Football training kicks off
Lakeshore Catholic, Notre Dame in rebuilding mode after losing seasons in 2015
High school football players were out in helmets and pads Monday, getting a head start on their schoolmates at Lakeshore Catholic and Notre Dame.
However, whether starting tryouts more than a week before the resumption of classes will give the Gators and the Fighting Irish a jump on the competition in the new Catholic senior league in the region remains to be seen.
Both programs, which not that long ago were regarded as the Cadillac and the Lincoln of high school football in Niagara, struggled last year and each is looking at 2016 as a rebuilding year.
“We’ve had better seasons, that’s for sure,” said Lakeshore head coach Bernie Tessier, whose Gators went 1-4 in league play and lost to Blessed Trinity in opening round of the playoffs.
Upwards of 20 players can return for another year competing at the senior level at the Port Colborne school, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the rebuilding is over.
“We’re still pretty young,” the ninth-year coach said. “We struggled last year, and we need to get better in all facets of the game.”
Quarterback Hunter Gilbert is among the returnees, but the Grade 12 B student is expected to challenged for the starting job by 11th grader Corey Vasquez, who was under centre on Lakeshore’s junior team last season.
As high school football in Niagara follows Canadian rules — i.e. three downs, 12 players a side, 110yard field — a passing game is an important part of the offence.
But so is protecting the passer, which wasn’t always the case with the senior Gators last season. Tessier pointed out four or five “wouldbe starters” were out of the lineup with injuries before they had the chance to play.
“Injuries really hurt us,” Tessier said. “We were already in the hole before the season started. That left us with a rough road ahead.”
Combined tryouts for Lakeshore’s junior and senior squads will be held from 9 a.m. until noon daily the rest of the week. About 50 prospects came out for the first day of camp Monday.
“That’s not a bad number,” the coach said.
In addition to replacing graduating seniors, Tessier has a void on his coaching staff as Pete Burnett, Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Rocky DiPietro and Terry Lehne, who also played in the CFL, have all retired from teaching faculty at Lakeshore.
Tessier said their expertise on the sidelines will be missed.
“They’re irreplaceable,” he said. “It’s a changing of the guard for coaching.”
Niagara’s new senior Catholic league makes its debut Thursday, Sept. 22, when all eight teams see action in a jamboree taking place on the turf at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines.
Lakeshore hosts Brampton’s St. Roch Catholic Secondary School in a controlled scrimmage starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8.
Notre Dame can return as many as 14 players to a senior squad that finished 0-6 last year, the Welland school’s worst finish in more than two decades.
“I think you have to go back to 1994 to find the last time we went winless,” said Tim Bisci, who is beginning his 17th season as head coach.
While this year’s senior squad will be bolstered by graduates from a junior program that lost to Blessed Trinity in the division final, the addition of the newcomers won’t necessarily result in a rapid turnaround.
“Junior and senior is such a different animal in high school football because the players can be much bigger” Bisci said. “It’s kind of a grab bag. You never know what you’re going to get.”
One thing Bisci — and Tessier — has been getting lately is big bodies to man the line of scrimmage.
“We have no lineman. It’s funny we can’t find a lineman in the school,” Bisci said.
“The best athletes aren’t necessarily playing football,” Tessier said.
“Hockey is a big drain. Some coaches at the triple A level don’t want their players involved in an other sport.” “It’s always been like that.” Football tryouts at Welland Centennial Secondary School kicked off today with mini camps. Daily sessions, from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m., continue until Thursday.