Important Questions Need to be Answered on the First Day of School

starts today.

have their school supplies, their back to school threads, and they know what they are going to be having for lunch during the 2011-2012 school year.

On at Blocksidge Field on Wednesday, the players and the were all pumped for the season to get going, but growing bodies need to be fed, and what they’ll be eating during the school year is on all of their minds, in addition to the screen pass, the double team block and a rousing yell of “Go Big Blue!!!!!!”

Junior receiver Josh Rothwell said he goes half and half, with food from home some days and food from the school cafeteria on other days.

“I usually bring a sandwich and chips when I bring something from home,” Rothwell said. “The best thing they have at school is the cheeseburgers, I like those, if they’re not serving cheeseburgers than I bring something from home.”

Sophomore wide receiver Ben Faulkner, whose father Scotty is an assistant coach for the Big Blue, eats at school every day, even though his mom Lisa is a great cook.

“I like what they have at school,” Ben said. “The best stuff is the pizza and the pizza sticks, the cheeseburgers are pretty good too.”

The consensus from the Big Blue offense and the Big Blue defense is that cheeseburger days in the high school cafeteria are the days that school kids with discerning palates circle on their calendars.

Junior quarterback Brian Santry mixes up his meals, brown-bagging it sometimes and ordering up the cafeteria food a few days a week.

“I brings sandwiches from home, usually ham and cheese,” Santry said. “I definitely eat at school when they have cheeseburgers, they’re pretty good, I like the pizza sticks too.”

While the players are out on the field giving it their all, the cheerleaders are backing the Blue 100 percent and they have opinions on lunch time fare as well.

Junior cheerleader Talia Faia brings snacks in when she brown-bags it, some chips, some peanut butter and crackers, but she likes the offerings in the high school cafeteria.

“My favorite is the pizza, the pizza sticks are okay too,” Faia said. “I’m not a big fan of the nachos at school, I don’t like them at all.”

Caitlin McNally, another junior in charge of keeping the spirits up, usually brings food in from home.

“I bring in a sandwich, usually, a drink and some chips,” Caitlin said.  “I like the soups they have at school, but I usually bring things in from home.”

As far as the middle school goes, Colin Frary, Maxx Cooper, Pat Bartholomew, Dan Johnson and Jake Cooper know what they like to eat at lunchtime too, and they know what they don't like as well.

“I usually bring my lunch from home, but I ask my mom if I can get lunch at school when they have pizza,” Dan said. The 11 year-old loves the cafeteria pizza, and the pizza sticks get a thumbs up too from Johnson, who plays youth hockey, soccer and baseball in town.

On a brilliant August day Colin Frary and Maxx Cooper were inside watching King Kong on TV, oblivious to the conditions outside and the first day of school coming up.

“Dad, it’s the good King Kong, the one with Jack Black and the guy from Lord of the Rings,” Maxx said while enjoying microwave popcorn and half dozen nuggets from Frank Perdue. Maxx has never met a chicken finger he didn’t like.

“My favorite lunch at school is the chicken fingers, I don’t like the pizza at all,” Frary said. “I bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I bring my lunch to school.”

Pat Bartholomew said his favorite school lunch is the French toast, and he’s not a big fan of the school’s pizza sticks.

Jake Cooper, who is heading into the eighth grade,wishes that Monte's could deliver him a plate of fried shrimp at noontime, goes for the school lunches five days a week and rates the cafeteria’s meat ball sub as a “10.”

Back in the old days when face book meant you had you’re face buried in a book, gasoline was 89 cents a gallon and there were 100-200 people attending Red Sox games at Fenway Park, the lunches at school were all great, and if you gave a sweeping wave and big hello to Winnie Patrikas in the lunch line, you got extra gravy on your mashed potatoes.