Thanksgiving 2012: Classical striving to finish strong year on an up-note

Seeking a strong finish to an already strong season, the Classical football team will enter its Thanksgiving Day matchup against English with a 7-2 record.”This team in particular, with a bunch of guys returning, it’s nice to see improvement and success,” coach Tim Phelps said of the 2012 Rams. “Hopefully we can finish off an 8-2 year. Last year, we took our lumps. We learned from that. We were a younger team last year.”This year, the Rams are led by their quartet of captains: seniors Jeff Beck, Steve Sam and Astrel Fort, and junior Kenny Khun.While the Rams dropped their Turkey Day matchup against the Bulldogs last year, Sam made a significant number of tackles in that game.”Steve’s a real smart kid,” Phelps said. “He’s an honor student, honor roll every quarter, and a top-ranked kid in his class. He’s a very solid player.”As for his tackling?”He’s solid,” the coach said. “He’s very fundamental in tackling. He doesn’t miss a lot. He’ll go right up to a guy, step on his toes, wrap him up. He’s got nice, long arms and is a strong kid.”Khun, meanwhile, is the first junior captain on the Rams in Phelps’ recollection.”I played 14 years ago,” Phelps said. “I’ve kind of been coaching and helping out in college and (ever) since. The kids vote on it.”Asked about his captains as a whole, the coach said, “Overall, the captains as a group have been pretty good. They’re leaders on and off the field. It’s the biggest thing you want. They’re an extension of the coaching staff. When the staff’s not there, they make sure they’re keeping the kids in line. You need to keep the kids in line. It’s part of the reason we had a nice jump this year.”In fact, the constellation of Aries (the Ram) seems to be on the rise, as Classical enters the game “coming off a couple wins in a row,” Phelps said, adding that he wants to “send the seniors off on the right note, get one out on Thanksgiving.”That said, the coach has plenty of respect for the opponents from English.”It’s pretty much based, running back-wise, on Isaiah Davis,” Phelps said of the Bulldogs’ offense. “A couple other guys fit in there – Zach Lozzi, their fullback, and Josh Michel.”Their offensive line is big up front.”They got more physical as the year goes on, more natural, going from a spread to an I-formation. Their physicality has grown, unfortunately for us.”The coach talked a bit more about the Bulldogs’ talent, and the matchups.”Davis is very scary,” he said. “We’ll make sure (to get) 11 guys to the football tackling him. He’s a big-play potential guy every time he touches (the football).”Offensive line-wise, our offense comes down to the offensive line.”We’ve got to have our line step up. It’s a decent-sized line. They have some big guys. We might not be as tall or as big, but we have a pretty decent-sized line.”The Rams average 6 feet and 230 pounds on the line.”For a high school offensive line, that isn’t too bad,” Phelps said.”Our guys will play well up front most of the year.”Asked about the Bulldogs double-teaming anyone, the coach replied, “At some points, Lynn English with its blocking style will double-team. I’m hoping we can win that battle up front. The two teams have pretty good lines on both sides. It’s a challenge for both of us. It should be interesting to see how they play.”The coach does sound philosophical about the Rams’ two losses, to Beverly and Masconomet.”I think Beverly used us as their practice squad, then English,” Phelps said of the Panthers, who swept Classical and English this year. “Beverly is very talented. They did that most of the time they played.”In the conference schedule, unfortunately we lost to Masconomet. They beat both of us (Classical and English). It is what it is.”Well, the Classical-English game seems like it will be what it has been: a ceremony uniting two opposing high schools in the City of Lynn.”It’s a physical game, an emotional game,” Phelps said. “Usually, there’s more talking on the field than we like. For us, it’s our biggest fan ba