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# Tradition a big motivator for Souhegan football
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/tradition-a-big-motivator-for-souhegan-football/
- Published: 2014-08-15T12:20:40.000Z
- Updated: 2014-08-15T12:20:40.000Z
- Description: MILFORD - It was the first official day of football practice in New Hampshire and over 50 players stood inside the Hampshire Dome wearing black and gold.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Fall Sports, Division II, football, Souhegan, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

![Souhegan's George LePage throws a block during a game last year.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/jmshsfball092113-s75-1.jpg)

Souhegan's George LePage throws a block during a game last year.

MILFORD - It was the first official day of football practice in New Hampshire and over 50 players stood inside the Hampshire Dome wearing black and gold.

To the casual observer, it looked like the Souhegan High School football team was getting ready for another run at the playoffs, and just maybe, a championship game. There was nothing that said the Sabers had missed out on the postseason for the second time in three years - and just the second time in 16 seasons.

In fact, the only ones who likely had that one their minds were the players.

"There's a feeling of responsibility to tradition here," Souhegan head coach Mike Lochman said. "I think there were a lot of guys who took it personally."

It was a season in which the Sabers not only went 2-7, but suffered some major growing pains while playing a lot of young and inexperienced players. Lochman is hoping those tough games will turn into lessons learned as the 2014 season approaches.

"We are not facing the same problem we faced last year, which was replacing 20 starters," the coach said. "A lot of those guys were sophomores last year, so we feel experience-wise that we’re in a totally different place. That said, they were really young last year and we took some beatings. How well they progress mentally, and mature, will be important for us.

"I think the guys knew we had a young team last year and it was going to be hard. They didn't accept that, but they came out motivated during the offseason."

According to Lochman, a lot of emphasis in the offseason was focused on what he feels will be the team's strength - its speed. And while the Sabers were a run-heavy team a year ago, their top rusher, Drew Prescott, graduated, and with that, Lochman wants to incorporate the passing into the team's repertoire a little more.

"We focused a lot on speed and power in the offseason, which I don't think is much different than most teams," he said, "but we particularly wanted to emphasize speed because that's where we think our strength is going to be. We spent a lot of time trying to develop our passing game a little bit."

A big part of that passing game will be two returning players Lochman and the coaching staff have looked to so far to lead the way. One is senior lineman George LePage, who was one of the few players who had varsity experience going into last year; the other is junior quarterback/safety Mike Mancini, who has the upperhand on being under center as the preseason rolls along.

Lochman is hoping others will step up as the Sabers get closer to the season, and there are certainly enough players for that to happen.

"We've got about 55 (kids for the first day)," he said. "There are a few kids who aren't here, about four or five. Not too bad, it's about the same as last year."

Souhegan will see its first opponent on Wednesday, when it heads to Bedford for a scrimmage at 10:30 a.m.