NASHUA – Tony Johnson likes to have around 20 players from each class on the Bishop Guertin High School football team.
The Cardinals coach had that and more when it came to seniors on the 2009 team, which won its second-straight Division II title. Of the 34 graduated players, 16 were starters on either side of the ball.
While there are plenty of pieces to fill the puzzle, the challenge is figuring out where each one goes.
“I’ve got to put some new pieces to the puzzle in and it’s going to be interesting in that perspective,” Johnson said. “The kids have done a really, really good job. Our testing went very well. Better than I expected, so I was very happy with that. It’s still very, very early.”
The Cardinals have around 110 kids out for the opening week of double sessions, and 68 of them are players expected to be on the varsity and junior varsity.
After having such a large group of seniors, which gave the team unparalleled leadership, Johnson believes that this year’s returning players experienced enough to carry on the program’s success.
“I’ve got some good pieces back,” the coach said. “I knew last year’s team was going to be that good because there were a lot of two or three year starters. I just needed to make sure we managed those kids properly and motivated them. This year, we’ve got to go back and do a little bit more coaching.”
Johnson also hopes that this year’s group is able to find a spot for itself within the program’s history.
“It’s tough to maintain what we’ve done,” he said. “With a lot of new kids, we’ve got to coach them up. I don’t want this team feeling the pressure of ‘we’ve got to.’ That’s pressure they don’t need. This is going to be a good team. What they have to do is find their own identity within our own program.”
The Cardinals have time to figure that out, starting with Tuesday’s scrimmage at Manchester Memorial. Bishop Guertin opens the regular season on Sept. 3 at Salem, the defending Division I champion.