Why Was Duxbury Playing Springfield?

Duxbury made it to the Super Bowl. They gave their starters a long rest period before the Bowl, absorbing a 43 point whipping for it on Thanksgiving against hated Marshfield.

They had a good team, a good coach and a good program. The kids were well rested, playoff tested and seemed to be peaking at the right time.

So, naturally, they get routed in the Super Bowl. The final score wasn't much different than the score in the Thanksgiving game where they started the JV.

What went wrong?

Duxbury didn't choke, the coach wasn't outsmarted and we were not robbed by the refs. The other team, Springfield Central, didn't cheat. They were the better team.

The big flaw in the equation is "Duxbury vs Springfield Central."

Duxbury is a small town by any measure. There is one stop light in the whole town. There are 15,000 people in town, and the high school (9-12) has about 1000 kids. Most of the town is relatively affluent, and they are as white as a Trump rally.

Springfield has 150,000 diverse people. It is the state's 3rd largest city, trailing Boston and Worcester. There are several high schools in the city, although some are charter schools and Sci-Tech type schools. The Voke-Tech in town is bigger than Duxbury High, as is the Commerce School. Springfield Central, yesterday's opponent, has 2500 kids. It is the largest school in Western Massachusetts.

What in the name of Ditka was Duxbury doing up against a town with 150,000 people?

Duxbury is Division 3. So is Springfield Central. How is this so?

Western Massachusetts is an odd place, and the MIAA has to level everything. Western Mass has Springfield, Holyoke and... and a whole bunch of small towns. I don't mean Duxbury small, I mean "Monroe, pop. 112" small.

Springfield Central doesn't have many equals out there. They have to travel to find competition, taking on big eastern schools like Everett and Catholic Memorial. This article wouldn't exist if the Super Bowl was Central vs Catholic Memorial.

Springfield Central gets a big perk from the MIAA. Eastern Massachusetts is divided into 8 divisions, based on school size. They run 1 through 8. Taunton, which has 2500 kids, is a division 1 school. Hull, which has 389 kids, is Division 8.

Western Massachusetts has 4 groupings... Divisions 3, 5, 7 and 8. There is no Division 1, nor 2.

How can that be, when Central is larger than Division 1 New Bedford?

Central is benefited by a new rule. Urban schools with 50% high need (usually language based) and 40% economically disadvantaged students, or schools scoring 90 combined in these two categories, get a two division handicap. Division 1 schools become Division 3.

Duxbury, who should have been facing Longmeadow or Amherst based on school size, instead got to take on a school with 2500 kids. The result could best be described as a slaughter.

Duxbury, the MIAA would argue, offsets the population gap by A) Duxbury students and the coach all speak English, B) Duxbury kids are more likely to have healthier diets, C) Duxbury kids can afford Pop Warner and football camp, D) Duxbury kids are less likely to drop out and E) Dad is around throughout childhood to play catch.

I'd personally trade that for 300 pounders on the line and sprinter-speed wide recievers and cornerbacks. You can't teach size and speed, and you are more likely to find size and speed if you are choosing from 2500 kids instead off 1000.

I'm sure there are outliers to make a lie of this statement, but I'd rather live in somebody's garage in Duxbury than one of the better houses in Springfield. But if I had a football game to win...

Sunday Through Tuesday Nor'easter

A lengthy Nor'easter takes December in like a lion.

The fun should start about mid afternoon as snow. The Cape and the immediate coastlines of the South Shore and South Coast should change to rain rather quickly. This will wash away the snow.

Where it doesn't turn to rain, and this is the tricky part of the forecast, accumulation will be impressive.

New Bedford might have no snow at all by Monday, while Taunton may have 4 inches.

The rainy areas may get into the snow as the storm pulls away. We call this "aftersnow," although real meteorologists probably use a different term.

Power outages are a threat, as winds will be strong enough to down tree limbs.

