Milford's Kaydn Tessier works out during a recnet Team West practice for Friday's annual CHaD East-West All-Star Game at Saint Anselm College. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – Recent Milford High School graduate Kaydn Tessier would miss one thing more than playing football when the final gun sounds Friday night for the annual CHaD East-West All-Star Game at Saint Anselm’s Grappone Stadium.

Coaching it.

Tessier will be going to the Univesity of New Hampshire, studying accounting. He’s thinking of minoring in sports management, because after some time off, he’d love to go back to coaching football at the younger levels.

You see, the whole time the receiver was playing for the Spartans, he was also helping to coach the middle school team in football.

“I did that all four years,” he said. “It was hard, I’d go to my practic and then go to theirs.”

The best thing about coaching for Tessier is he was also coaching himself – re-learning the basics when he was teaching them to the younger kids.

“I learned myself when I was teaching these kids,” he said. “I learned the basics myself because I was teaching them.

“I also loved seeing the kids succeed from my teaching.”

Fittingly, Tessier worked with the receivers and the cornerbacks. It made sense as he played both positions for the Spartans.

“You know what the offense is thinking and you know what the defense is thinking on the other side,” Tessier said of the benefits of playing both ways. “You can kind of use what you’re taught for both.”

Tessier will have to wait for a couple of years at least while he gets used to the college regimen before he goes back to coaching at the youth level. But he certainly wants to return to it, no question. It’s no wonder why when asked if he’d miss football, he talked about the profound impact the game has had on his young life.

“I’m really going to miss it, I’m so connected, it’s kind of changed my life,” he said. “The friends I’ve made, all the people I’ve met, kind of shaped the man I want to be.”

Coaching for four years for a high school athlete is an experience he hasn’t taken lightly. He said “hopefully” he’ll have a coaching career in addition to the field of accounting.

“It’s been an amazing opportunity,” he said.

Souhegan alum Grant Harris runs a drill during a recent practice for Team West in preparation for Friday night’s annual CHaD East-West All-Star Football Game at Saint Anselm’s Grappone Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

SOUHEGAN PLAYERS ON TEAM WEST AS WELL

The Sabers have three players from their 2024 Division II championship squad on the team. Also, as he has been most years, Sabers coach Robin Bowkett is on the Team West staff, this year as an assistant.

Along with receiving standout Brayden Hickman, who just played a key role in winning a Division II title with the Saber baseball team, there’s lineman Luis Toledo and running back Grant Harris.

“It means a lot, just being able to play one more game and help raise money for the kids,” former Saber lineman Toledo said of playing in the CHaD game.

Toledo played everywhere on Souhegan’s defensive line and also left guard on offense. In this game, he says anything goes.

“I’m fine with going wherever, really,” he said. “Wherever they need me. I just want to go out there.”

This is Toledo’s last football game as he won’t play in college.

“This is it, sadly,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be special. It’s going to be a little bittersweet. It’s going to definitely be sad, but nice to be going out there one last time.”

For Harris, playing in this game is “a dream come true.” He’s been playing football since “I was a little kid. .. this is what it’s about.”

But it’s also about the end of a career, as this, too will be his final game. He’s going to Liberty College in Lynchburg, Va. in the fall, but won’t play football there. So Friday night “I’ve got to make the most of it.”

Harris was injured for much of the season but got healthy just in time for the playoffs.

“Being able to come back for the playoffs, and kind of be a part of that state championship team was something special,” he said.

Harris says he’ll probably play middle linebacker. For what he lacks in size, he said, he makes up for in “football IQ.”