Turners Falls athletic director Adam Graves had an unenviable task during his first year as the Thunder’s athletic director back in 2014.

With numbers too small to continue supporting a boys varsity soccer program, Graves made the difficult decision to cancel the season. Numbers were still low in 2015, leading Turners to co-op with Franklin Tech, a partnership that has lasted through this fall. Kurt Richardson has coached the cooperative program since its inception.

Numbers have been rising, with more and more Thunder boys soccer players going to play for the Eagles. Turners nearly had the numbers to break away from the co-op and have its own squad this past fall, but opted to wait another year. 

Graves and the Thunder decided to gauge interest and see what numbers would look like next fall, aiming to field their own team. With 18 kids committed to playing, and with co-ops only being created with the intention of keeping student-athletes playing until there are enough numbers to reinstate a program, Graves said last week that Turners would break away from the co-op and field its own soccer program next fall. 

The Thunder and Franklin Tech will continue the co-op on the girls’ soccer side, which has also been in place since 2015.

“The Tech school has been awesome about this whole thing,” Graves said. “They saved both our boys and girls teams. They’ve been great, [Franklin Tech athletic director] Joe [Gamache] has been great about it. It’s gotten to the point where between JV and varsity, we had 18 or 19 kids of our own on the team this year. When you look at the numbers and go by the rules, we have enough to support our own team.”

While 18 Turners Falls students were playing on the Tech co-op this fall, and with two seniors graduating, there was no assurance that all would be back for the 2023 season. 

Graves held a meeting with both parents and prospective players, telling them the circumstances and what breaking away from the co-op would look like. 

He gave the players a deadline to fill out a form that would sign them up for the team next fall, and Graves received 18 forms back. He said that showed him there was real interest in having a team and that the athletes were committed to bringing the program back. 

“I was very open and honest with the kids and the parents,” Graves said. “We have a good group of younger kids who want to play. We had a lot of freshmen and sophomores who will be sophomores and juniors next year. The kids are excited to have the team back. Once we got the 18 forms back we knew we could do this.” 

The partnership between the Eagles and Thunder has been a successful one, as Franklin Tech has qualified for the state tournament the last two years. 

Some of the items Graves had to lay out to the students and parents included the fact that Turners would not be in a league for at least two years. The Thunder will play an independent schedule, which doesn’t promise a full 18-game schedule. Despite not being in a league, Turners will still have a chance to qualify for the Western Mass. tournament, as well as the state tournament. 

Graves says he hopes bringing a team back will spark interest at the youth level to be able to sustain the program long term.

“The hope is that having our own team should get more kids to come out at the younger level,” Graves said. “We’ll be newcomers and not in a league, but with this being a realignment year, we’re hoping we can fill out our schedule with teams who need independent games. We’ll have new uniforms and new goals. We’ll be getting some use out of our stadium and that’s exciting for the kids.” 

Turners is looking for someone to coach the boys team this fall. A deadline for applications is Feb. 6. Those interested should reach out to Graves via email (adam.graves@gmrsd.org).

]]>