There are winners and losers in every postseason or championship game, right?

This fall season, that’s just on the scoreboard.

The big winners are all the high school athletes these last couple of weeks that made it to the finish line during this pandemic. This past weekend saw champions crowned in soccer and volleyball, and now all that’s left is football.

“I told you at the beginning,” Hollis Brookline girls volleyball said after her team fell to Bedford in Saturday night’s Divison I title match, “our biggest opponent was COVID. … This team was so smart. They have been fantastic.”

Some haven’t been as smart, or perhaps as fortunate. But two teams walked off the field at Campbell High School on Sunday, happy to have made it to that finish line. Hopkinton left with the Division III title, but the Cougars left with some satisfaction that maybe they beat the odds.

“We started summer workouts once we got approval for that,” Campbell girls soccer coach Kevin Brassard said after his team as topped 4-1. “Two weeks before the season we get word we’re going ahead. In my mind, I’m like ‘There’s not going to be a tournament, how’s this going to play out.’

“Fortunately New Hampshire did a good job of keeping things flat. And we got through the season. I’m super excited the girls were able to do that.”

He should be. All the coaches this fall have said what a great thing it was for their student athletes to be back on the field. And now all that remains is football; all the other sports are done.

“They needed some normalcy in their life,” Brassard said. “They needed to be able to play and hang out. We have four seniors (Karleigh Schultz, Abby Buxton, Emily Cooper, Hanna Keane) that have been playing together since they were little kids. It’s nice they were able to complete this together.”

“It was tough at times,” Campbell senior Karleigh Schultz, who assisted on her team’s only goal, said. “We got in trouble a couple of times. As soccer players, you get on the bus, you forget, you fall into the routine.

“It was tough for us, but once we got the hang of it, we were just hoping, everybody stay safe, stay healthy, stay on the team so we could make it this far. I’m glad we got through it together.”

Even for the threepeat champions, it was difficult.

“It’s hard, because the girls never know what the next day is going to bring,” Hopkinton coach Mike Zahn said. “I told them all along, especially at the beginning of the season, to get their mind on it. One day you could playing, the next day you’re not.”

In fact, Zahn’s friend Nick D’Agostino coaches Merrimack Valley, which was supposed to hose Milford in the Division II finals yesterday. The team had a positive test, and the Spartans were awarded the title in a way that Milford coach Russ Matthews said Friday night felt “weird.”

The whole season was that way, right? Teams were grouped into regions to limit or make travel easier. In the tourneys you played out of your region, and then host teams in the semis and finals were decided by a blind draw/coin flip. Normally, the Division III title games would have been held at Laconia’s Bank of New Hampshire Stadium.

“It kind of felt surreal being here in the first place, at our home field, in a championship,” Schultz said. “I’m just grateful to be here, grateful to have had this chance to play.”

“Unheard of,” Brassard said of the game being played in Litchfield.. “It could have been better if we could have hosted and won.”

Don’t worry, Kevin. In a lot of ways, the Cougars still did. They crossed the finish line.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter