This year in Class B football, Kennebunk is the team to beat. Of course, no team has yet. This year’s football season has been a long one, starting in mid August and continuing through the playoffs. Focusing on the anticipation of games, how the team and the coach, Joe Rafferty feel before and during a game, I looked into how the team, and the coaches get hyped before a game, and what helps them to do so.

Coach Rafferty is coming close to his 180th win. When asked what the greatest strength of this years team is, he responded with, ¨I don’t know if there’s any one thing but a big part is team chemistry. That has continued to grow as the season has gone on, I think a big part of that has to do with the kids being an unselfish group. It is not like one guy getting all the hypes, they share their accomplishments well.¨ Rafferty is very proud of his team, which he should be. When asked how it feels to play at the home field for the playoffs, ¨I would much rather play at home than anywhere else. It’s more comfortable and we like to hope that is to our advantage. You don’t have to travel, and the reality is, if you’re playing at home, it typically means you’re a higher seed which is ultimately what you are playing for.¨ says Rafferty. Junior, Kyle Beaupre, also had a lot to say about this question, ¨Well obviously it´s a lot easier to play at home because you get to play in front of all the students and your friends and there are no long bus rides. It makes you get a lIttle more pumped up and makes you wanna protect your house.¨ Justin Wiggins, Senior QB, says, ¨Team spirit is huge in Kennebunk and I think it is extremely important to have as many people cheering for us as possible. It really gets a charge going in all the players that only fans can ignite.¨

When asking a few players what they do to get pumped up and to get into “the zone” before a game, Junior, Cole Hoffman, says,¨It doesn’t really take much for me to get into ‘the zone’ before a game. Over the week of practice a hatred for the other team builds up inside of me and the fact that every game from here on out might be the last time that I step on the field with the seniors, some of which I’ve been playing with my entire life gets me ready to play. So there is no lack of motivation to go out and play as hard as you can and give it your all.¨ Hoffman also says that he is very proud of their record this year, ¨I think it shows that we have come together this year as a team and we have been performing well on the field.¨ Wiggins says that he likes to spend time before a game with the team and keep it light when it comes to talk, ¨from there I like to go home stay calm and not let myself get to amped up before a game.¨

Coach Rafferty spends a lot of time preparing for a big game mentally, and helping out his team. ¨Mostly it starts on Friday night after the last game. We do a lot of uploading of film to a system called ‘hudl’ so I can share that film with my coaches and players and then they supposedly watch their opponent by film, or scout them, over the weekend the coaches watch it on their own time. The coaches then meet on Sunday afternoons and develop an offensive and defensive game plan, as well as a special teams game plan. We do a little bit every day; Monday through Thursday.¨

Kennebunk Football has been very successful throughout the years. Wishing them the best of luck with the rest of the playoffs. Lets continue to support to help them get more hyped. Yeah white!