Welcome back after what seemed to be an all too short off season. The kids are gearing up to go back to school and trying to stretch out those last few days of summer. I don't know about you, but as soon as August rolls around and Fall Sport practices start up, it seems like summer is already over, even though there's a month to go!
This time of year, High School coaches find themselves in what seems to be the same situation as last year around this time. Trying to fill holes left by graduating Seniors and replacing old leaders with new ones ready to step up and lead there teams out on the field. This year is no different for many coaches and while the season has yet to begin I thought I'd take a look at what might happen this upcoming 2011 season.
Last year was absolutely movie-like in the way the battle for the D IV championship went down. Mainly a 2 horse race for most of the season, both undefeated Trinity Pioneers and the Lebanon Raiders met in the final week of the season to duke it out for 1st place. Lebanon led by Patch, Morril, Barker, Drew, Henry, Roth and company came out on top in a slugfest down in Manchester over Trinity's double wing offense and powerhouse defense, led by Chambers, Hughes, Carrier, Masuku, Lauderdale, and so on...
These two titans of D IV met a few weeks later in Lebanon for the Title game where Lebanon, showed it's grit coming back in front of thousands of spectators from a 14 point deficit to win their first ever State Title.
Will they be able to repeat? Tough to say.
Of course all kinds of things can happen from game 1 to playoff time (injuries, new kids stepping up, etc...). However, here are my thoughts on the upcoming season. I think that you have to consider Trinity and Plymouth as the front runners. Trinity returns their big 2 backs in Hughes and Carrier (both also exceptional LBs), Chambers can also run the ball well. While they did lose a couple big time linemen including Shrine invite Gratiano...the Double Wing makes this a tough team. Bottom line is you have to figure out who has the football, and nobody runs this better than the Pioneers. That said, I think their one weakness is speed. In the title game Masuku was everywhere making plays (big plays that stopped touchdowns) so he has to stay healthy as he is their real speed guy out there.
Plymouth, Lebanon and Laconia could be their biggest challenge this year. Plymouth returns big playmakers in Goodale and Newberry and I'm sorry there's that Lenahan guy? He's a pretty good coach :) Laconia returns a number of All State caliber players Steele, Mahoney(s), and Raige (is there a cooler first name out there) ? If they stay healthy they could be a real force...Mahoney and Steele are quick and Hollis and Mahoney are a load up front.
Then there's Lebanon. Cody Patch is now playing in Dartmouth, and Roth who I feel was a way underrated QB last year (cool like ice under pressure). Astwood, Morton are gone as well as Geno. That said they return a large number of All state players as well. Chris Barker and Dylan Drew will be in their backfield and Barker is extremely fast and powerful runner and Drew is a load when he gets a head of steam up. There might not be a better Lineman than Morril and add to that Chris Henry and Davidson and they are going to be a very tough and talented football team this year.
The Darkhorse IMO is Kennett - Nick Massa is a very good runner with a nice combination of power and speed and lets not forget they were right in the thick of it at the end of October. Bottom line is they always have a good football team. For Hanover the question is who will replace Sam Carney and can they make an impression this year or are they still a few years away. Gorman is a tall receiver with good leaping ability and great hands but the spread offense they used last year will require someone to throw to him. My guess is it will be Cavallaro (sp?) stepping in, but who wants to fill those shoes :)
Stark, MV, Kingswood and Monadnock could all make a push as well, Nick Dragon (who might compete with Raige for the best name ) is right up there IMO with Morril when it comes to polished Lineman on both sides of the ball can do the blocking but it remains to be seen who will replace the legendary Bus ?! I think that last year MV and Stark both showed signs of being solid teams at points but lacked consistency...if they can put a couple wins together, and get a couple kids to step up who knows.... BJ Smith is a great football player for Kingswood but they need to establish a presence at the line to open some holes for him. If they do that, they could make some noise.
That said here's a list of returning All State players by team...please correct me if I left someone out. It's time for football 2011 and the Head Coach is back...I can't wait!
Lebanon -
Returning 1st team All State players -
Chris Barker - LB
Dylan Drew - LB
Alexander Morril - DT
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Chris Henry - OL
Mark Davidson - OL
Trinity -
Returning 1st team All State -
Mike Leonard - LB
Josh Hughes - RB
Ryan Carrier - RB
Andrew Lauderdale - TE
Adam Chambers - DB
Returning 2nd team All State-
Colin Bouchard - OL
Romeo Masuku - DB
Laconia -
Returning 1st team All State players -
Raige Hollis - OL
David Mahoney - RB
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Ronnie Steele - RB
Steve Kemos - FB
Billy Mahoney - DL
Kennett-
Returning 1st Team All state -
Nick Massa - RB
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Tucker Paven -DE
Conor Mcdonald - LB
Monadnock-
Returning 1st Team All State-
Nick Dragon - L
John Stark
Returning 1st Team All State
Chris Procum - DE
Returning 2nd Team All State
Brian Wagner - WR
Robert Dunn - DT
Nicholas Lloyd - DB
Hanover -
Returning 1st Team All State players -
Dan Gorman - WR
Returning 2nd team All State players
Carl Keating - OLB
Ian Smith - OG
MV
Returning 1st Team All State -
Justin Abbot - DB
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Dylan Sargent - RB
Cody Thurston - QB
Connor Dempsey - LB
Plymouth
Returning 1st Team All State -
Taylor Newberry - RB
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Brandon Goodale - RB
Cole Brooker - LB
Kingswood
Returning 1st Team All State -
BJ Smith - LB
Returning 2nd Team All State -
Cam Whitcomb - DB
