HINESBURG, Vt. (WCAX) - Wednesday was the first day high school football teams in Vermont could strap the pads on this year, and it is one of the best days of the year for high school football players and coaches. Especially when you play for a team that wins as much as CVU has over the past few seasons.
The Redhawks enter the 2024 campaign with high expectations once again after earning a top three seed in D1 each of the past three seasons to go along with two trips to the title game and the program’s first ever state championship two years ago.
Last year CVU beat everyone they played...except for bookend week one and semifinal losses against eventual state champ Burr and Burton. Probably safe to say that week seven rematch with the Bulldogs is one the redhawks are eyeing...but they’ve got a lot to take care of in the 2 months before we get to that one.
Gone are program stalwarts like Brian Rutherford, Jacob Bose, and Ollie Cheer. But CVU has been able to replace key players before. They’re confident their culture will help them do it again.
“Doing routes every Saturday, coming in, lifting in the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday at like six in the morning,” said senior receiver Dylan Frere. “I think it’s really, especially the guys before us, they started this and really we’ve just continued it.”
“We care a whole lot about this program, about this team, about the underclassmen,” added senior defensive back Chase Leonard. “Taking what we learned from the under from the upperclassmen when we were younger and passing that on.”
“We don’t let the momentum stop is what we don’t do,” added head coach Rahn Fleming. “We take it and not only not let it stop, we try to build on it from year to year. These guys know, they stand on the shoulders of kids who made history here. So they have a sense of our history as ours to make. What’s it gonna be?”
CVU opens the season Saturday, August 31st as they host Hartford.
Royalton residents at their wit’s end flooded the Senior Center to discuss the staggering changes they are seeing in their town.
Search and rescue crews believe they have found the body of Tuan Baldino, the New Jersey man who went missing while swimming at Warren Falls.
