BROCKWAY — The Frank Varischetti All-Star Game is played as an exhibition.
It’s been that way since the game’s first edition. As is the case with most high school football all-star contests, however, the game’s action is anything but pedestrian.
That was especially evident in the sixth edition of the game, played Friday night at Frank Varischetti Field.
Emotions, big hits and a post-pandemic crowd fueled the North squad, which featured schools that were formerly the Allegheny Mountain League, in its 14-12 loss to the South, comprised of those from the former Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.
Sure, the players enjoyed representing their respective regions and playing alongside teammates that were once foes. Perhaps more importantly, however, the Varischetti game provided 63 recently graduated seniors with the opportunity to play another football game.
For most, it was their last.
This year’s game was not lacking in competitiveness. Multiple unsportsmanlike penalties, a player ejection and a slew of hits that prompted collective, audible reactions from the crowd proved that.
It also featured the largest crowd that any of the players had likely experienced since 2019, providing an added energy that District 9 football stadiums lacked this past fall. For 60 minutes of game time, the North and South were anything but friends.
After the game, however, the spirit of the Varischetti game appeared as crowd members drifted onto the field.
The tense atmosphere that accompanied the game subsided almost immediately. Smiles returned to the North’s sideline despite its late-game defeat. As players posed for pictures with parents, girlfriends and each other, a feeling of satisfaction seemed to replace that of stress.
There were no orange Smethport or Port Allegany jerseys on the field. No red and black of Bradford, no Otto-Eldred blue and no Ridgway maroon.
Each North player sported matching royal blue uniforms, and if one didn’t know any better, would think that the group had been teammates, not rivals, for the entirety of their scholastic football careers.
The North’s head coach, Justin Bienkowski, had emphasized that aspect of the game over the preceding week. “Win, lose or draw,” he said, would not take away the week that his team enjoyed together.
A week of practice. A week of bonding. And a week of new faces, many of whom had likely classified each other as enemies prior.
Bienkowski raved before and after the game about the character of his players.
“In terms of being ready for the real world, college, the military or whatever it is,” the Port Allegany head coach said ahead of the game, “The thing I’ve seen from these 32 guys is, whatever their boss or their wife or whoever is going to tell them as they get older, these guys have showed me that they’re ready for it.”
High school all-star games provide an entertaining on-field product.
More importantly, they provide players with two things: Dozens of new friends, and the opportunity to play the game for a final time before embarking their separate ways.
Ask players about the meaningfulness of the Varischetti game and those two things that it provided them.
I think you’ll find a common answer.
