After a surprise return to the sidelines for the Mahar Regional football team in 2018, coach Jim Woodward will be back next season coaching the Senators.
Woodward coached the Senators last year when the previous coach, Chris Bailey, left for personal reasons.
There was a chance that Bailey would return but in the end it was Woodward’s job again for the upcoming season.
In Woodward’s first season back since 2011, the Senators finished 4-7 and won four straight games to finish the season, including a 28-0 win over Athol on Thanksgiving.
“I actually enjoyed it,” Woodward said. “I thought it might be different. But it wasn’t. I had the same competitive juices. It was fun to be back doing it.”
Woodward never entertained the idea of opening a search this offseason for a new coach to come to Orange.
“It gets me going and keeps me moving,” Woodward said. ” I am not sure how much longer I am going to do it, but for right now it’s better than the alternative. Sitting on the couch and eating cookies, watching television. I’m not ready for that.”
The positive end to the season created some good energy moving forward for the football team.
“We have a good nucleus coming back,” Woodward said. “Hopefully we can recruit more kids to come out. I know I can do it one more year.”
The Senators main challenge will be replacing the production of Lucas Seney, Joey Brozell and Jon Gariepy in the backfield.
Woodward’s return was generally known throughout the hallways of Mahar Regional, but his return was made clearer to the players a week ago when he put up a football signup sheet in the boys locker room.
“I talked to a few of the players who will be seniors next season,” Woodward said. “We want to get the wheels going to recruit kids.”
The signup sheet yielded the names of about 35 players interested in playing football next year for the Senators.
“I hope they work hard to get more kids out so more kids can enjoy the game,” Woodward said. “I think out kids that are coming back got a taste of winning.”
Going into his second season back with his new group of players Woodward wants them to stay focused on long term goals.
“If they are persistent and work hard and continue to work hard and try to get better it will eventually happen,” Woodward said. “That’s what we did last year. We just kept hammering away. Talking about the same things that we kept working on. The fundamentals. We finally figured it out.”
Recently, Woodward’s son, Scott Woodward took a coaching job at the University of Pittsburgh.
“Hopefully, he will do well there,” Woodward said. “The guy that had his position left and went to some power five school. We’ll see.”
Woodward originally coached the Senators from 1982 to 2011.
