Win was a long time coming for Windham football

Jack Byrne always has a smile on his face.

That made it tough to tell at first just how the coach felt about his Windham High School football's first win of the season last Saturday, a 44-13 win over Nashua South at Stellos Stadium.

But then Byrne started talking about the players' effort, and then the smile doubled.

"It’s not how much we won by, it just felt nice," the coach said. "I could just see the work that they put in transfer to the field. That’s the best part. I don’t care if we won by one, or even if we still lose, it was so good to see it transfer, because I know how hard they work.

"I know how hard they’ve been working when no one else sees them. There’s been a lot early mornings and late nights of really pushing, and I’m so glad they get to see what that can result in. I was really happy."

The win wasn't just the first for the Jaguars (1-1) this season. It came a week after they were just short of a remarkable second-half comeback against Pinkerton and it was just their second win in their last 16 games. That includes four losses a year ago by a touchdown or less.

For a program that won 39 out of 43 games and played in two championship games, winning one, in its final four years in Division II, it's been tough coming up short the last few seasons.

Despite that, Byrne knew his players would be ready to go against South (0-2).

"They’re just great kids," he said. "They’re in games, they’re working hard. They always come back. Last year, we had so many let downs and Monday practice was great. They were ready to reload no matter what. It’s not more of the same because it’s pretty special, to have kids like that, good or bad, they keep bouncing back."

While the Jaguars leaned on running back Tiger An and quarterback Josh Sweeney to carry the load in the comeback against Pinkerton, Windham was able to spread the ball around against the Panthers.

A big reason for that was because the Jaguars were able to take advantage of four turnovers and great field position in the first half. Windham had just 50 yards on offense in the first quarter, but led 21-0.

"We’re not going to do anything that teams don’t make us do, and South made us do it," Byrne said. "They adjusted to some of our bread and butter stuff and they were slamming us at times. The score can be deceiving. There were some basic things that we kind of assumed would go a little better, but they got us there, and we had to go to other stuff."

Windham will play its first Friday night game of the season, as the Jaguars travel to face Londonderry, the defending D1 champions, for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Byrne will know a lot more about his team's chances at being a threat this season at the conclusion of that game.

"We want to be a threat, we wanted to be a contender, and hopefully, that’s going to happen soon," he said.