MIDDLEBORO — Garrett Perry had dreamed of playing on the Middleboro Cobras semi-professional football team since the first time he watched a game in 1976. 

“The impression that watching grown men — who worked all day but were trained football players — made on me is still fresh. I remember it clearly,” he said.

That sense of admiration drove him to join the team in 1988 and has kept him playing for 35 years since. 

The Middleboro Cobras are one of the oldest semi-professional football teams in the nation and belong to the New England Football League, which includes teams from Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. 

The team was founded sometime in the 1920s, but the exact year is not clear, Perry said. 

The Cobras are currently ranked number one in the league and they made it to the Superbowl last year. Perry said that the Cobras have made it to the playoffs every year since he joined the team.

Behind that success and longevity is a strong sense of connection and heart. 

“There are no cliques, everyone gets along, everybody roots for everybody,” said defensive back Thaddeus France, who came out of retirement to play for the Cobras after a friend and teammate convinced him to. 

France, 35, has been playing football since he was six years old. He admitted that semi-pro football is good for people, like himself, “who have an edge and still want to play” after high school or college. 

“It’s high level football,” said Perry, that players dedicate themselves to in addition to having full-time jobs. 

Players on a semi-pro team don’t get paid to play, he said. They pay team fees and purchase their own equipment. 

Curtis Cann, one of the team’s quarterbacks, said what makes the team so special is “the family mentality that we all have. After the games we’re hanging out until 3 in the morning,” he said.

Cann played football for four years at Mass Maritime, but didn’t shine as a player until he joined the Cobras last year, he said. “I’ve found my home here.”

That sense of family and connection extends way beyond current players and coaching staff.  “At our games, you can see a nineteen-year-old rookie having a conversation with a guy who’s 75 years old” who played for the Cobras a long time ago, said Perry. 

The Cobras, he said, have grown his social network tenfold. “Three quarters of the people I am acquainted with are Cobras.”

The other key ingredient to the Cobras’ sustained success is the love that players and coaches have for the team. 

Strength and Conditioning Coach Justin Pike, who played for the Cobras for 15 years and served as head coach last year, said he doesn’t want to coach anywhere else. “I only did this because I love this team,” Pike said. 

That is a common sentiment amongst members of the coaching staff. “All of these coaches have been part of this organization in some capacity— as a long-time player, or a coach. Everybody’s here for the love of this team. That’s what makes us different,” he said.