Souhegan's Nick Hession runs downfield after catching a pass during Tuesday's practice.
AMHERST – There are a lot of questions surrounding the Souhegan High School football team going into the 2010 season.
But after a week of practice, there is one thing that coach Mike Beliveau isn’t worried about – his team’s commitment.
Eight weeks before the start of practice, Beliveau informed returning and potential players that in order to participate in the preseason, they’d have to pass two running tests. Of the 96 players who came out for the team, only one failed to complete both tests on the first try.
“I said if you don’t pass them, not only will you not scrimmage, but when we practice, you’re not a part of it,” Beliveau said. “You’re not a part of 11-on-11 until you pass the running test. One was a mile run in a certain amount of time. The other was 60-yard sprints, 12 of them, in a certain amount of time, varying times for linemen and backs. They took it serious. That’s a positive, that they came in with a good attitude in order to pass that.”
That has the Sabers feeling good despite returning just two starters on offense and three on defense, the smallest group of returning contributors in some time.
Of those returning players, only one plays on the line – nose guard Ryan Bullard. Gone are all five offensive linemen who started the final six games of 2009.
“The key is very simple,” Beliveau said. “If the new offensive line can develop into a solid group with some solid backups, then we’ll maintain our level of being a strong program. I’m worried about pass blocking and holes being opened, and some of those guys playing decent on the defensive line.”
Souhegan does return a solid group of receivers, including starters Nick Hession and Brendan McKenna. And quarterback Mike Luks saw a decent amount of playing time last year, despite playing behind DJ Petropulos.
“There are eight guys (who) are experienced at receiver and have done great in passing tournaments,” Beliveau said “They understand the offense. You throw the quarterback into the mix, the big Mike Luks, honestly, offensively that’s the strength of our club. We’re not worried about the run game. (Nick) Calvetti and (Eric) Dwinell, they’ll do fine.”
It also helps that the Sabers are now entering their fifth season running the spread offense, and for the first time in a few years, Beliveau’s coaching staff returns intact.
“I feel good about how practice has been efficient and organized,” the coach said. “We’ve accomplished quite a bit. It’s only been one week, but at least we’ve installed a bunch of stuff.”
Souhegan was scheduled to scrimmage Nashua North and Timberlane on Wednesday, followed by scrimmages against Manchester Memorial on Aug. 21 and Manchester Central on Aug. 24.