It was halftime of last week’s Thanksgiving football game between Pilgrim and Toll Gate. It was cold, windy, wet. I was huddled under a tent on the Pilgrim sideline just trying to send out some game updates on social media. For a brief moment I thought to myself, “This is rough.” Sure, at times it was.
By the end of the game, though, I would not have wanted my final coverage at Morry Field any other way.
Morry Field’s legend has grown in recent years. If you recall, I wrote an entire column just a few weeks back on how it is a visiting team’s nightmare. I will spare you the broad details that I provided then, but there was no way that I would be wrapping up this season without giving the field one last shout out.
By the end of the game, the field, which was already torn up, was a total mess. It was truly a mud pit. Both Pilgrim and Toll Gate players were caked in it and soaked through their uniforms. If the goal was to maintain the field for years to come, the maintenance team would have been mortified by what it saw on Thursday morning.
That’s what the field was all about though. It was a poetic end of a remarkable run as one of the state’s most unique facilities.
Pilgrim won the game, but the celebration at the conclusion felt more like a goodbye. The seniors played their final game while the field was played on for its last time. The win was nice for the Pats, who extended their streak over Toll Gate for another year, but there was so much more than the scoreboard.
Although the goal every year is to win a state championship, some of my favorite teams at Pilgrim were the ones that came up short. Some of my favorite players were the ones that didn’t get that ring.
Point being, Pilgrim football is must-watch, regardless of the wins and losses.
The kids deserve the bulk of the credit, but head coach Blake Simpson revitalized this program from the day he walked into that locker room in 2018. Since then, the Pats have been tough, scrappy, and can never be counted out. The team has taken that underdog mentality and run with it every year and what it has seen is one of the most successful periods in school history. The team, of course, got the job done when it won it all in 2019.
The kids in that span have totally embraced their home field. Some communities, to be frank, may be a little embarrassed by the conditions. The Pats, though, love their home exactly for that reason. Morry Field really was the perfect spot for a team that has such a strong blue collared identity. It’s going to be sad to see it go. A brand new venue with all the bells and whistles will be nice for the kids, but there is a magic at Morry that will never be replicated.
When speaking to senior Hunter Schobel last week while writing my game preview, he said that he was glad that he didn’t have to play without the field as he is graduating in the spring. Most kids would be saying that they’d be thrilled for a brand new facility. I thought that sentiment perfectly encapsulated this team. They are who they are, and they aren’t looking to change. Nor should they be.
I am a sucker for nostalgia. I love looking at old photos, watching old games, digging up stats and records that sometimes are so past their expiration date that they are irrelevant. Being on that field and having the privilege of getting a front row seat in the final game was something that I will never forget. I started covering sports here in 2018, but this field has left an impression on me that I will always appreciate. Some of the best games I have covered in my 14 years of journalism were on that field.
It was my first day at the Warwick Beacon in 2018. I was not even an hour into my first shift when John Howell dropped a note on my desk with a phone number. He didn’t give me much detail but asked me to return the call to a woman who had “an issue with the fields at Pilgrim.” I was looking forward to getting to know the athletes, coaches, schools. It was not the most thrilling news tip to start my new gig.
I took the lengthy phone call and it included all the details. Uneven surfaces, choppy grass, geese poop. Before I wrote the article I knew I had to swing by just to see the field for myself. I had seen some pretty rough fields in the past so I was not shocked, but I had a feeling that it would be an interesting fall covering games there. This story wound up being my first byline in the Beacon. Did I think that years later I’d be writing a love note to this field? Not one bit.
There was a lot of hoopla in the days leading up to the game regarding the weather. Will they play? Should they play? The Pilgrim community was adamant that the game would go on, despite many other games being moved due to the storm.
It was the Pilgrim way, from start to finish, and an unbelievable sendoff for the Morry and the Pilgrim seniors.