This weekend is the homecoming game for the Tufts University football team, who’ll take the field against their rivals from Bates College in Maine on Saturday evening in Somerville.
But, the atmosphere may well be more like a home game for the Bates Bobcats and one of their stand-out wide-receivers: Quinn Carver.
The 20-year-old sophomore, born and raised in Dorchester, is a wide receiver for the Bobcats. He cut his teeth as a youngster playing flag football in the Neponset league that still plays on fall weekends at Garvey Playground.
“Going to Tufts, it feels like a home game, honestly, it’s kind of funny,” Carver told the Reporter this week. I have all my family and friends from Dorchester coming, and I am super excited. Some of them, it’s the first time ever seeing me play, so I have to put on a show.”
“My dad [Phil] got a big yellow school bus and he is bringing it to the game with 50 or so people, so no pressure,” joked Quinn.
If there is any real pressure, it might come from the urge to reverse the results of last year’s match-up between the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rivals. Tufts got the better of Bates last season on the Bobcats home field in Lewiston, Maine by a score of 45-22.
Quinn Carver hauled in a touchdown reception for Bates College against Amherst College. Bates College/Brewster Burns photo
This season, Bates has started with a 1-3 record and are anxious for a victory. For his part, Quinn who wears number 11, has 26 rushing yards, 54 receiving yards, and one touchdown in the four games.
“I think I have been doing pretty good,” says Carver. “I have been returning kicks this year, and I have been doing pretty good with that. I still haven’t scored a kick-return touchdown, but that one’s coming, that one’s loading Saturday.”
“We all have the same goal in mind, and it’s to win,” added Carver. “We are all really focused on having a great week of practice, staying locked-in, and keeping each other accountable. I think it comes down to execution, and that’s what we are going to do on Saturday.”
Carver was a top recruit for Bates’ head coach, Matt Coyne.
“Quinn was a very talented player out of prep school,” said Coyne. “He works incredibly hard and has developed into a threat in our league as a sophomore. We know he will continue to get better, and we are very lucky to have him here at Bates.”
Carver’s city roots are a point of pride for the young man, even if it’s also a source of ribbing from his teammates.
“If you’re from Dorchester, everyone knows you’re from Dorchester,” says Carver. “Being at Bates, there is not a day that goes by where somebody doesn’t crack a joke about me being from Boston or something like that.”
Carver’s journey from the ballfields at Garvey to collegiate-level play brought him through the Pop Warner systems in South Boston, Milton, and Canton.
“Flag football was definitely the basis of my football journey,” he recalls. “That’s where it all started, playing on a dirt patch in Garvey Park on Saturday mornings. I was super young, holding the ball like a loaf of bread.”
Quinn switched to tackle football in second grade after a lobbying effort.
“I asked to play football in first grade. My dad was all for it, and my mom [Pamela] was the one who said ‘no.’ It got to the point where I just kept insisting on playing football, and my mom gave in,” says Carver.
Carver attended middle and high school at the Dexter Southfield in Brookline.
“When I first got there, I got recruited as a running back, but I was playing a little of slot receiver and wide out,” he says. “In my junior and senior years, I played running back, and that’s when I got to tear it up and score some touchdowns.”
“My whole life throughout Pop Warner and high school, I was playing running back,” said Carver, who has worked part-time as a server at The Bowery in Lower Mills and Lucy’s when not in school. “There were only a few years where I was playing a little receiver, and now I am back at it. It’s like a full circle moment, honestly.”
“My goal is I want to be one of the best guys in this league, like I know I can be, and I want to develop into that guy and progress the team as well,” said Carver. “Being from the city, it can be tough sometimes. As long as you give 100 percent effort to something, anything is possible. You can do it.”
