Born again DiLoreto, Tide football opens up at home against defending GBL champs Friday night

Visiting Medford poses early season threat for host Everett with its spread offense

By Joe McConnell

The tryout season is over, and now it’s time to get down to business for all high school football teams in the state. Most of them will begin the 2025 campaign this week, and locally the long-anticipated return of native son Rob DiLoreto is just hours away. That’s enough to bring out the longtime diehard fan.

As a result, Friday night’s home opener (Sept. 5, 6 p.m.) at Everett Memorial Stadium against Medford, the defending Greater Boston League (GBL) champs, should be off the charts in terms of attendance if the Facebook comments that have accompanied the football stories the last few weeks is any indication.

After unceremoniously stepping down two years ago as the Crimson Tide head coach, something he continues to say is his dream job, DiLoreto is ready to resume his streak of playoff teams. His first year as head coach was in 2020 – the COVID year – that was played in the spring of 2021 with no playoffs, but once everything returned to normal, his teams made the postseason the next two years in the new era of the power rankings.

His Everett neighbors, friends and fans expect more of the same successes throughout the next three months, and he’s ready to live up to the hype.

There’s no question the effort has been there since the first day of practice on Aug. 15, and the coach continues to like what he sees. “Our team is preparing very hard for the home opener against Medford,” DiLoreto said earlier this week. “They continue to give their best effort every day, and (my assistant) coaches (and myself) are very happy with the progress that they are making. We have identified areas of improvement in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams – and are continuing to work hard to improve even more in each of those areas.”

In football, the common cliché that everybody uses is that games are won in the trenches, and if that’s the case, Everett already has that figured out. Left tackle Gaetano Foster, left guard Guerlins Christalin, center Daniel Hernandez, right guard Enno Neto and right tackle Nathan Fortune will be the offensive line starters against Medford.

On defense, cornerback Kervens Joseph, linebacker Sammy Lacombe, linebacker Armani Negron, linebacker Tyler Freni and defensive end Wael Fanidi are scheduled to start in the home opener, while the rest of the positions remain up for grabs.

Jeremiah Clark and Freni are competing for the quarterback job, and as of Tuesday (Sept. 2), Joao Barreiros and Steven Thomas are the leaders among the running backs. Jeremiah Joseph, Jamauri Dulin, Roshon Belomy, Kervens Joseph and Negron are ahead on the depth chart for wide receivers.

DiLoreto is not taking his reemergence as the Tide’s head football coach for granted, because he understands the significance of a winning football team on this community. “I’m extremely honored, excited and humbled to be leading the Everett Crimson Tide football team once again as its head coach,” he said. “I’m also so proud of the hard work, determination and dedication that our players and coaches have collectively put in to prepare for the season. We are coming together as a family, and we hope to make the entire city of Everett proud (once again) this season.”

But right now, the focus is on Medford, the defending GBL champions, Friday night at home, starting at 6 p.m. “They have our full respect,” said DiLoreto. “We have been watching Medford on film. They have a highly skilled offensive attack this year and have had a very good preseason running a spread offense.  We will need to prepare hard this week and be ready for anything that they might throw at us.”