The following story, offering a preview of the 2017-18 football season, ran in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on September 14, 2017:

By MARK DUNPHY
For the Gazette

EASTHAMPTON—The Dr. Frank L. Boyden Award sits in a trophy case just outside the Williston Northampton football team’s weight room. Coach Tom Beaton has no intention of moving it.

The award is presented by the National Football Foundation to the top prep school student-athlete in western Massachusetts for excellence on the football field and in the classroom. The last six names carved into the award are all Williston players, and Beaton said he knows a 6-foot-4, 245-pound defensive end with a great shot at making that number seven.

Xavier Thibault arrived on Williston’s leafy Easthampton campus via Quebec City and the senior captain and honor student isn’t feeling any additional pressure because of the college coaches who will be watching this season.

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By Matt Liebowitz

In the 13 years Coach Michael Fay has been leading the Williston boys varsity golf team, he has not had a team as ready, as confident, and mentally poised to contend for the championship at the upcoming 24-school Kingswood Invitational Tournament as this year’s squad.

“I think our chances are the best since I’ve started coaching varsity golf,” said Fay. The team has consistently placed in the top eight in the past 10 years at the tournament, scheduled for May 25 at Oak Ridge Golf Club in Agawam, Mass. Continue reading →