When underclassmen are thrown into varsity action, the initial results can be rough. Yet a commitment to the process can often reap rewards later in their high school careers.
Apponequet, Cape Cod Tech, Tynsgborough, and Watertown are among the 13 undefeated teams entering the MIAA football playoffs. Unlike perennial powers such as St. John’s Prep, Scituate, Shawsheen, Hudson, Fairhaven, and Lee, these programs have taken their share of lumps over the past few years to reach this point.
The common thread for turning it around? Leadership from seniors who learned to hate losing.
After going 3-8 in 2024, Cape Cod Tech fell to 1-4 with a 27-6 loss at rival South Shore Tech last October. A team meeting ensued, and the Crusaders promptly flipped their season with eight straight wins, capped by a 30-24 victory over South Shore in the Vocational Small Bowl.
Now the program enters the Division 8 tournament as the fourth seed riding a 15-game win streak thanks to two-way standouts Tommy Allen, Anthony Bartlett, Jordyn Wilson, Chaz Thomas, and linemen Nathan Eldridge and Gavin Chase, along with great quarterback play from Danny Handville.
“It really was just leadership. The talent was always there, it was just them believing in themselves,” said CCT coach Calvin Castillias, a 2008 graduate who played linebacker when the program last made a Super Bowl in 2006. “They started buying into the idea that nobody can beat us but ourselves, and they never looked back.”
Apponequet’s resurgence might have started last year if not for a rash of injuries that cut the active roster in half by the end of a 4-6 season. With seniors coming out to try the sport, the Lakers have more than 50 players for the first time in a decade, and injury luck has been good, with senior tailback Joe Procaccini back in a lead role after he missed much of 2025.
The senior tailback is averaging 10 yards per carry with 1,491 rushing yards and 28 total touchdowns, and newcomers Taejen Riggs (a former soccer player now starring at cornerback) and Henry Svirtunas (a basketball standout playing split end) have buoyed the Lakers (8-0).
Apponequet earned the No. 10 seed in a stacked Division 5 bracket, with a tough first-round draw at Foxborough (4-4), but this season has already been a success.
“We knew last year wouldn’t define us,” said Procaccini. “In a sense, we used it as fuel. Our coaches say we put in deposits in practice every week and then on game day you make a withdrawal. It’s kind of like that. It’s cool to get a winning season after waiting for so long.”
Alongside Procaccini, sophomore linebacker Pete Suneson has been integral defensively. The son of Peter Suneson, a 15-year teacher and coach at Apponequet who died suddenly in March, Suneson has flashed the instincts of a multi-generation football savant with 40 tackles and 6.5 sacks while calling the defense.
“As a sophomore he’s already telling everyone where to go,” said Apponequet coach Zane Fyfe. “He’s just a natural, instinctual player who understands angles.”
The turnaround at Tyngsborough started with a 9-1 record last year after a 5-6 finish in 2024. The No. 2 seed in Division 7 has a tough matchup against No. 15 West Bridgewater (4-4) and could meet seventh-seeded Rockland (3-5) in the quarterfinals after being eliminated by the Bulldogs last fall.
But head coach Rob Beaudette (Class of ’00) has faith in his 15-player senior class, many of whom started as freshmen, and have been familiar with the varsity program even longer.
In 2021, Tynsgborough’s staff decided to include a few middle schoolers on the freshman team and invite them to travel with the varsity team to away games. Now senior captains Santiago Adams, JJ Bowe, Evan Donnelly, Thomas Dunbar, and Colin Walsh lead a tight-knit group.
“It really brought them together and kind of became the foundation for the team over the last few years,” Beaudette said of the middle school program. “This is the most close-knit team I’ve seen in 20 years. That’s a bigger factor for us than the question of genuine talent.”
Improvement from coaches is also a major factor for these rising programs. After going 4-7 in each of his first two seasons as Watertown head coach, Joey Carroll and his staff went to professional development clinics and made several adjustments, including more emphasis on tackling drills.
Watertown (8-0) has dominated defensively en route to a Middlesex Freedom title and the No. 3 seed in D5, drawing an opening matchup against No. 14 North Reading (6-2).
“It’s not any secret formula,” said Carroll, a former Waltham receiver and assistant. “We decided as a staff we needed to get better, and we got more efficient in the way we run practices.”
As every coach will tell you, being undefeated means nothing in the tournament, where everyone starts 0-0, so the battle to turn these programs around begins anew this weekend.
Nate Weitzer can be reached at nweitzer7@gmail.com. Follow him on X @nweitzer7.