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Numbers are down but optimism reigns

Coach Chris Lones is always about playing the hand he’s dealt.

So when his Hollis Brookline High School football team came together for official practice for the first time this week, it was upbeat and fast-paced, even with the constant periods of rain.

“Our numbers are lower than expected, and that’s kind of a surprise,” said Lones. “We’ve got some decent talent, we just don’t have a lot of depth. That seems to be our team every year. We have some good skill kids, some good players sprinkled around, we just don’t have any depth to support them.”

Lones isn’t quite sure why his roster is down to around the 40 levels. His is a winning program coming off a playoff season.

Enrollment is not down in the school either.

“It’s not just us. I’ve talked to some other coaches and they’re going through it too,” said Lones.

“Kids are playing on club teams in other sports. They’re not playing school sports. I don’t know what happened to school spirit. And they don’t have any regulations on that, so what can you do? It hurts us.”