Watch the 137th Edition of Wellesley vs. Needham Thanksgiving Night on TNC!!
November 27, 2024
• The annual Turkey Day tradition is just a warm up for the Rockets, who will be playing next week.
Usually the Oldest Public High School Football Rivalry in the Country is the last game on the schedule for Needham, but for just the second time in team history, the Rockets are headed to the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium, but even so, the Wellesley game is still a big deal. Needham is expected to play all of their starters against the rival Raiders, whom they defeated last year 21-7 for just the second win in the series since 2016.
Needham comes into Thanksgiving with a perfect 11-0 record, with Wellesley coming in 8-3. The Rockets are the #4 ranked team in the MIAA Division 1 bracket and after a 22-14 upset win Friday night over #1 St. John’s Prep in the Semis, are heading for the D1 Super Bowl for the first time since 2011. The Raiders were the #5 seed in the Division 2 bracket, but fell to #1 Catholic Memorial Friday in their Semifinal matchup.
Needham will be meeting #3 Xaverian, who knocked them out in the Semifinal round a year ago, with the Super Bowl scheduled for Thursday, December 5th at 5:30pm, with the game broadcast live on WSBK TV-38, as well as streaming on Patriots.com and the Patriots YouTube page. The Needham Channel will be recording a broadcast at Gillette, which will air Friday night, December 6th at 8pm, on our HD and Community Channels, as well as streaming on needhamchannel.org.
As for Thanksgiving, while carrying the game live is not possible due restrictions and likely heavy rain in the forecast, Wellesley Public Media and The Needham Channel will once again be collaborating on our annual broadcast, which will debut on-air and online Thursday night at 7pm. We will also have highlights on our social media channels, i.e. Instagram, X and Facebook, as well as posting a game story on needhamlocal.org Thursday afternoon.
You can stream the broadcast at needhamchannel.org by clicking the “WATCH ONLINE” tab in the upper right portion of the homepage, or going to this link: needhamchannel.org/watch-programs-on-needhamchannel-org/
Our thanks to Needham Head Coach Doug Kopcso, for talking with us on Monday about the Thanksgiving matchup with Wellesley, as well as the team advancing to the Super Bowl. You can watch that here:
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