Thanksgiving preview: Classical seeks a winning season

Lynn Classical football coach Tim Phelps has a bit of a dry sense of humor.View season’s photos from throughout the fall season on the North ShoreAsked to give his perspective on the 100th Classical-English Thanksgiving Day game, which will take place this Thursday, the Rams coach deadpanned, “I’m not that old.”However, Phelps, who is a former Classical player as well as the current head coach, is quick to speak seriously about the milestone game, and his team’s season as a whole.”We would have our second straight winning record,” he pointed out. “We were 7-3 (last year), 5-5 now. We’ll mention it throughout the week and a half (to prepare). I don’t know if they’ll need much more. It’s English, one; it’s the 100th game, two; and it’s Thanksgiving.”This team is never going to get together like this… This is our last game together. We want to make it special.”The Rams already made a name for themselves this season, qualifying for the playoffs under the new Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association system.”It brought excitement to our program,” Phelps said. “They were fired up, finished the regular season strong. It’s a different change from years past.”We did lose in the first round. Overall, I don’t think we were completely outmatched. It was a competitive game. The past two weeks, we held our own with other teams who were knocked out. For the most part, I don’t think we were outclassed.”After the first-round loss, other teams might have lost focus, but Classical kept its resolve.”It was something we really put on the captains’ shoulders,” Phelps recalled. “There were a couple weeks left (to play) for pride, for each other, for Lynn Classical. We split the last two games and played hard.”Indeed, the coach has nothing but praise for his four captains, Brad Scuzzarella, Jordan Brown, Romario Louidhon and Kenny Khun.While all four play both ways, two are arguably best known for their roles on offense – Scuzzarella, a running back, and Brown, a quarterback – and two for their roles on defense – Louidhon, a middle linebacker, and Khun, a starting corner.”Brad, he’s not the biggest kid, but he’s real dynamic,” Phelps said. “He has decent speed and is a tough kid. He’s not scared to get tough yards. He scores a lot of touchdowns, which is always nice. We lean on him to catch, run, block and do everything else we ask.”While the coach acknowledged he likes to run, he said Brown has a definite role in the offense.”Certainly, with our offense, we tend to run the ball a bunch,” he said. “We ask our quarterback to run a lot, and he runs significantly … He’s a pretty good athlete. Jordan fell into that role, for the most part. He uses his athleticism at times to our advantage.”Louidhon has led the team in tackles this season.”He’s a decent-sized linebacker who does real hard work in the offseason,” Phelps said, “running track and getting faster, stronger. He’s a great leader. He’s not afraid to speak up. He does not miss practice. He doesn’t get hurt often. He’s an iron man. He makes our calls on defense, calls the huddle. He’s a linebacker in the traditional sense of the word.”Khun is a rarity at Classical: a two-year captain, the first player to hold that role since Phelps joined the program.”His leadership is tremendous,” the coach said. “When he goes, his leadership will be very much missed. He’s physical, he gets right on top of the receiver, he’ll bump and run. He’s an intelligent kid who’s done well for us all year.”There was almost an asterisk to the Turkey Day game, as Classical and English were slated to meet in the regular season before the call, so to speak, was reversed.”Luckily, that didn’t happen,” Phelps said. “I thought we’d play up till Monday. We rolled with it.”He said that if the Rams had to play the game, they would, but after athletic directors and principals conferred, “it was nice to save this for Thanksgiving. It just wasn’t the same. You want to play your rival on Thanksgiving, the 100th game, Thursday