The Shady Bowl made it into the North Attleboro paper!!

Friends top off the season with a game

Jarod Lemieux, top, and A.J. Magnuson land in the snow during the Shady Bowl at the Ruth Rhind Recreation Area in North Attleboro.

NORTH ATTLEBORO — Doug Clinton grew up in Attleboro and flies up from South Carolina to see his family for the holidays – and to participate in what he called “the big event” of the season.

He was talking about the Shady Bowl, a flag football game played on the field at Shady Pines at the Ruth Rhind Recreation Area off Hunts Bridge Road.

Starting in 2001, a group of childhood friends has come back to the same field they played on as kids for one more game when everyone is home for the holidays. The games started out with four players on each team the first year, but they have steadily grown since.

The group grew up in the area, many of them graduates of North Attleboro High School, Bishop Feehan High School or Tri- County Regional Vocational-Technical High School in Franklin, Justin Allen said.

“The core group is all from the same neighborhood,” Joe Lurie, of North Attleboro, said.

Tight coverage: Marc Valois gets off a throw before Justin Deveau can get to him during the Shady Bowl.

Despite being played every holiday season, this year was the first time competitors had to deal with snow.

“It’s the first snow bowl,” Allen said.

“This was something that all the neighborhood kids got the idea to do,” Allen said.

While the game is played among friends, the players still get very competitive.

“There’s a lot of pride at stake,” Allen said. “Trash talking is a must.”

“This is grade school recess stuff, just now, we’re 30 years old,” he added.

Each team had nine players on Saturday, including five sets of siblings – several of whom grew up in the same neighborhood.

“Most of these guys I went to elementary school with,” Lurie said.

“We’re been friends for 30 years, how rare is that?” Allen said.

This year was special, Allen said, because his brother Jon had just gotten home from Iraq a few weeks earlier. “I’ve known these guys forever,” Jon Allen said. “I actually went to elementary school with seven of them.”

The annual event also gives the friends a chance to reconnect with those who have moved away to other states.

“It’s a good chance to catch up and stuff,” Lurie said.

This year’s game was also the first time organizers used a Facebook event to let everyone know when it would be played.

“People have been excited about this for a month,” Justin Allen said. “It’s a testament to growing up in North Attleboro.”

- by Allison Collins

Jarod Lemieux, top, and A.J. Magnuson land in the snow during the Shady Bowl at the Ruth Rhind Recreation Area in North Attleboro.