RallyNorth.net

Every Monday RallyNorth.net will salute bone-crunching linebackers, elusive running backs, immovable linemen and rocket-armed quarterbacks from the 37 area high school football teams. We've dubbed them Power Players and you won't want to miss who the best and the brightest were from the weekend's schoolboy gridiron action.

The Walt Whitman poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" draws comparisons to the way the football players of Newburyport High School have felt about their coaches for nearly a half century.

For the last 21 years, Ed Gaudiano has been at the helm of the Clippers ship, producing greatness along the way: four Super Bowl appearances, including victories in 1995 and 1997, and numerous Cape Ann titles.

In his three years as a member of the varsity football team at Bishop Fenwick, only Matt Morrison has been able to contain Bobby Tarr.

Every week teams line up 10 and 11 defenders in the box defensively, with two or three shadows focused solely on stopping Tarr, Fenwick's star running back. And every week through two football seasons, Tarr has piled on the yards. It was Morrison, Fenwick's starting tailback in 2005, who kept the Crusaders' record-breaking back from routinely surpassing 200 yards per game.

Dan Bauer has coached the Beverly High football team for five years, but he has deep Midwest roots.

Growing up in Ballwin, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis, Bauer played football, baseball and was a wrestler at Parkway South High School.

Brian O'Reilly fears little on the football field.

Superior preparation, repetition, concentration, attention to detail, and sheer dedication keep his Astros perched atop Division 1 in New Hampshire.

1.Gloucester (8-0): Last week's dramatic, come-from-behind 26-22 victory at Lynn Classical are the kind of victories that nearly every championship team has during the course of a season. Last week: 1

Every Monday RallyNorth.net will salute bone-crunching linebackers, elusive running backs, immovable linemen and rocket-armed quarterbacks from the 37 area high school football teams. We've dubbed them Power Players and you won't want to miss who the best and the brightest were from the weekend's schoolboy gridiron action.

1.Gloucester (7-0): After easily pounding Peabody last weekend at home, the Fishermen face their biggest test of the season this Friday at once-beaten Lynn Classical. Last week: 1

Every Monday RallyNorth.net will salute bone-crunching linebackers, elusive running backs, immovable linemen and rocket-armed quarterbacks from the 37 area high school football teams. We've dubbed them Power Players and you won't want to miss who the best and the brightest were from the weekend's schoolboy gridiron action.

What was your first Salem varsity football game like?
My sophomore year at Lynn Classical was the first time I carried the ball. I was on kickoffs all year. I ran a trap out of halfback and picked up a few yards. Absolutely, I was nervous. I didn't want to mess up. I didn't want a letdown because a sophomore was in there. We won the game. My brother Eric was an outside linebacker on that team.