The Souhegan High School football team listens to head coach Robin Bowkett after last Saturday's semifinal thrashing of Pelham. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

AMHERST – Another year, another Souhegan High School football team playing for a championship.

Saturday’s contest vs. Trinity of Manchester in Derry will be the fourth Division II title game for the Sabers in the last six seasons, and they have a pair of championships to show for it.

It’s no wonder the atmosphere around Calvetti Field is one of pure fun. Go to a practice and the music blares but the Sabers just go from one drill to the next with no sign of a letdown or relaxing. Water break and then back at it.

Their DJ, uh, coach, Robin Bowkett, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Pure energy.

Check out the roster. It’s Division I size, and might even be one of the larger rosters there as well. It’s been a fun ride for any player who dons a Souhegan uniform.

“I think the turning point was the 2020 year, when our senior leadership was fantastic,” Bowkett said. “It was the fourth year I was here, the fourth year of maybe the culture building. But when kids are having a lot of fun going to practice, they’re working their tails off and don’t even know it, they’re competing, they’re doing it for each other, and we have a ton of fun, the stuff we do is fun. But we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the great players that we have, and they’re even better kids.”

The Sabers beat rival Plymouth in the 2020 finals, lost in the 2021 quarters, but then reached the 2022 finals, bowing 35-6 to a budding dynasty in Pelham. They fell in the semis in 2023, but last year surprised everyone, manhandling Plymouth at Plymouth in the semis and then edging Pelham 14-11 in the championship.

“Culture is what’s going to win championships, and to build a program that is sustainable,” said Souhegan athletic director Kelli Braley, whose field hockey team she coaches just won a title. “That can compete year, after year, after year. Our coaching staff is phenomenal with their plan execution, and the kids are phenomenal in their execution of the game plan. But not of that happens without a solid culture, and I think that’s one of Robin’s super powers, really.

“Just to be able to build that culture and the kids, they take it and run with it, and that’s what Souhegan football is. … It’s just that tradition that’s been passed down.”

Bowkett had a succession of talented quarterbacks, the Jain brothers, with pro style attacks. But last season, a relative unknown – to the outside world, that is – Michael Fiengo seized the open QB job, running more of a run-pass option attack, players around him formed a nucleus that fit winning like a glove once the postseason arrived.

How does that happen?

Bowkett chuckles at his good fortune. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d like to think that our off-season program has got a little bit to do with it. But Ryland, Michael, Brody (receiver Smith) … all those guys, they’re just like dynamic players, they buy in. They put in the work and the months in the off-season to get to where we are today. We wouldn’t be here without the great players that we have.”

And it starts with the older players helping to mold the younger ones.

“Every year the senior class just keeps leaving their mark,” Bowkett said, “and making sure that the classes below them continue the culture that they have and they’ve just done a fantastic job.”

But last year was a stunner. The Sabers lost back-to-back tests at home against Plymouth and Pelham, considered the elite of the division at the time. Then they went up to Plymouth, where no visiting team wins, and after falling behind 7-0 simply dominated the Bobcats. Then took that and beat Pelham in a three-point game for the title.

This year, the closest game they’ve played was 19-9 at Plymouth. They literally have taken the next step in dominance.

“Last year really motivated us,” Raudelunas said. “We knew coming into this year, we knew the standard. We knew what we had to do to be back in the championship. We had to give it all we got, and we did. … We just work every single practice, everybody gives it their all during practice. Great team, great coaches, great everything.”

Raudelunas wants to be a coach because of what he’s learned from Bowkett.

“That’s the beauty of what we do, the beauty of interscholastic athletics,” Braley said. “You get to see these athletes watch you and you mold them. Robin’s just himself. He’s not putting on a show or an act. It’s just who he is as a human, and the kids have totally bought into it and it’s awesome to watch.”

It’s all about the buy-in.

“Kids aren’t going to buy in and change up structures or run the play, do the things you want them to do if they don’t believe in the program as a whole,” Braley said. “And Robin does that better than anybody.”