MassVarsity

With the official start of the 2019 MIAA season, we kick things off again with a six-team deep batch of all-state teams. This list was difficult to compile because there are simply so many quality athletes in the sport this fall. In one sense, it made it easier to fill out all the positions. On the other, slotting each portion and deciding between first-, second-, third-teamers, and so on, was a massive challenge. That said, we saw and evaluated many of these players both in person last year and in the offseason, and conferred with many coaches on who their best players — and who the best players they've coached against — are. There are some players who are listed in positions they are less well-known by so we could fit them in the appropriate slot. Also, we might have to look at the format in the future, because fewer and fewer offenses feature just two wide receivers on the field at once. We will cross that bridge when we come to it, though. Please alert us to an

When Christian Ferrara first came to Springfield Central in 2014, he could not believe his eyes, and not in a good way. "The whole culture in the city (was bad)," Ferrara said. "How in a city this big with all these special athletes and you're not pumping out Division 1 after Division 1 athletes? We have all these studs here, why aren't we pumping out more Division 1 athletes?" A former 38-game starter at nose tackle for Syracuse in the late 1990s, early 2000s, Ferrara came up to Massachusetts in 2012 to help a friend open up some gyms on the East Coast. But when he began his stint as a strength and conditioning coach at Central along with his work at the alternative school there, Ferrara knew he had to start from the ground up when it came to getting the most out of the talent. "They didn't know how to program their athletes properly in the weight room," said Ferrara, who trains athletes all over Western Mass. now, including East Longme