Six weeks and counting--

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

Hello Sports fans, welcome to the view!

Believe it or not, we are about six weeks away from the kickoff of the high school football season, and to say that we are not excited would be a big fat lie.

In this week's Patriot, we have a feature on Bartlett head football coach Dane Laboissonniere, and you can expect a lot more football talk here in weeks to come.

We're hoping to lock down new Oxford head coach Mike Adams for an interview and to get a preview on what is happening on the hill with the Rams and senior star quarterback Drew Ravenelle.

All three of the local football programs have some interesting story lines this fall.

The official high school football schedules have not been released yet, but we do know the Bartlett Indians are opening at Northbridge on Friday, September 7. A year ago the Indians lost at home to the Rams and are looking for revenge against a team that will be heavily favored to win it all this year in Central Mass.

The high school football season will be huge, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t be covering other high school sports as well. From soccer to cross country to field hockey, it's looking like an exciting Fall.

Girls High School Soccer: It should be very interesting to watch Oxford High School soccer all-star Emily “The Sweet Assassin” Dawidczyk in action in her final season in what has been a remarkable career thus far.

Dawidczyk had 10 goals last year and was named a Central Mass All-Star. She has a lot of schools looking at her final campaign as she prepares to take her game to another level.

Coming off a three-win season, Dawidczyk is hoping her team will improve this year as well. The Pirates also have Gina Manzi, who had five goals and a total of nine points, returning.

Bartlett junior Dani Stone, who had nine goals last year for the Indians as a sophomore, is also a player to watch this fall. Her team is looking to improve their 4-14-1 record from last season.

Auburn Summer League: The Auburn boys basketball summer league playoffs are scheduled to get underway this week. Bartlett has been excellent with an 8-1 record, while Oxford is right there with the Indians at 8-2. Shepherd Hill, which rebuilding, has been up and down at 5-4. We hope to have some info and photos of the playoffs for you in next week’s paper so stay tuned for that.

Shepherd Hill Hoop Girls: The Shepherd Hill girls’ summer league team made it all the way to the finals of the Shrewsbury summer league before bowing out to Algonquin 31-14. This is only a sign of good things to come from a solid Rams team led by junior defensive wiz and all-star Brooke Packard. They finished an impressive 10-2 in summer league action.

Dewey Bozella: A few months back, I was privileged to hear Dewey Bozella speak at Nichols College. Just this past week ESPN aired the special on his life and I have to tell you if you haven’t seen, please do. It's amazing and very inspirational.

Bozella served 26 years in prison of a sentence that was overturned. Upon his release, he fought in a pro boxing match at the age of 52 and won and then retired undefeated, it’s quite a story.

Until next week, see you on the sidelines! Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any sports news that you would like to see in The View!