Coastal flooding will be a concern, as we should have a long period of ENE winds. Tides are astronomically low, which will be a saving grace.

Here's what our local weather stations are saying:

WBZ

WCVB

WHDH

WFXT

NECN

Daniel Webster's Sea Serpent

Loch Ness sort of has sea serpents locked down, but the South Shore has a pretty good serpent story.

Ours was "witnessed" by no less than Daniel Webster.

You can read all about it right here.

Daniel Webster And The Sea Serpent was written by Stephen Benet. He also wrote The Devil And Daniel Webster, where Webster goes to trial against the devil for the soul of a farmer. Benet had a Daniel Webster man-crush, or at least an author-crush.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

In this fictional story, Daniel and his friends are fishing for cod off of Duxbury Beach when Daniel gets something on his line that pulls "like a pair of steer."

Eventually, a vast sea serpent arises, shakes out the hook and charges the boat. Some men cower and one man faints, but D Web just stares it down. It goes away, and the men- to save their reputations- agree to not speak of it.

The serpent then haunted Green Harbor, letting out an eerie cry that drove local livestock mad with fear.

Hoping to prevent it from eventually killing a local, Webster armed himself and headed to the mouth of the Green Harbor River. The beast appeared, and Webster gave it both barrels. The creature sounded, her fate unknown.

Webster heads to Washington, where he is to negotiate a treaty with the British. However, he hears the sea monster again, this time coming up the Potomac.

He sends back to Marshfield for a local eccentric who claims to know the monster. The local speaks to the leviathan, who is female, and finds out that she loves Daniel Webster.

Webster, fearing monsterly retribution, enters into a relationship with the beast. I assume it was platonic. He'd bring her fish every day, Italian sardines.

Before he can sever the courtship, his treaty enters into jeopardy. The British have a powerful Navy and are threatening to use it. Webster takes the Brit to meet the monster, who prefers to be called Samanthy. She is large enough to reduce London to rubble. This revelation moves the naval treaty along quite nicely.

He inducts Samanthy into the US Navy, with a rank of Rear Admiral. She patrols the seas, and is seen with Teddy Roosevelt's White Fleet in the South Seas. Samanthy is even credited with helping out with the Monitor. As she ages, reports come in about her having 7 children.

They all fly Old Glory.

South Shore Surf Check

We checked the South Shore for waves as a powerful nor'easter moved away.

We started in Hull.

Almost the whole South Shore lost power for a while.

A lonely surfer.

Hull had the best waves on the South Shore.

...but the real action was on the South Coast.

Next stop: Scituate

From when I left Hull to when I got to Scituate, the winds let up somewhat.

Scituate is usually a Superheavyweight.

Off to Vegas...

Vegas was placid.

The 2 AM high tide was more gooder.

Off to Duxbury

I hope that this just washed out of someone's yard over in Duxbury Proper. Anyone missing a surfer?

Duxbury lost the Seaweed Lottery.

We took one more shot, then got to Wareham for a rainbow, below...

Overnight Nor'easter

A storm with heavy rains and strong winds will move over eastern Massachusetts tonight.

The storm will form off the mid-Atlantic states. It will intensify as it approaches, and will barrel up Buzzards Bay at us. It will be a fast moving system, and the rain should be done by some point on Thursday morning.

This will be a regional storm, with all of Eastern Massachusetts getting a taste.

Heavy rains and strong winds will be with us overnight, with the winds staying intense even after the rain ends.

Coastal flooding shouldn't be a concern, as the storm is moving very quickly. The winds from the East will be too brief for much surf by the 2 AM high tide, and what surf there is by 2 PM will be dampened by a howling SW wind.

We'll still get a camera somewhere, maybe Westport.

There is a chance of power outages.

Multi-Tide Nor'easter This Week

An ocean storm will form off of the East Coast, move north as it builds and then stall SE of us for a few days. 

This will give us a persistent NE wind over several tide cycles. This in turn will lead to building surf and beach erosion.

