BY JOHN GILLOOLY
Journal Sports Writer

EAST PROVIDENCE — They will line up for the opening kickoff focused on one thing — helping their team win a football game.

They will spend about two hours this afternoon thinking only about their assignments in Hendricken’s quest for a state football title.

Yet Mike Rogers and Bobby Booth know at some point, probably after the game is finished, that they will think about how much their fathers would have enjoyed being at Pierce Field today.

Rogers is a senior defensive back. Booth is senior offensive lineman. They both play significant roles for the Hendricken football team that will meet St. Raphael in the R.I. Interscholastic League’s Citizens Bank Division I Super Bowl this afternoon at Pierce.

Like football players everywhere, they share a bond with all their teammates. That’s the thing about football, every play it’s 11 guys with 11 different assignments all geared toward one objective.

But all season Rogers and Booth have shared another bond — the teenage heartbreak of their fathers’ recent deaths.

Rogers’ father, John Rogers, passed away in March 2006 after a 19-month battle with cancer. Booth’s father, Bob Booth, died suddenly this past August.

“We don’t really know. It was just sudden,” Booth offered about the cause of his father’s death.

There will be about 400 Rhode Island high school football players participating in the four state championship games that will be played around the state today. And while the bottom line will be about what the scoreboard reads when time expires, the games are almost as much about memories as touchdowns and tackles.

“It’s going to be a memory whatever happens tomorrow. You’re going to remember it for the rest of your life,” Booth said of the feeling that thousands of high school athletes through the decades have felt about playing in a championship game.

But for Booth and Rogers, there will be a special feeling.

“I know I’m going to look back on it and say, I wish my dad had been there to see it,” said Booth.

“My dad was always supportive, always telling me how proud he was of everything I did, said Rogers. “It [the Super Bowl] comes up and you think it would have been really nice for him to have seen it. You wonder what it would be like if he was still here.”

“I know I’m going to look back on it [the game] and say, I wish my dad had been there to see it,” said Booth.

“It has been different [this season],” Booth added “I was used to my dad being there after the games. It’s been tough, but the team has been there for me.”

They both have had strong support from their immediate families, but it also has helped to have had their Hendricken football family.

“It’s a bunch of kids working together for one goal. We’re supportive of each other,” said Rogers.

It’s pretty much like one big family. If somebody is down, you pick them up,” said Booth.

“I know they are there for me,” Booth continued. “The coach had asked me ‘Do you want to make a big deal out of this [his father’s death]? Or do you want us to keep it quiet?’ I kind of wanted to keep it quiet, but I knew that everybody always was there for me if I need to talk to somebody. I like thinking about the good memories and bring it back a lot kind of gets me pretty sad. I just want to try and move on. Not forget about him, but keep my life as normal as I can.”

For two seasons now, for Rogers and this year for Booth, football has helped them cope with their personal losses.

“During the games, nothing else matters,” said Rogers. “During the week, everything else you wonder about doesn’t matter because you only focus on your job and doing what you can to help the team. It’s always fun to win, Always fun to play hard and do well. It’s more or less like an escape.”

“Football takes my mind off other things,” said Booth. “You come out here and for the 2½ hours you practice every day, you’re on the field to take care of business”

They have never seen their names in headlines, but then you come to expect that when you’re an offensive lineman and a 160-pound defensive back.

“I’ve been a lineman for my whole life, so my dad always knew I wasn’t going to get any glory for digging in the trenches, doing the dirty work,” said Booth.

But while they may not be headliners they both have played big roles in Hendricken earning its second consecutive Super Bowl berth.

From his spot on the offensive line the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Booth has been opening holes for the ground game that has been the key to Hendricken’s production of 259 points in nine Division I games this season.

Rogers has been a mainstay of the Hendricken defensive unit by not only intercepting four passes, but also being one of the Hawks’ top tacklers with 80 stops.

“I feel I have done better than I had expected, but it’s been a team effort,” said Rogers.

“It’s not just us, it’s everybody else, too. If everybody does his part, we are going to get it done. That’s what we have done this season,” said Booth.

This afternoon they will take the field with their minds strictly focused on a football game. They know that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the way their fathers would have wanted it.

So for two hours it will be all about tackles and touchdowns, but there always will be the memories.

“He was always at every practice, every game,” Booth said of his father. “He would have been really excited about this game. He was excited last year when we made it to the Super Bowl. He told me after the game [which Hendricken lost], ‘You’re going to get another shot.’ I just wish he was here to see it.”