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Mike Buchanan finds a home on the gridiron

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Mike Buchanan makes a block vs. Hingham. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Mike Buchanan credits football with helping shape the person he is today.

Without football, Mike Buchanan isn’t sure where or what he’d be.

When he looks down on the scale, he sees 278 pounds, but he knows, that could easily be a lot more.

“I’m big now, but without that motivation from football, I’d be way bigger,” Buchanan said. “Football has made me a better person.”

A senior starting left tackle at Whitman-Hanson Regional High, Buchanan recently committed to play at the next level for Bridgewater State University.

Football’s always been Buchanan’s passion and his weight has always been his biggest challenge. The two have crossed paths often.

In third grade, he was 40 pounds over the weight limit to make the Hanson Youth Football mites team. So he took the field with players who were two to three years older than him as a member of the peewees, instead.

“It was tough,” Buchanan said. “I almost quit after the first practice because I was playing with fifth and sixth graders.”

But his coach took him aside after that first day.

“He talked me into keep playing,” Buchanan said. “He knew I loved the game, I always have.”

From that point on, Buchanan had a new outlook on his playing career — no matter how tough the road would get.

“I was like, ‘If I’m going to stick with it now, I’m going to stick with it forever,’” he recalled.

That would be challenged again a few years later, when in seventh grade, he found himself 40 pounds over the peewees’ weight limit. So, he ended up suiting up for Weymouth Youth Football, where the teams were decided by grade not weight.

“It made me kind of nervous playing there,” Buchanan said. “You’re 12, 13 years old, going to a totally different town with totally different people. You’ve never talked to these people in your life.”

Buchanan credits his youth career for helping him morph into the player he is today.

“The coaches taught me so much,” he said. “That team in Weymouth is when I realized that football is just awesome because there were so many guys and we were so good.”

This past season, Buchanan helped spearhead a Panthers’ rushing attack that averaged 141 yards per game.

“Every time we needed a play, we went behind Mike,” said W-H football head coach Mike Driscoll. “He was the leader of our offensive line.”

Buchanan had never started a varsity game coming into the fall but put together an “amazing” offseason, according to Driscoll.

“He earned that spot,” Driscoll said. “He went in at left tackle the first practice and never left. He came into this season, determined to be the leader, determined to work hard every practice, there was never a practice where Mike didn’t want to be there.”

Buchanan said he’s going to build up his speed and strength before he heads to the collegiate level next fall.

“I’m already one of the biggest guys on the team,” he said. “I can’t be one of the weakest or slowest. I plan on getting there this year.”

They’re armed and ready: Josselyn brothers join forces at Bridgewater State

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Colin (top) and Matt (bottom) Josselyn. / Courtesy photos: Bridgewater State University Sports Information Office

Brothers Colin, a junior, and Matt Josselyn, a freshman, both of Hanson, joined together to play baseball for Bridgewater State University this season.

When freshman Matt Josselyn of Hanson decided he no longer wanted to attend the University of New Hampshire, he knew right where he wanted to go. With his brother Colin, a junior, attending Bridgewater State University, it seemed like the perfect fit.

“He had a big impact just to go somewhere where I was more comfortable and had a way in at the school, with my brother being there, was very influential,” Matt, who transferred to the school this semester, said of his older brother.

The move certainty grew their relationship, which already was close.

“He’s over almost every day to play video games and relax,” Colin said of Matt.

Not only do they share the same couch and television on occasion, but they rep the same Bears uniform out on the diamond as well, and it’s been a special season for them both.

The brothers — despite their ties — didn’t get to play much competitive baseball at all growing up together due to the near two-year age gap. All they had was a season of fall ball and a summer of Legion ball together, and Matt wasn’t ready to advance to the varsity level at Whitman-Hanson Regional High until after Colin graduated.

“Being able to work together at it is something we had never really done,” Colin explained. “We played catch all through the summer and a little bit in the fall, and now him standing next to me on the foul line playing catch everyday has definitely grown our relationship a little more.”

Bridgewater State head coach Rick Smith said having the Josselyn brothers — who are both pitchers — on his club adds a sense of family in the team dynamic, and he likes it.

“It’s always good to have a brother combination because one looks out for the other,” Smith said. “Right away I could notice Colin was kind of taking Matthew under his wing and making sure Matthew was adjusting well.”

For Colin, last year was tough as he suffered a season-ending labrum tear in his throwing shoulder before the Bears’ annual season-opening trip to Florida. In his return to the bump this season — which came March 6 against Eastern Nazarene — he was lifted after 5.2 innings. With a runner on second base and two outs, there was a call to the bullpen for his younger brother Matt.

