A Mattapoisett father-and-son duo will play their final football game together this Saturday night. Dennis Arsenault has been coaching his son Rudy since he was a little boy. Summer preseasons melted into fall game days on the fields behind Old Rochester High School.
For Dennis, being around the game awakened a desire not only to help coach his son's Pop Warner team, but to actually suit up and play again. Arsenault was 42 years old at the time. That's the age when most "crazy" guys realize their bodies are too old to play such a violent game, but for Arsenault it was the beginning of something new.
He had been a Fairhaven Blue Devil in high school, but a broken arm ruined his senior season, and that unfinished business never sat right with him.
"I wanted to play football again a lot earlier than 42, but life got in the way with kids and work," he said. "I finally decided to return to the game, and then I broke my ankle at work. I eventually got back on the field at 42."
That was 13 years ago. Now 55, Arsenault is remarkably still playing.
"My team nicknamed me 'O.G.' for old guy," he joked.
Dennis had decided that last summer would be his final season. He felt lucky to have avoided major injuries. But then his son Rudy had an idea: he wanted to join the team and play football alongside his dad this summer.
Rudy hadn't played since his senior year season in the fall of 2022, but the idea of taking the field with his father was too tempting to pass up.
The two Arsenaults have spent an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime season playing for the New England Bombers. The team is 7-0 heading into this weekend's matchup.
It seems Rudy caught a full-blown version of the football bug again. After this summer's season with the Bombers, he contacted the football coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to express interest in walking onto the team as a junior. Junior walk-ons aren't really a common practice for the program, but after reviewing his film, WPI invited Rudy to join the Goats.
With the college football season underway, Dennis and Rudy Arsenault will wrap up their time with the New England Bombers this weekend, but the memories they've made are forever.
From Pop Warner to semi-pro, they've shared the field as both coach and player, and now, as teammates, a rare father-son football journey.
The New England Bombers kick off at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Braintree High School.