Tides are astronomically low, which puts a cap on coastal flooding. That's the good news. The bad news is that we will most likely have very impressive surf for four to six tide cycles.

We should also get windswept rain. The rain could touch the Cape in Wednesday, everyone should get rain on Thursday and the fun could run through Saturday as a block of high pressure keeps the storm pinned SE of us.

It appears to be a South Coast/South Shore/Cape Cod storm, with the interior feeling lesser wrath from the Storm Gods.

We will have our photographers out on various beaches to let you know how the surf is. 

Various Strolls

We empty the gallery, we hope you enjoy it. This is from either Mattapoisett or Fairhaven.

Dartmouth

Buzzards Bay

Duxbury

Dartmouth

Bourne

Dartmouth

More D

Duxbury

Duxbury

Westport

Plymouth

Duxbury

Aptucxet

Cape Cod

Duxbury above, Bourne below

Duxbury Beach

Brant Rock

Bourne

America

Duxbury Beach

Eastern Massachusetts Shoulder Season

October draws near. It is time to put away summery things... or is it?

Eastern Massachusetts in general and Cape Cod in particular have what they call a Shoulder Season. This refers to a time of year that, while past peak tourism season, still generates economic activity.

When summer ends (I was a schoolteacher for a while, and still consider summer to be over when school starts... a flawed method in that September has summer weather, but good for discussions involving tourism), we lose a huge chunk of tourism. You can't bang out a week on the Cape or rent a Rexhame beach house if the kid is supposed to be in school in Framingham or Albany.

That takes a lot of dollars off of the table (tourism is the third largest industry in Massachusetts, and employs 1 in 10 of our workers), but not all of them. Locals will tell you that tourists still come by through Columbus Day.

I work at a hotel, and after Labor Day, the Whiteheads come. Old people are seasoned vacationers, and they pounce on September. Light traffic, discounted shopping, attentive restaurant staff, cheaper hotels, good sleeping weather, not having some 5th grader hit you with a Frisbee when you try to enjoy a beach... there's a lot to like. A tourist in September gets the desolation of winter Cape Cod, but it's still 78 degrees for much of the day.

Columbus Day is a good cutoff point, as the weather hasn't become cold enough to curtail certain activities. A lot of businesses close up shop after Columbus Day, a lot of boats are taken out of the water and a lot of summer getaway homes are boarded up by then, as October is the start of Nor'easter season.

However, we still have some drawing power left after Columbus Day. Columbus Day is when our foliage starts to turn, and it is when our cranberry bog farming and harvest festivals go down. You also can't laugh off an October beach day. These things bring us day trippers, and day trippers spend money locally.

While our foliage pales when compared to New Hampshire (we have too much Pine, and we are prone to October windstorms), we are the Last Chance for people who, in mid October, realize that they wanted to take a foliage drive but Vermont is past peak.

We even get Thanksgiving tourism, but that tends to be more isolated to the Plymouth area.

Our resident elderly population will draw family traffic here through Christmas. The hotel I work at gets a lot of holiday business from people who are visiting Grandma but either "My wife and I don't fit on the bed I had as a high school kid" or "The kids are a little too rowdy for Grandpa to get his mid morning nap."

Hotel activity is a good economic indicator for summer vs winter. According to the Cape Cod Commission, your average hotel has 77% occupancy at a rate of $288.50 in August, 69% at $179 in September, 57% at $145 in October, 38% at $128 in November before bottoming out at 26% at $109 in January. Other local businesses follow a similar trend.

Cape Cod doubles in population in the summer. Inland towns aren't as tourist-driven as the Cape is, but every dollar counts. A town like Plympton might get a Summer People bump in the summer, but it is not as profound. Plympton probably has a bigger bump from harvest festivals and fall foliage daytripping.

All that ends when the snow falls. Once January hits, someone walking on a Truro beach has to really want it.