Rattle City student section ensures Franklin's home field advantage
FRANKLIN - Fans cross a border once they enter Franklin High School's Pisini Field.
They're no longer in Franklin.
Welcome to Rattle City.
The Panthers' student section adopted the moniker in 2012 and started a Twitter account @rattlecity to promote the section.
"Franklin, as a community, everyone wants to be here, everyone's always looking forward to these Thursday or Friday nights," Franklin senior Matthew Miller said as the section chanted 'Let's go, Franklin' behind him. "It just brings out the happiness in everyone."
Rattle City takes its name from the students' ability to disconcert or confuse an opponent. The students try to impact the game with their volume and tenacity.
"It picks us up when we’re down or after a good play it picks us up," Franklin safety Brendan Larivee said. "We use that energy playing."
Miller is one of the mayors of Rattle City along with fellow senior Anthony Lampasona. Leadership of the section passes down every year through a text message.
"Do you want to run Rattle City?"
"It's always 'yes,'" Lampasona said. "From growing up in Franklin and seeing the student sections when I was a kid and saw how crazy they were, it feels good to be part of the community."
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Franklin strives to include all members of its community. Freshmen are welcome to try and fill the stands as much as possible.
"I know a lot of towns don’t do that. The more the merrier," Lampasona said. "We’re always looking for open ideas."
Friday's idea was a USA theme against Central Catholic. Lampasona and Miller wore Team USA hockey jerseys. Others brought New England Patriots jerseys, Uncle Sam hats or draped American flags like capes.
Franklin has also executed pink outs for breast cancer awareness, yellow outs for childhood cancer, neon, as well as black and white outs to open the season.
"I just like when the kids are cheering for competition, not chirping, but just the spirit of competition, the effort. They understand that the people that are out there sacrifice a lot of their time, their mind, their bodies, to be out there and put on a show," Franklin football coach Eian Bain said. "Obviously we're playing to win, but for the crowd, they're there too cheer on. I love when our crowd is engaged in the game there. They got our backs. They're loud. I don't like when they're chirping. So when it's just a positive stuff for us, like relentless support like that's what I'm always looking for from our fan section."
Rattle City is not a football only phenomenon. The support extends inside the gym to volleyball, out to the field hockey and soccer fields and for the Panthers basketball, hockey and baseball teams, among others as the school year continues.
"We always are looking to go to other games. Franklin’s history in sports has always been one of the best in the state," Miller said. "To be a part of that and watch the run they make in playoffs and the things is just awesome."
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Franklin ranks in the upper echelon of the Division 1 MIAA power rankings in nearly every fall sport. The Panthers are fifth in girls soccer, No. 5 in field hockey, No. 7 in volleyball, eighth in boys soccer and 14th in football. That could mean nearly 10 Panthers home playoff games once the postseason begins.
However many there are, they'll be in rattle city.
"Go Franklin," Miller said.
Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Franklin student section Rattle City one of the state's best
