By Tom Haley
THE RUTLAND HERALD
There are a couple of memorable sidelights off the field from the Fall Mountain Regional High School football team’s undefeated 1980 football season.
One is that Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” blared in the locker room on game day. It was soooo loud.
Another is that there was a little kid, the son of the football coach, who was a constant presence in that locker room. He was enjoying the 9-0 season as much as anyone.
The little kid was Kevin Bourgoin. His father Jack Bourgoin and his family made several moves after the 1981 season at the New Hampshire high school, one of them landing him in Rutland.
The little kid grew up to star in football as well as in track and field at Rutland High.
Track and field? He was good enough to set a state record. Football? He was good enough to be a starting receiver at the University of Massachusetts.
Kevin was at an age at the time where he might not have been able to understand why his father’s unbeaten FMRHS team was not allowed to compete for a state championship in New Hampshire — one I am certain the Wildcats would have won.
They played in the Connecticut Valley League that year and competed against Vermont teams Woodstock, Hartford, Springfield, Windsor and Bellows Falls.
That meant they faced only four New Hampshire teams that season and so the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association said they were ineligible to play for the state crown.
OK, so the Bourgoin family did not get its state crown that year.
A few days ago, on his birthday, Kevin Bourgoin received his ring with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for winning the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League’s equivalent to the Super Bowl trophy.
Bourgoin is on the Winnipeg staff, now as a receivers coach, and has back-to-back rings.
That would have way more than made up for the missing New Hampshire high school state championship in his late father’s mind.
The NFL season is just about 100 days away, but the CFL campaign starts soon. Winnipeg will open the season on June 10 against the Ottawa Redblacks as Bourgoin and the Blue Bombers aim for a third consecutive Grey Cup.
Will another one bite the dust?
CU RECRUITS Kevin Bourgoin’s cousin Tony Volpone, the head football coach at Castleton University, has two Vermonters and a Texan in his latest wave of recruits.
The Vermonters are Burlington High’s Amari Fraser and CVU’s Hayden Hilgerdt.
Fraser is an athlete who also was a standout on the basketball floor and that is the type of performer Volpone is looking for in the defensive backfield.
“We are very excited because he gives us spome playmaking ability back there,” Volpone said.
Hilgerdt is an offensive lineman who was part of the resurgence of CVU football.
“He is one we recruited from the very beginning,” Volpone said. “He is a tackle who addresses our need for depth on the offensive line. He has long arms and great reach.”
The Texan is defensive lineman Jauron Edwards from Sam Houston High School.
“He is very quick off the ball and can force the quarterback off his spot,” Volpone said.
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
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