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Windham will open Friday

By the time most NHIAA football teams hold their first scrimmage this season, Windham High School will have already played a game.

The Jaguars are participating in the Global Ireland Football Tournament, and will open their season Friday (7 a.m. EST) against the Maclay School of Tallahassee, Fla.

“It’s a private school from Tallahassee, about 1,000 kids,” Windham coach Jack Byrne said. “Their coach (Jason Cauley) would be the first one to tell you they’re not an IMG sending 20 kids to Division I, but they definitely have some kids who can play. We reloaded again with a lot of hard-working, fast, athletic kids. They’re tough. They want to work.  I think it will be a good matchup.”

The game will count for the Maclay School, but will not count in the NHIAA standing for Windham, much like games against out-of-state opponents do not count for NHIAA teams.

Windham was scheduled to fly out of Boston to Dublin on Tuesday night and return on Sunday. Byrne said the trip cost about $4,300 per player, and the team has been fundraising for about a year.

“We were very transparent about realistically getting guys playing time,” Byrne said. ”Because we don’t really know the opponent we couldn’t guarantee playing time. I didn’t want to put the new freshman in a spot where they weren’t ready. I told them they could all come if they wanted as long as they fundraised, but I think we have the right crew going. We have about 40 kids, all who in some way could step on the field. All our seniors are going.”

In addition to the players, six Windham coaches, an athletic trainer and the school’s athletic director will make the trip. Byrne said the players and coaches who did not travel will continue to practice in Windham.

The Windham/Maclay matchup is the first of three high school games that will be played at Dublin’s Energia Park on Friday. The teams have many non-football activities planned for the week, and will also attend Saturday’s game between Florida State and Georgia Tech in the Aer Lingus Football Classic at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

Byrne said NHIAA rules prevented Windham from practicing any sooner than other NHIAA teams, so the coaching staff stressed the importance of attending optional summer workouts to prepare for Friday’s game, which can be seen on reelzeal.org. Coverage is scheduled to begin Friday at 6:45 a.m.

“I talked with their coach a lot,” Byrne said. “We want both teams to have a good experience, but we also want them to compete. If it’s a situation where if we can get everybody on the field we’ll do that. We should be fighting hard and then doing all the friendly stuff after the game.”

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