“I thought it was pretty amazing,” Matt said of what was his first collegiate appearance. “I don’t think I’ve ever pitched on the same mound that he has ever in my life. So, it was pretty special to come in and I know it was pretty special for our parents to watch that of him handing the reins and putting his confidence in me to continue pitching a great game, which he did before me.”

Colin said when he saw his younger brother warming up between innings, he tried to give him a jolt of confidence.

“I just said, ‘Hitters aren’t as good as you think they are. I know it’s college and they’re probably a little better [because] your above-average high school players are playing in college. But, you’re an above-average high school pitcher so just go out and do you,’’’ Colin said.

Matt fired 1.1 scoreless frames in relief.

“It was very cool to watch and early in the year I kind of tried to play on it,” Bridgewater State pitching coach Josh White said. “And I said to Colin, ‘Listen, your brother is going to pick you up right here.’ And we tried to use that as a motivational thing and it was pretty cool to watch though and it’s something I’ve never seen.”

Colin said he’s used his little brother as motivation for some time now.

“In the competitive spirit of it, since I’ve been in college, I’ve always heard stories of him excelling at the high school level,” Colin said, “so it made me try harder to have my parents go back from my game and say, ‘Hey, Colin looked good today too.’ Just because of that little brother competitive rivalry aspect, so it kind of propelled me to work harder and it also helped him.”

Having an older brother who grew up as a talented baseball player certainty had its benefits to Matt.

“I think he definitely has [made me a better player],” Matt said. “I saw him when I was in middle school and through high school [where] he was a three-year varsity player and I knew I wasn’t as good as him, but I always tried to be as good as him, so to finally get my chance and play on the same team as him, it’s pretty cool.”

Since that outing, both Colin and Matt have seen action in three games apiece and shared the hill April 11 against Curry.

“It is pretty cool,” Colin said. “For him, I think he gets to see a familiar face. I think I get more nervous watching him pitch than he is. It’s very nice to have him around.”

Jack Kelly agrees to play for Bridgewater State

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Jack Kelly runs down field in the Panthers’ game against Abington on Thanksgiving. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Jack Kelly will play football at Bridgewater State University next season.

Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior Jack Kelly has committed to play football at Bridgewater State University.

“Bridgewater State is a great school for education,” Kelly explained. “My father attended there, and I am going to be a physical education major.

“The coaches who recruited me were in constant communication with me all throughout the season, and immediately made me feel a part of the program. The coaches stressed academics just as much as they did football. College football is a big deal, but they are also preparing us for our careers and to be successful in life.”

Kelly said he began being recruited by the Bridgewater State coaching staff after the New England Elite Football Clinic at Bentley University in July.

“After meeting them at the camp, the coaches stayed in constant communication through email, text and phone calls throughout the season,” Kelly said. “After the coaches had me up for two games in the fall, that solidified that Bridgewater [State] was the perfect fit for me.”

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Kelly played two years for the Panthers, having moved to Whitman his junior year from Brockton, where he played his freshman and sophomore campaigns as a Boxer.

This past season, Kelly started at linebacker for the Panthers and recorded 47 tackles, seven for loss, and broke up three passes.

W-H football head coach Mike Driscoll lauded Kelly’s worth ethic.

“Jack was a very, very hard worker,” Driscoll said. “He really attacked the weight room hard last offseason to get stronger and that’s why we moved him to linebacker, because he played some defensive back for us, but he worked so hard in the weight room and got so strong that we knew we had a position for him and he earned it.”

Kelly said his most memorable tilt as a Panthers was Oct. 6 when W-H defeated Plymouth North, 28-24, in the last minute.

“They were a big, physical team, and as a defense we rose to the occasion and got many hard-fought stops in the second half, which allowed us to pull out a huge win late in the game,” Kelly said.

Driscoll said Bridgewater State is landing a hard-working kid, who is going to give it 100 percent every day in Kelly.

“He’s a smart kid, he’s a good kid,” Driscoll said. “They’re getting a well-rounded individual.”

Kelly said the two main facets of being successful at football he learned as a Panther were hard work and preparation.

“At Whitman-Hanson, the entire program bought into offseason workouts,” he said. Not only did it make us bigger, faster and stronger for the 2017 season, but it really brought us together and united us as a team. For me, as a linebacker on defense, coach [Keith] Sweeney had us thoroughly prepared week in and week out with film work and attention to detail every day at practice.”

Bridgewater State, which competes in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference of NCAA Division III, finished 2-8 last season.

“College football will be a big adjustment, going from playing against boys to playing against men,” Kelly said. “However, having played for many great coaches along the way, I will be ready for the next change in my football career.”