It may seem like a blah, different Thanksgiving in Nashua.

Sure, we missed the annual Nashua High School North-South Turkey Eve Bowl.

It’s not always everyone’s favorite. It would have been tough for Nashua North to get up for it this year after just winning the Division I title a few days ago. Nashua South would’ve loved to have played it as the Panthers season abruptly four weeks ago.

But as tough as the pandemic has made this year, and this fall, high school football fans have a lot to be thankful for as the 2020 season has concluded.

Why?

Because they had a season. New Hampshire was the only New England state playing all out, full contact, tackle football this fall.

Look around. Vermont went to 7 on 7, touch football, teams played twice a week. Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island did not have high school football at all, with the idea of a schedule in the early spring.

Connecticut’s high school governing body didn’t approve football statewide, allowing municipalities to make up their own minds. Basically an independent league was set up with teams basically representing areas, made up of players from local schools, playing together.

However that was shut down due to increased safety protocols earlier this month.

So there you go, local high school football fans. The NHIAA and athletic directors came up with a good plan, and executed it.

Sure, it wasn’t a nine game season that everybody was used to. It was an abbreviated five game regular season, max. If you had four postseason games, you could end up with nine. Some teams, like Nashua North, played as few as three regular season games. If teams were at risk, games were cancelled. Athletic directors did a great job of adjusting on the fly, as did coaches and players. Some teams had to bow out of the playoffs all told, which was tough.

“Five games is better than no games, for sure,” Nashua South coach Scott Knight said. “We’re just thankful to get to play at all. If you had asked me in July, I wouldn’t have thought there was much of a chance to play.”

But play they did. And Nashua has a championship to show for it, and no one felt it was any less of a title than all the others that came before it for other teams. History was made.

So yes, we missed the Turkey Eve Bowl, but cancelling it months ago was the right decision. Stellos would have been a ghost town last night, fans limited to two per player for just the home team, which would have been North in this one (South was home for the regular season game, which was the season opener).

We all know the game has its pros and cons, but we hope that this year’s interruption is temporary. It’s a time-honored tradition, and we also hope some of the crowds can return. The weather the last two years definitely held them down.

The area had a football season. The state had four champions. Plenty to be thankful for.

So, with that in mind, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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