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Part-Time Gladiators - Page 7
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 Shawn Gannon of the Mass Havoc, a center in his early 30s with ten years of semi-pro experience, is on the same sheet of music as St. Amand. "You get to take your frustrations out at the end of the week. You get to whack some people around and then afterward you go out for a couple of beers." Gannon also likes playing for the element of the unexpected. No one, for instance, thought that Mass Havoc, a team having a mediocre year around midseason, would bring down a green giant. While playing on the Shamrocks’ home field, Mass Havoc was able to take advantage of Marlboro’s mistakes and beat them. "That night was actually pretty special because the season was rather disappointing. Now I can say that I was on a team that can say something not many others can, we went to their house and beat them….They’re so good, and they’ve been good so long that it was really special."
Gannon’s teammate, Carl Campbell, likes playing for the same reasons that others players do, but also thinks that it sets an example for his kids. "I like the fact that my kids see me doing it. It’s something that requires a commitment, acting as a leader and as a balance for the younger guys (on the team)." Campbell, who has played semi-pro for 15 years said that he now has another reason for playing on top of the obvious reasons. "Well I’ve got this little dream, this little vision. My oldest son is fourteen. When he turns eighteen I’d like to see him come out for one season with me. He plays guard (Shawn plays center and the two would play next to each other) and we talk about doing it. It’s a father-son kind of thing."
 Another important aspect of the game that players say is a draw is the social aspect. Camaraderie is the result of a team playing together in broiling heat at the season’s start and in bone stiffening cold fall mud at season’s end against determined opponents. After a few years in the semi-pros many players find that some of their closest friendships are built from the bonds established while playing semi-pro ball. "Offense usually sticks with offense and defensive usually sticks with defensive players" says Marlboro’s Bob Ferreri, "we go away on trips, we’ve gone to Vegas together, 5, 6, 10, 15 of the Shamrocks together, vineyard weekends, all kinds of things. We do stay together." The Nashua Predators have not been together long enough to build the kind of player bonds that the Shamrocks have, but they’re working on it. After their home games they get together and have a few beers and burgers and also invite members of opposing teams to join them.
During a game on the Tomcats’ home field, a large cloud of dust drifts across the part of the playing field where they and the Vermont Ice Storm are lined up against each another. The cloud is followed by another and then another after that. Suddenly a Beachside player, with a slightly perturbed look on his face, bellows out a command that brings the dust storm to end. The man is not a god with the ability to thwart the elements, for if he were he would certainly want put an end to the Ice Storm’s freezing of the Tomcats’ offense. He is instead a parent, and his command carried great weight with the gang of player’s children who were running through piles of dry dirt next to the field, creating the menacing dust clouds. Like most parental commands, this one is only heeded for a short time, and then the clouds return.
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