Shrine football, Legion baseball share stage | Sports | rutlandherald.com – Rutland Herald
CASTLETON — Welcome to Castleton University where seasons collide.
Sunday, Essex Post 91 was winning the Vermont State American Legion baseball state championship for the second straight year. Just over the third base dugout, the Vermont Shrine football team was going through its first practice. Just beyond the third base dugout, the New Hampshire team was being put through its paces for the first time this week.
The football teams were beginning preparations for the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, the annual senior high school all-star game that will be played Aug. 6 at Castleton University.
The teams were not long into that first practice before Essex Post 91 was celebrating its state Legion baseball championship with a 10-0 victory over South Burlington.
Essex advances to Worcester, Massachusetts for the Northeast Regional.
“Last year was a great experience but we went down to Worcester and didn’t win a game,” Post 91 catcher Eli Bostwick said. “This year we want to do down there and win a game. That is our main goal.”
“Last year, there were a lot of nerves in that first game. This year we’ve got the nerves out of the way.”
Back to football, both Vermont head coach Craig Sleeman and his New Hampshire counterpart Chris Childs held a couple of practices this summer to get their teams up to speed before they reported to Shrine camp on Sunday.
Childs’ New Hampshire practices were at Laconia High School and Vermont had one at South Burlington and another at Rutland.
“Each practice we had 95% of the players there,” Childs said.
“We were able to get 80% of our offense in and about the same for the defense.”
Sleeman said he used the practices to acclimate the players to the more difficult option plays that they will run out of the Wishbone.
Division II state champion Bellows Falls has a healthy representation with four players on the team and all will be playing college football — quarterback Jon Terry at the University of New England, running backs Jeb Lober (Husson University) and Jeb Monier (Bridgewater State) and lineman Patrick Barbour at Husson University.
New Hampshire boasts two players from Fall Mountain Regional, a school only a few miles from Bellows Falls. The FMR players are quarterback Lucas Gay and wide receiver Brady Elliott.
“We know all of the Bellows Falls players. We played with and against them (in Pee Wee Football) and we are still buddies. We went over to Bellows Falls to work out together this summer,” Gay said.
Gay is going into the UMass-Dartmouth football camp this month as a quarterback and Brady is headed to Regis College to play basketball.
“It (the Maple Sugar Bowl) is a great chance to play one last football game,” Elliott said.
“And its is for a good cause (the Shrine patients.)”
Gay liked everything about UMD on his campus tour.
“I like the community, the campus and the coaches,” he said.
“It definitely helps their timing,” said Childs of the rapport that Gay and Elliott have on pass routes as the result of playing together at Fall Mountain.
Childs has his son CJ Childs on the team. CJ will be getting acclimated to his future surroundings as he is coming to football camp on Aug. 11 as a defensive back for Castleton.
Another Lebanon player is Justin Decarlo.
“He is a unique kid, a smart kid,” coach Childs said. “He has played multiple positions, quarterback, wide receiver and running back. He is great to have around.”
Terry and Essex’s Ben Serrantonio are the Vermont quarterbacks and each brings a little different style to the Wishbone.
“Jon Terry knows what it is to grind it out, he has been in the Power I and he is good runner in his own right,” Sleeman said.
“Serrantonio is more of a running back guy. He threw for 1,000 yards but he ran for 1,000, too.
“Both quarterbacks are smart and are from championship teams.”
Coaches have alternated quarterbacks with each possession in many Shrine games, but Sleeman is looking to stay with the hot hand, although both will play.
“We’ll see how it goes and we are going to ride that pony,” Sleeman said.
“Our offense is designed to be in a close game and give us a chance to win at the end.”
Windsor’s Ben Gilbert and U-32’s Henry Beling will be the Vermont fullbacks. Beling is a little bigger and could be the goal-line back.
Amari Fraser of Burlington/South Burlington is one to watch as a halfback. He is another who will be playing at Castleton.
Practices continue throughout the week on the CU campus.