Even 90+ degree temps couldn’t stop 23 teams from competing inside and outside of Fish Field House at Boston College on Thursday.
Starting at about 10:15 in the morning until the final whistle blew on the championship game between Bergen Catholic (NJ) and Springfield Central, there was tons of talent on display from MA, RI, CT, NJ and even a team from Columbus Florida made the trip.
The full list of teams that participated is below:
Columbus (FL), Bishop Hendricken, Tewksbury, New Bedford, Bergen Catholic (NJ), Fairfield Prep (CT), Andover, Everett, Lexington, Middlesex, Fairhaven, Springfield Central, North Kingstown, Lynn Classical, Needham, Lawrence Academy, Methuen, Melrose, Wahconah, Xaverian, St. Sebastian’s, New Canaan (CT) and Pilgrim High School.
“It’s just awesome to have these teams here,” said Bill O’Brien. “Bergen Catholic from New Jersey, we had a team from Miami, we’ve got SC here, we’ve got a lot of Massachusetts teams here. It’s just a great turnout and I think it’s something to build on and hopefully have even more teams next year.
“We’re very organized, we have a lot of experience with how to run these camps and these 7-on-7’s, so it’s really good and very competitive.”
Using bracket play after pool play, Bergen Catholic, Lawrence Academy, St. Seb’s, Hendricken, Methuen, Middlesex, Springfield and Fairfield Prep all reached the Elite 8. BC beat LA, Seb’s beat Hendricken, Middlesex beat Methuen and SC took down FP.
In the Final 4, BC beat Seb’s and SC squeaked by Middlesex. The final was a back-and-forth affair with Springfield Central’s Gareth Staine and receiver Dwayne Early standing out for the local team. Unfortunately, BC had too much firepower and was able to win a shootout against the Golden Eagles to take the title back home to New Jersey.
For local schools like Seb’s and SC, this type of event is extremely valuable in the summer before camp ramps up in a couple months. Not only does it help build communication and camaraderie, but it spurs that ‘losing isn’t ok’ mentality early on.
“Any extra work these guys can do in the summer – and a lot of times they’re getting together for captain’s practices – it’s great to work together, but it’s even better to have that competitive atmosphere against really good, top tier competition,” said Seb’s head coach Dan Burke.. “It’s so helpful, but as I told the guys, I’m happy with the effort, happy with how we played, but we’r never going to be okay with losing.
“The goal was to come in here and win no matter who we were going against. So, hopefully it was a good experience and we walked off disappointed that we lost and it fuels the summer workouts.”
For Bergen Catholic head coach Vito Campanile, he’s known Bill O’Brien for quite a while and knew this event would be a good opportunity for his squad coming from outside New England.
“I’ve known Coach O’Brien for a long time, I’ve known him since Penn State,” he said. “So, he’s going to do an amazing job here and I always say, ‘kids go to a place like Bergen Catholic to go to a place like Boston College,’ so this was a first class event as you’d expect.
“It’s an amazing place and there was great energy here today. For us, we really want to make sure we get continuity and some team bonding where we get to spend a night somewhere. It (BC) is one of the best schools in the country and they’re on the verge of doing some really great things, so it was sort of a no-brainer to have our guys come compete here. Thankfully, we get to leave with a championship too.”
