Local football teams are hoping for a bounce back season this fall.
Greenfield was the lone Recorder area school to make it to the postseason during the MIAA’s inaugural state tournament format while Athol, Franklin Tech, Frontier and Mahar failed to qualify.
Look for that to change this year. The Green Wave have the talent to make another tournament run, the Redhawks and Senators should both be competitive, the Eagles return their starting quarterback and running back and have by far the largest roster in the area, and new Bears coach Josh Talbot has a large roster that is also expected to take a step forward.
The divisions remain the same as they were a year ago, with Athol, Franklin Tech, Greenfield and Mahar joined by Palmer and Ware to comprise the Intercounty League North while Frontier, Belchertown, Commerce, Easthampton, Hoosac Valley and Lee make up the Intercounty League South. The first three weeks of the season feature non-league matchups and the final five weeks of the season consist of league play.
Let’s start our season outlook over in Greenfield, where coach Mike Kuchieski will be trying to replace quarterback David Carey, leading receiver Brendan Driscoll and lineman Drew Conant, to name a few, from at team that went 6-2 a season ago and qualified for the MIAA Div. 7 state tournament.
Levin Prondecki takes over as the Green Wave signal-caller, and despite not playing football a season ago, Kuchieski has been impressed with his command of the team.
“He’s come along really nice,” Kuchieski said. “He’s picking things up fast. He’s a smart kid, he’s athletic. He wants it all at one time so we need to understand baby steps. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do. He’s a general out there. We have a lot of young kids and he’s doing a good job leading them.”
Expect Greenfield to be strong on the ground. Ryan Pulizari returns to the backfield after being the Green Wave’s starting running back a season ago. He’ll be joined by Devin Buchanan, who also saw playing time at running back a season ago.
The two will be running behind an offensive line that has impressed Kuchieski so far in practice. Will VanVleet and Deion Brewington will man the guard positions, Jon Breor and Noah Gamache will play tackle and Owen LaValley slides over from tight end to center this year.
Trevor Kuchieski was poised for a big senior season, stepping in as the top receiving option for Greenfield, but tore his ACL in practice and will miss the season.
“Losing Trevor hurts,” Coach Kuchieski said. “We didn’t realize how much he meant to our team until he went down.”
David Damkoehler will be playing tight end and help pick up the receiving slack lost by Kuchieski. Jon Bodenstein and Ty Griswold are two of the players expected to step up on the outside of the Green Wave offense.
Despite co-oping with Turners Falls, Pioneer and Mohawk Trail, Greenfield is still low on numbers meaning most some on the roster will play both ways. VanVleet and Gamache will anchor the inside portion of the defensive line with Breor and Brewington coming off the edge.
Pulizari, Buchanan, Joey White and Damkoehler will see time at linebacker while Prondecki, Griswold, Bodenstein and sophomore Eric Martineau will make up the back end of a Green Wave defense that gave up just 12.9 points-per-game during the regular season a year ago.
Greenfield is hoping for another postseason appearance, but understands it needs to stay healthy to do so. The campaign to get there begins on Friday, as the Green Wave travel to Szot Park to face Chicopee.
“Our goal is always the postseason,” Kuchieski said. “Our quickest goal is to compete each day and stay healthy to be able to compete every game. When you’re playing with the same 11 or 12 guys on both sides of the ball, if we get out of the game healthy it means we can keep competing. If we lose some of those guys, we’re putting guys in who have never played before. It’s going to be hard to compete like that. Our goal is to stay in each game, compete and make the playoffs.”
Just three years ago Athol was playing games with barely 11 healthy players available. Talbot is hoping that’s a thing of the past.
With over 40 kids are currently on the Bears roster, Athol is set to compete in Talbot’s first year running the program. So far, the players are taking to the new staff and what they’re trying to implement as they hope to improve on a 3-7 record from a year ago.
“They embraced our changes,” Talbot said. “There’s maybe 10 or 12 returning kids and we have over 40 so there hasn’t been much holdover. They’ve bought in, they’re working hard. We’ve worked to establish a new culture. It’s easy to feel good during the first two weeks. We’ll see how that blossoms and evolves. Hopefully it continues to be a great experience for everybody.”
