Merrimack football enjoying the opportunity to be back on a practice field

MERRIMACK - It felt to Kip Jackson like the Merrimack High School football team turned in a good first practice Friday.

The Tomahawks coach did leave room for the possibility, however, that it wasn't.

"I thought it went well," Jackson said. "It might not have but I may not even realize it because we’re just so happy to be out here and have some semblance of a preseason, unlike last year."

It didn't look like many other first practices at Merrimack, in part because the players and coaches weren't on the usual practice field.

In need of some shade on a scorching summer day, the Tomahawks moved to the grass in between the side of the high school and the roar of the Everett Turnpike. Intentional or not, it gave everyone their first taste of communicating over a lot of noise.

But despite the location and the noise and the heat, players and coaches looked like they were enjoying the opportunity just to be there.

"We talked earlier in the week, as well as over the summer, for just being grateful to be able to do stuff together," Jackson said. "We didn’t have the chance to do that last year. We are doing things that last year’s seniors and last year’s team didn’t get to do."

Due to COVID-19 restrictions at the school, the Tomahawks weren't able to gather as a team during the offseason until April.

"In some ways, it feels like we are starting over just because we haven’t done it for two years now," Jackson said. "We’re a little different than some other schools in that we weren’t allowed to do stuff together until April. Being together has a great deal of importance to us."

That later start, along with spending so long trying to stay away from people, led to a gradual increase in offseason participation, but the numbers for the opening of official practices was higher than the coaches expected.

"Our numbers are weird and we expected them to be lower this year because we have fewer kids in a couple of grades," Jackson said. "What we didn’t expect was a huge increase in our freshmen class. That for us was unexpected, to see so many kids trying out football.

"I think kids are probably hungrier to be around each other after a year and a half of not being able to be socially active. This is an opportunity for them to have that experience that they weren’t able to get before."

The increase in freshmen doesn't hide what could be a problem for Merrimack, at least to start the season - there aren't a lot of returning starters. That hasn't often been the case since Jackson took over before the 2015 season, including after 2016, when the Tomahawks graduated a large and talented senior class.

"Last year, for a variety of reasons, we played a number of seniors," the coach said. "We went through the depth chart and we just have so few kids who played on a Friday nights, that this year is going to be different. One year we had eight or nine returning starters, but we normally have at least five. That’s not the case. But that’s fine, we have a good group of kids."