High School Football Teams Open 2015 Practice

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- At 8 a.m. Monday, more than two dozen McCann Tech students milled around the backdoor of the school -- just as eager to get in the building as they probably were to get out less than two months before.

 

High school football season is back.

 

"We've got a lot to do the first day," McCann coach Bob LeClair said after arriving for the 8:30 practice. "There is so much to do. The first hour and a half will just be getting the lockers and getting all that stuff taken care of."

 

Last year, LeClair's Hornets took care of business in the regular season and the playoffs, going on to be one of three Berkshire County schools to claim a Western Massachusetts title.

 

Like Division 5 sectional champion Pittsfield, the D6 champion Hornets bowed out in the semis while D4 champ Wahconah made it all the way to Foxborough to play in the State Super Bowl.

 

High school teams throughout the commonwealth returned to the gridiron on Monday in hopes of being one of the 12 who gets to play for a state title in December.

 

Like most programs, McCann is dealing with its share of losses to graduation, but with more than 50 players signed up, there was a lot of optimism in the Hornets Nest on Monday morning.

 

"We certainly were hit by graduation, but so many kids got a lot of playing time last year," LeClair said. "They got a lot of experience.

 

"Those who are back played against those seniors last year, so they were playing against very good players all the time. That made them a lot better."

 

The momentum of last year's 10-2 season (losses in the MIAA playoffs and State Vocational title game) carried through an offseason that saw McCann's returning players demonstrate commitment to their conditioning program.

 

"They really know now what it takes to continue all the winning," LeClair said. "It isn't just showing up on Aug. 24 and thinking that's going to work. That doesn't happen. It's all the preseason and the summer and the conditioning you have to do."

 

While McCann looks to build on the momentum of last year's successes, up the road -- and up the hill -- at Drury High School, the Blue Devils are trying to put 2015's frustrations in the rear view mirror.

 

Drury, in the second year of a cooperative with Pittsfield's St. Joseph Central High School, is coming off a 3-6 season that ended with a pair of wins over Pioneer Valley and Cathedral in the intra-league games for non-qualifiers.

 

First-year coach Seth Shepard said Monday that he expected 32 players to report to practice this week -- a little short of his personal goal of 35 but a workable number.

 

Considering 14 members of last year's 31-player roster were seniors, that means a fair number of this year's Blue Devils are new to the sport or returning after an absence.

 

"We have a good influx of junior kids, some really good athletes who are going to be pretty surprising, I think," Shepard said. "If you can get these sophomores and juniors to show up at this point and hopefully you can build around them for the next couple of years, it's definitely good.

 

"There are a lot of kids who played football previously but stopped once they got to high school. ... Sometimes that's natural. I think kids are worried about contact with upperclassmen and stuff like that. So, hopefully, we're going to try to break that bad habit.

 

"But it's a good turnout so far."

 

The high school football season gets under way on Friday, Sept. 11. McCann opens on the road at Palmer that night while Drury hosts Lee on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 12.