After the 2010 season, Dillon Duoba and Miles Jarvis could be the last Bromfield students to play interscholastic football.
Bromfield students who want to play interscholastic football have had an opportunity to do so since 1997 despite the fact that the school is too small to field a team. They have played on a co-op team, which is officially considered to be the Littleton High School team.
However, last year district officials ruled that Harvard and Littleton could no longer have a co-op team, which leaves Littleton with fewer students to draw from, but worst of all, it leaves Bromfield students no place to play.
While juniors Duoba and Jarvis can play for the remainder of their high school careers because they were on the team at the time of the co-op’s termination, no new Bromfield students can join the team. At this point, Bromfield students who wish to play high school football must transfer or enter another school through a school choice program.
According to Littleton High School Athletic Director Mike Lynn, a co-op was reapplied for in 2008—application must be made every two years—and it was approved by both schools and the Central Mass. Division 3 league. The co-op application was then denied at the district level. Although no reason was given for the rejection, Lynn says, “The exact wording was ‘no longer meets the criteria for a co-op team’.” Need may be the issue. “One of the stipulations is that the host school must need the guest school in order to have a varsity team,” Lynn says.
Lynn reapplied for a co-op this year with the same result. He stresses that Bromfield students did help maintain the Littleton program, especially right after resurrecting it in 1997, but that the decision is out of the hands of both the Littleton and Bromfield schools once the request reaches the district committee.
There have been several attempts by both towns to find alternatives for Bromfield students who want to play at the high school level. Pamela Alexander, Bromfield athletic director, has met with little success. “I have looked into trying to co-op with Ayer but they are not that interested because their high school may be regionalizing with Lunenburg and Shirley,” she says.
The opportunities for Bromfield students who want to play football are few at this point. Boys as old as 14 can play on some Pop Warner teams, however, Alexander says, “I don’t know of any independent programs for older kids.”