Caleb Cox and Dilan Fountain both graduated. Cox was Athol’s quarterback the last four years while Fountain was the team’s starting running back a season ago. It’s been a three-way competition to replace Cox under center, with sophomores Logan Cormier and Aiden Melanson joined by Hudson transfer Dom Curtis, who has made a big impression since arriving with the Bears.
“We have three talented quarterbacks,” Talbot said. “They’re competing every day. We might have packages for all three and we’ll find ways to use all of them on the field.”
Riley Reed transferred back to Athol after spending a year at Monty Tech and will replace Fountain in the backfield. Sawyer Lefsyk, who missed most of last season with an injury, will also get carries for the Bears. Shea Brennan, Hayden Barrieau and Jake Knowles also figure to factor into the Bears’ offensive attack.
In the trenches the Bears have plenty of experience and size. Nate Torres, Riley Young, Joey Grant and Gabe Humes are four players who figure to play big roles on both sides of the ball. Barrieau, Lefsyk and Curtis slot in at linebacker while Talbot feels the back end of his defense has a ton of athleticism.
With new energy brought by the new staff, Athol feels it has a squad that can make it to the postseason, something it hasn’t done since 2010. The journey begins on Saturday, with the Bears going out to North Adams to face Drury.
“I’m really excited about the direction of this team,” Talbot said. “We only have six seniors. This is a group that’s going to continue to work together. Our number one goal is continuing to grow the program and keep adding kids. We also want to get in the playoffs. There’s no doubt in my mind that we want to be playing in the postseason and that we should be playing in the playoffs this year.”
Joe Gamache returns a big roster at Franklin Tech, filled with players who gained a lot of experience on the field last fall.
Junior Gabe Tomasi will be under center again for the Eagles, and Gamache said he’s shown solid improvement going into the season.
“He’s made some solid strides and put in a lot of work,” Gamache said. “He’s seeing the field much better. He’s going through progressions and has been using his athleticism.”
Tomasi will have plenty of help in the backfield. Josiah Little hit the 1,000-yard mark during the Eagles’ Thanksgiving contest against Smith Voc and the sophomore is back this year, bringing a ton of speed to the Tech offense. He’ll be joined by Ryan Demers in the backfield, a nice 1-2 punch for the Eagles. Jet Bastarache will lead the way for the two at fullback.
They’ll be running behind the same offensive line from a season ago, comprised of James Pekarski, Brody Williams, Charlie Boyden, Devon Emond and Alex Knapp.
Tomasi will have Nate Fuess to throw to at tight end while Will Ainsworth and Ethan Smarr will see time at receiver. Noah Ausikaitis has shown well in the team’s scrimmages on the outside.
Gamache is excited to see his team’s defense perform this year, feeling it’s a group that will keep them in games.
“Our starting 11 gets after it,” Gamache said. “We’re pretty aggressive. We just have to stay healthy there.”
Bastarache and Boyden will set the edge for Tech, with a stable of tackles like Pekarski, Williams and Josh Lynde rotating in. Vincent Renaud, Demers, Landen Hardy, Ausikaitis and Zaydriend Alamed will make up the linebacker core, with Fuess, Shaun Turner and Madix Whitman seeing time in the secondary.
The Eagles closed out their season on a high note last year by winning three of their final four games. Gamache is hoping that momentum carries into this fall, with the season getting underway on Friday with McCann Tech coming to town.
“We were young last year,” Gamache said. “From an experience standpoint we have a lot of returning players, but it’s primarily sophomores and juniors pulling the weight for us. We have a constant goal of continuing to get better each day. We worked hard last year and finished just below .500. This year we want to take that next step and build off of how we closed out the season last year. We want to be in the upper half of our league and compete for the league title.”
Frontier is determined to make its 2021 season, where it went 3-7, a thing of the past. To do that, coach Scott Dredge knows his squad has to find ways to come out victorious in close games.
