Central's victory came in the final Division I bowl before the state tournament replaces it.
Central High junior quarterback Cody Williams has played in the final "traditional'' Super Bowl, and hopes to play in the new 2013 state tournament as well.
WESTFIELD - His team will go down as the last official Western Massachusetts Division I football champion, but Central High School coach Valdamar Brower has been too busy to think much about it.
The best athletes and coaches live in the present. Central's 27-0 Super Bowl win over Longmeadow on Saturday was the Golden Eagles' reward for doing that well.
Victory, though, gave Brower a chance to reflect on what Saturday's Super Bowls meant. It was the end of an era that has served this state - and its westernmost region - very well.
After 41 seasons, the traditional format will be replaced by a state tournament in 2013. That the new format is an improvement does not diminish from the value of the old one, which was officially discarded Saturday night.
"I'm happy we were able to win this as the last one of its kind, but I am also very happy we are starting a new era,'' said Brower, who played for Northampton in a 1996 Super Bowl against Central.
Next year, there will be Western Mass. champions, but those teams will be crowned in state quarterfinal games.
Rather than hoist a trophy and pack the jerseys away, the winners in each division will advance to the next round against Central Mass. teams. Title games will await the winners against the best from Eastern Mass.
That's great stuff, but there will never be another Division I champion from Western Mass. Its biggest schools will play in the Division II tournament, a sensible concession to enrollment differences statewide.
To a man, the players are eager to test themselves against faraway foes.
"It just means we'll have to work that much harder,'' said Central junior Ju'an Williams, whose 68-yard punt return gave the Golden Eagles their second touchdown.
"It's really exciting to get to play teams from all over the state,'' said his cousin, Central quarterback Cody Williams.
The 2013 format has its skeptics, but that was the case in 1972 as well. That is when the Super Bowls were created, above the howls of purists who predicted the Thanksgiving rivalries and the start of basketball season would be ruined.
The next four decades saw postseason games that matched up the best teams from Western Mass., or pitted the region's best against the champions from Central Mass.
Each had its appeal - either the chance to claim regional superiority, or a game against a team from outside our world, which kids always find cool.
Thousands of kids have postseason football memories today because of those games. Such matchups will continue, but they will be embedded into the playoff structure, minus the finality of this year's Super Bowls.
It was appropriate that the last Division I Super Bowl of its kind would include Longmeadow. More than any other program, this one showed the state that football talent did not vanish when the area code turned to 413.
The Lancers gave Central all it could handle. It was scoreless at halftime and Longmeadow had its chances.
"It is the end of an era,'' Lancers coach Nick St. George said. "We've been fortunate to go to 16 straight Super Bowls. That is a lot of achievement.''
Brower is a big proponent of the state tournament. Lacking one left Massachusetts kids at a recruiting disadvantage.
"We have great players, here (in Western Mass.) and statewide. The college recruiters have to see that,'' he said.
The dawn of a new era means the end of another that served us well. Athletes live in the present and live for the future, though, and thank goodness for that, for that is how it should be.
"I'm ready to go celebrate,'' Cody Williams said after the victory. "Then it will be time to start something new.''