder program. While Cavallaro’s team is not lacking for numbers this season, the lack of interest at a youth level raises red flags.
“There’s a model out there for what it takes to sustain a lot of numbers,” Cavallaro said. “It’s a year-round activity; there are a lot of people involved. … We have a board of people that work year-round. they work on the program, the high school program. We have a booster club, about 10 or 15 people. They work on the program. To be successful, it’s more than just one coach or some great player. It’s a lot of work. It’s a year-round thing.”
Creelman just hopes his son, who will be an eighth-grader next year, has somewhere to play.
“The problem is we had nothing last year,” Creelman said. “We have something this year. It’s not much, but it’s something. I’d love to have my kid on a full team, with a full schedule next year. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.
“I’m not sure about the future of Hanover football, though. Without it, maybe my son will go out for judo or something.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.