WOODBURY — As whistles blow, doorbells ring. The boys and girls Berkshire League soccer tournaments start today, but it’s also Halloween. 

Junior soccer player Ellie McDonald doesn’t like the fact that the BLs are hosted on Halloween. 

“I am annoyed about it because on Halloween, we used to always do a fun Halloween themed-practice,” McDonald said. “Sometimes we would play the boys and I feel that we lose that aspect of team bonding. Now there is no time to dress up because states are coming and it is very serious. The Halloween practices were the one time we would all be together and have fun with each other.”

Juliette Nichols, a senior volleyball player, isn’t upset with the same thing as McDonald, but about a different interference. 

“We can’t watch the games because everyone else has practice, which I’m upset about,” Nichols said. 

Freshman soccer player Cash Medonis and junior soccer player Katie Farrell go trick-or-treating every year, but does the BL tournament interfere with it? They have a different outlook. 

“Not really, because it ends earlier, and I’m going out later,” says Farrell. 

“My siblings want to go trick-or-treating,” Medonis says, “but we can still do our plans because of the game time.”

Both games start at 3:15 p.m. — the girls will face Housatonic while the boys will face Northwestern.

Families will come to watch the games, instead of taking their younger children out early for trick-or-treating. It is also a school night, so younger kids can’t stay up too late.  

McDonald doesn’t have younger siblings, but she agrees with the fact that it could be too late. 

“Since Halloween is on a weekday, it’s really hard to go out and have fun late,” McDonald said. 

Halloween possibly interferes with the BLs, but doesn’t stop boys soccer coach Toby Denman from having a positive mindset on the game. 

“Halloween won’t be a distraction for our game,” Denman said. “They will have their game faces on and whatever plans for their night ahead won’t be a distraction.”