Just like that, it was over for the Knights. No Gillette, no Chelmsford in the playoffs Tuesday, no Pumpkin Trophy, and no bragging rights over the boys from Morrissey Boulevard.
There will be no more football for many of the seniors on a CM team that put the fabled school back in the grid conversation with perennial conference powers Xaverian, St. John’s Prep, and BC High.
But there will be more football for CM stars Armani Reeves and Camren Williams, and that’s where this gets interesting. Reeves, a running back/defensive back, and Williams, a linebacker/tight end, have both given verbal commitments to Penn State.
It’s been a bit of a circus for CM’s stars since the Penn State scandal. How could it be anything else? Reeves and Williams have been targeted by the media and the blogs and just about everyone else they’ve encountered since the horrible news started coming out of Happy Valley three weeks ago.
“It came out before the Xaverian game and we had about 10 times more reporters there,’’ Williams said yesterday after the disappointing defeat. “Everybody wanted to ask us about Penn State and that was before one of our biggest games.’’
The Knights beat the X-Men, 33-11, Nov. 12 in Westwood, but winning didn’t stop the buzz for the recruits. Folks wanted to know if they were going to stick with Penn State. The players said they didn’t want to talk about it until after the season. Their coach, Alex Campea, kept reporters away from them. He didn’t even want them talking about football. Too much of a chance for distraction.
“We wanted to keep the focus on our season,’’ Campea said yesterday as he stood outside Perry Gym (Ron Perry Sr., the man they named the gym after, was one of about 100 former CM coaches who turned out to honor O’Connor). “I wanted them to keep all that Penn State stuff out of their heads. I didn’t want them worrying about next year. These are 17-year-old kids. I wanted them to wait until the end of the season, then have conversations with their families, and find out more about what happened and what might happen in the future.’’
Unfortunately, the season is over for CM. So what are Williams and Reeves saying now?