The Redhawks were in most games last year but were unable to find that next gear and turn it on in the fourth quarter to come away with wins. Being able to close out games is something Dredge has stressed to his team this fall, knowing it has the talent to turn its record around.
“We all know that 3-7 is not acceptable,” Dredge said. “The goal is to finish games. We were in most games last year we just didn’t do a good enough job finishing it and scoring when we needed to. Our goal is to finish those games that we’re in and that should lead to more wins.”
Another task for Dredge this fall is replacing Josh Semaski in the backfield, who accounted for over 1,500 yards of offense in 2021. The Redhawks know they’ll need multiple guys to step up and fill that production, with Ian Burt, Sean Kirkendall and Brayden Arsenault expected to be the primary ball carriers.
“We’re going to do it by committee,” Dredge said. “Replacing a 1,500-yard back is a big task. It’s a big dent to our offense. Everyone who watched him or coached him knew he was extraordinary. Nobody can step in and duplicate what he did so we’ll have to do it in other ways.”
Aiden Dredge, Scott’s son, will be the Frontier signal caller and is looking good in practice. Aiden West, who will be playing on both sides of the line, has also had a really good preseason. Wyatt Edes will be rushing on the opposite side of him defensively, another player Dredge is looking forward to seeing in game action.
Alex Schreiber has also impressed on the offensive and defensive line, showing strength and power for his size. Eathon Bryant is back with the team this year and will factor in at both linebacker and on the offensive line. Kirkendall and Burt are players expected to be playmakers on the defensive side of the ball.
Dredge feels the team speed on the defense side of the ball has improved from last year. His hope is that the squad can play fast and fly to the ball.
“Speed is everything,” Dredge said. “Being able to get to the point of attack is going to be better this year. The guys have embraced the team approach on defense. We got caught up playing within ourselves and trying to make too many plays last year and weren’t working together. We knew we had to fix that going into this year.”
The path to turning things around begins with a tough non-league contest on Friday, as Ware comes to South Deerfield.
“We have to have pride in having a winning record,” Dredge said. “We all want to make the tournament. We just have to take it one game at a time. This is a whole new team from last year. They have to show up and decide what identity they want for themselves. This team is connected mentally with each other. They’re in a good place right now and there’s a really good brotherhood going on. The team vibe is good.”
Mahar might be small on numbers, but it doesn’t lack experience.
A young Senators squad took their licks last year, but coach Chris Bailey brought every player back and has seen his squad playing much faster in a second year in the system.
“They got reps last year,” Bailey said. “That’s a good thing. We have a lot of kids that have seen a lot of time and that’s advantageous coming back. We spent very little time installing our offense and defense because the kids already knew it. We hit the ground running this year. That allowed us to work on fundamentals. We were so worried last year about being able to execute things that we skipped over the fundamentals. This has allowed us to really work on blocking and tackling which is nice. The kids are excited. I was nervous about seeing what we’d have back but everyone came back and that’s what we want to see.”
Kaleb Lemcke will once again be under center for the Senators, showing progress with another year of experience. Sean Ramos has gotten bigger since last year and will play all over the Mahar offense. Nate Danielson showed impressive ball skills at receiver during the Senators’ scrimmages and Domanic Cacciolfi will be the Mahar running back and run the middle of the defense.
“It’ll be a real team effort,” Bailey said. “We don’t have anybody that’s head and shoulders above anyone else. We have guys who have matured and taken the step up together. It’s coming together nicely.”
The Senators open their season on Friday against brand new program Springfield International Charter School in Orange, hoping to get the season going on the right foot and gain some confidence before league play begins.
“The ultimate goal is to win the league and make the playoffs,” Bailey said. “We put the goals in the kids’ hands and build on those goals. It’s small goals like getting better every practice and larger goals as we go. Every teams goal is to win the Super Bowl. Is it realistic or not? Who am I to say that it isn’t. Who am I to know? Things happen, especially in football. I tell the kids there’s no reason why we can’t. The sky is the limit and they’re starting to believe that.”