By Tom Haley
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
Regional pride was practically bursting through those helmets on Thursday as the South team went through its practice on a snow-covered Alumni Field at Rutland High School.
Teams from the southern part of the state won Vermont’s three football state championships with Burr and Burton Academy bringing home the banner in Division I, Brattleboro in Division II and Poultney in Division III.
Now, those players and their teammates want to build on that while playing for the South in Saturday’s North-South Senior All-Star Game at Castleton University’s Dave Wolk Stadium.
“We want people to know where the best football is played — in the south,” South head coach Chad Pacheco (Brattleboro) said during Tuesday’s workout. “There are some storied programs in Woodstock, Hartford and Rutland.”
Poultney lineman Jacob DeBonis said it is great getting to know players you had been competing against as teammates this week.
“We are coming together. It is good to have those guys on the same side of the ball,” DeBonis said.
It was the third of four practices and the team is beginning to mesh.
“There is a lot more bonding now,” DeBonis said.
Noah Zierfus is honored to be one of the players chosen from Springfield because it was a large and talented senior group of 16 that helped to put Cosmos football back on the map this fall.
“We are just going to try to make a statement,” Zierfus said. “We are going to make a big statement this Saturday. The North isn’t going to know what hit them.”
All four practices are at Alumni Field so for Rutland’s Ethan Coarse, Matt Creed, Garrett Davine, Malik Hendrickson and John Miles it is a chance to practice on familiar turf a few more times and get home in time for supper.
Many of the other players must drive some distance during the four days.
Pacheco will have his own quarterback, Tyler Millerick, as one of the signal callers and Burr and Burton’s Joey MCoy, who threw for more than 500 yards in his state championship game victory over St. Johnsbury, figures to be another.
Pacheco said Millerick will be playing college football and teams have shown interest in him but that he is still early in the process of sorting out his options.
“He has just been so focused with our season,” Pacheco said.
“A lot of the NESCAC schools are after him.”
Pacheco said that so many players on the South roster have just experienced being a state champion hasn’t hurt the mental makeup of the team.
“This is a team with a lot of guys who know how to play with confidence at a high level,” Pacheco said.
Kickoff on Saturday is 12:30 p.m.
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