Lower Cape Bluefins Mites Claim Super Bowl Title With Upset Of West Bridgewater

November 27, 2024

by Brad Joyal

In the late summer, there were concerns about whether the Lower Cape Bluefins would even hold a season.

With less than 10 registered players when the team first began practice, the season was in jeopardy for the Mites team comprised of players in grades 2-4.

In the end, the Bluefins Mites not only exceeded their own expectations, but took the Old Colony Youth Football League by surprise.

The third-seeded Bluefins shocked naysayers with a first-round playoff win over Dennis-Yarmouth before capturing the OCYFL Division 6 Super Bowl title with a 22-8 victory over top-seeded West Bridgewater on Nov. 10 at D-Y High School.

“Our goal was to win just one game all season,” first-year Mites coach Billy Pina said. “It had been four or five seasons since these guys had won any game.”

Despite its small turnout at the start of preseason practices, the Mites’ roster grew to approximately 17 players by season’s end. It was a slow progression to reach top form, and Pina credits a 42-20 loss to West Bridgewater in the team’s fourth game as a turning point in the season.

“That was a switch right there,” Pina said. “We had scored 14 points combined up to that point, so we told the kids it was the best game they had played all year and that we could build on it.”

Many of the team’s players, which ranged in age from 7-9, had never played football before. Although the start of the season required Pina and his staff to experiment with putting players at various positions, the team found the right formula by the time the postseason rolled around.

The end result was a 4-6 record that was capped off with a stunning upset of the top-seeded Wildcats.

“It was awesome,” Pina said. “I kept saying it every week, we were starting from nothing at the beginning of the season. The way they kept playing and coming back every week and taking butt-whoopings and kept coming back, it was just awesome to be a part of it.”

Meg Braun, the Lower Cape Bluefins’ first-year president, said it was a banner year for the organization, which also saw its Midgets program (Grades 7-8) reach the Super Bowl before falling to D-Y.

“The whole year was amazing for this organization,” said Braun. “A brand new board of eight parents stepped up, and we didn’t even know if we were going to have a season based on where the program was with our numbers. That was super special.”

Braun said the Bluefins program had 55 players this fall, a significant dip from having approximately 75 players participate in 2023. She hopes the success of the two Super Bowl appearances will help bolster the program in years to come.

“Historically, on the Cape we don’t have huge numbers like a lot of the programs we face,” she said. “We’re hoping to grow it back up.”

If the Mites’ turnaround is any indication, the foundation for the Bluefins program is in good hands after an improbable turnaround resulted in the team’s first Super Bowl in nearly a decade.

“They never stopped believing in themselves,” Braun said. “They never stopped fighting, and they showed up to practice every day and worked hard.”