With a few exceptions, such as weather-related changes or playing at Fenway Park, unofficial tradition holds that Belmont and Watertown high schools battle it out on the gridiron on Thanksgiving Day.
The 104th edition of the rivalry game, though, will be on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day. The Marauders will host the Raiders at 6 p.m. at Harris Field. The change was made in April, but the start of the season has rekindled discussion.
According to a letter to the community from Belmont High School Principal Isaac Taylor, the switch was driven by community feedback.
“Over the past several years, we have heard from many members … (including students, athletes, staff, families, and alumni) who were unable to attend the game on Thanksgiving morning due to travel plans or family obligations,” Taylor wrote. “By trialing this shift to Wednesday, our primary goal is to increase access and community participation so that more people can join in on the spirit and excitement of this historic matchup.”
Belmont High School athletic director Adam Pritchard did not return multiple requests for comment about the switch. Watertown athletic director Ryan Murphy responded to an email from Watertown Public Schools communications strategist Matt McCarthy.
“Watertown and Belmont have one of the great Thanksgiving football traditions in Massachusetts,” wrote McCarthy, who noted Watertown plans to host next year’s game on Thanksgiving Day. “We fully support the decision to play the game on Wednesday this year, and we look forward to renewing our historic rivalry with our neighbors.”
The schedule change occurred before Coach Chad Foster was hired.
Taylor’s letter preceded a feedback form and survey, which elicited 271 responses from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30.
“Comments in the survey also showed a clear division of opinion on moving the game,” Taylor wrote in a recap. “Supporters of maintaining the Thursday game spoke of the 100-year tradition, while proponents of the shift appreciated the idea of being able to dedicate their Thanksgiving Day to friends, family, and travel. There was also some middle ground, with a small but sizable minority of respondents indicating they were happy either way. It is also worth noting that some respondents believe that the communication of the proposed change should have come earlier. I can appreciate that feedback, and will look to provide more timely opportunities for feedback in future.”
Jimbo Kenneally, a senior captain and running back/cornerback, said team members have mixed emotions.
“Players really aren’t complaining because we won’t have to wake up early to play the game, and we get out of school early that day so we have time to prepare,” Kenneally said. “Personally, I would have loved to end the season with the morning game; it brings me back to the days I would go watch the game with my dad when I was a kid. It kind of hurts I’ll never get to play a morning game again — there’s just something about playing in the morning that makes the game so much better… Morning games kind of bring you back to your younger days in the program; Saturday morning (junior varsity) games when all you cared about was making plays alongside your teammates.”
Foster said his team is focused on its week-to-week opponents and practices, and that the program appreciates the community’s support.
“The Belmont and Watertown Thanksgiving rivalry is one of the best around,” Foster said. “The reason for that is how passionate both communities are for their football teams. I am sure their efforts for the traditional game will be heard, and it is their right to do so. A rivalry is about the fire, passion and the desire to compete against that other team, no matter the day you get to do it. As a competitor, I would play Watertown under the lights. I would play Watertown on Thanksgiving Day. I would play Watertown that Monday morning in the parking lot if that were the case. Until we have to cross that road, we are focused on the day in front of us.”
The Belmont High School Football Alumni Facebook page is full of comments, too. The prevailing sentiment there is general unhappiness with the change. On Thursday, an Instagram account run by Friends of Belmont Football featured a petition seeking to change the game back to Thursday.
Friends of Belmont Football president Bruce MacKinnon said he’s received numerous communications from parents and alumni. The petition received the maximum the site would allow: 180 signatures.
“Parents and alumni agree that this 100-year-plus tradition should stay on Thanksgiving Day,” MacKinnon said. “The decision to move the game to Wednesday night before Thanksgiving was forced upon the players without consulting anyone, and it’s not right.”
James Melanson, a senior linebacker/running back, said he’d like to see the game moved back to Thursday.
“I feel like it should never have been changed,” he said. “It’s not going to have the same feel as a normal Thanksgiving Day.”
“The parents that I’ve been talking to want it on Thanksgiving Day,” said his mother, Beth Melanson, a 1990 Belmont High School graduate whose family has been in town for four generations.
She said that she doesn’t feel the survey represents the entire community.
“I was kind of shocked at the numbers,” she said. “We have 1,500 students and over 100 teachers. It was such a low response rate. They really should’ve said to the football players and their guardians, ‘What do you want to do?’”
