Thanksgiving Morning

The gray sky cast a shadow over the field as two teams emerged from the locker room for the second half, Hopkinton already losing badly. It was Thanksgiving morning, and fans were already clearing out of the stands, while others stayed bundled under blankets, clutching hot chocolate and programs in their freezing hands.

The scoreboard might as well have been a taunt. It was the kind of game that reflected where the program stood that season. That day, it was not so much a game as it was a ritual of Hopkinton against Ashland, wearing the same colors they’d worn for over a century, battling on a cold Thanksgiving morning.

It’s in these moments that it’s easy to let the mind wander, but somewhere in the middle of the chaos was Gabe Cafazzo, tightening his chinstrap, knowing he only had about an hour left to leave everything he had on the field to finish his junior season.

Gabe Cafazzo

Junior Gabe Cafazzo had the opportunity to earn a starting spot on the defense in the wake of injuries during his sophomore year. The program has struggled over the last two years, finishing 2–9 in both seasons. Amidst the struggles, players like Cafazzo were able to come off the bench and earn more playing time.

Cafazzo’s first real opportunity came well into his sophomore season after one of the team’s senior captains went down.

Teammate Chris Morin, a junior at the time, credited this moment as one that stood out, saying, “The team noticed a lot of effort in practice out of Gabe last year when he took our senior captain’s spot.”

Cafazzo went on to start the remainder of his sophomore year and earned increasing respect from his teammates and coaches.

Cafazzo acknowledged, “I had to realize that my being there actually had more of an effect on the team — how practice went, how locked in guys were.”

While Cafazzo has been an essential part of the team’s culture as a consistent starter, the team still lacked motivation at several points, and Cafazzo strived to be a positive example. Even though he had a role in what happened, he felt, “When you’re not doing well as a team, it’s hard to motivate guys. That’s when you really have to remember why you’re playing.”

Cafazzo says that he is “not really a loud guy,” but his teammates and mother describe him as a steady role model through adversity and frustration.

The Early Years

Cafazzo first started playing football in elementary school, long before classmates began watching his games. Even then, football was hard.

“We had a really tough coach, and it kind of set the tone that this is what football’s all about,” Cafazzo said.

From the outside looking in, his mom always noticed him miserable and exhausted after practice, which made her question why he kept going. After a while, it made sense to her; he saw football as a challenge and craved the adversity it brought, even from a young age.

What stood out was not that football felt overly fulfilling from the start, but that he kept going and found motivation in the repetition and in the struggle with his teammates more than in the scoreboard itself. As a smaller player, Cafazzo says he’s never been the most flashy, but the way football makes him feel has always driven him.

“Even when it was hard, he kept going. That says more about who he is than any scoreboard ever could,” Gabe’s mother, Amy Strack, said.

These early years of football are not ultimately the ones that will define Cafazzo’s career, but they set a tone for what was to come and prepared him for the reality that football is a game of ups and downs.

Becoming Noticed

By the time Cafazzo reached high school, football did not suddenly become easy. During his freshman year, he questioned why he was playing after having spent the year transitioning to play quarterback. He said himself, he faced a ton of adversity that season and played poorly at times. 

However, over the years of consistently showing up and finding his place in the lineup, Cafazzo has earned the attention of his teammates and coaches despite being only a junior.

“Even messing up on something small, people notice more when they’re looking up to you,” Cafazzo said. This pressure only grew as losses piled up this past season. While he did carry the weight of leadership, he credits his teammates for making his role lighter.

“My captains, Ryan Morin and Will Boucher, were both good friends of mine and helped me along the way,” Cafazzo said. On the field, especially, he led by example with teammate Lucas Reed to run the defense.

“I saw Gabe as a really strong leader. On defense, he kept our energy high throughout the season, even in tough games and battles. That energy helped our defense get better as the season went on — getting more stops, helping the secondary, helping the run,” Reed said.

As a junior, Cafazzo’s leadership was not formalized with the title of captain, which is typically reserved for seniors. However, his presence was noticed by both underclassmen and coaches.

“He was more than just basic inspiration for the underclassmen,” said Chris Morin. “He won the Coach Hughes Award, and the coaches pointed him out as the type of player they want the program built around.”

When Time Runs Out

Regardless of the team’s success over the past few years, several things are becoming increasingly clear for Cafazzo. He has less than a year until football ends for him, and with college football unlikely, it’s his job to make good on his nearly decade-long journey.

The idea that time was running out became more apparent on that cold Thanksgiving morning than ever before. Leading up to the game, Cafazzo described that it felt like “going to war with your boys.” Hundreds of hours of practice, from scorching August mornings all the way to the ones leading up to the game, where every tackle stung more than the one before, all these moments led to this game, with this group of guys. 

The game did not matter. No matter the outcome, it was the end. “It’s not about the points. It’s about the team,” Cafazzo said.

More critical than marking the end of his junior season, it marked the end of the seniors’ careers that he had spent years looking up to, who had become some of his best friends in the world.

As the game went on, Cafazzo, who was already hurt, understood that this was his last chance. He put on his shoulder pads and tried to battle with his team, no matter how bad the score. He knew that was important.

This wouldn’t be the last time that Hopkinton and Ashland faced off on Thanksgiving wearing the same jerseys as the players who came before them. Yet, for that team, on that day, this was their last dance.

“You don’t want to put too much nostalgic pressure on it, but you have to live in the moment,” Cafazzo said.

In the final moments of the game, as players cleared the field and broke for the locker rooms, Cafazzo saw many of the same seniors he had looked up to now crying and hugging one another. He tried to support them in the moment, but some part of him knew that a year from now, that would be him, leaving behind the game he’d put thousands of hours into since he was in elementary school.

Now it’s Cafazzo’s job to end his football career in a way that would make his future self proud. Next year, it will be a lot of the same guys, but without the graduating class, his role will likely be amplified.

“When I walk off that field, I want to be able to say to myself that I was resilient, and I was tough, and I was able to endure challenges. And instead of walking away from them, I faced them head-on,” Cafazzo said.