All the right moves
Once a defender, Rogers is now carrying the load for Hanover
HANOVER — Coming into high school, Brad Rogers was not a running back.
But as a freshman at Hanover, the coaching staff made a change and moved Rogers from the defensive side of the ball to the backfield.
That’s called a good coaching move.
Rogers blossomed during his junior season and he hasn’t let up this year, as the workhorse senior running back continuously carries the offensive load for undefeated Hanover.
“All of growing up, I never played offense really,” Rogers said. “I was strictly defense and then I got to high school I flipped the switch and now I’m just offense. . . . I was pretty open to it because I just wanted to get on the field and play when you’re that age.”
Rogers’ career didn’t take off when he first got onto the field for the Indians. Early into his sophomore season, Rogers broke his right ankle and tore his lisfranc ligament in his left foot, sidelining him for seven months.
He rehabbed and eventually worked his way back for the start of his junior year, but things came slowly at first.
“It definitely took a little while to get back into it,” Rogers said. “The first game I still had to tear through some scar tissue left over from the two surgeries I had. I didn’t really play much in the first game. I got like two carries and then started getting more and more each week.”
By the middle of his junior season, a healthy Rogers was running wild through opposing defenses. He put up four rushing touchdowns in a 48-14 win over Middleboro last October, helping Hanover clinch the first of two consecutive Patriot League Fisher Division titles. He finished his junior campaign with 20 touchdowns.
Rogers shows no signs of slowing down this year. In five games he has scored 12 touchdowns and racked up 710 yards on the ground. He has rushed for over 100 yards on four different occasions and scored two-or-more touchdowns in each game.
At 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Rogers, who has ambitions of playing next year at Bentley University, has the perfect combination of size and speed to thrive as a running back.
“Size, speed, he has great vision and a good center of gravity,” said Hanover coach Chris Landolfi. “He runs hard. He’s got good balance. He never quits on a run. Three to four guys take him down.”
While Rogers’ physical attributes are clear, it is his work ethic that most impresses his coach.
“He comes out and works hard,” Landolfi said. “Every time he carries the ball it’s 100 percent.”
Once playing as an outside linebacker, Rogers is now the focal point in Hanover’s offense. It’s a sure bet he will be featured many times when the top-seeded Indians host No. 8 Norton tonight in the first round of the Division 3 South playoffs.
Because as Rogers goes, so does Hanover.
“For us to be successful we’re going to have to run the ball,” Landolfi said. “Big challenge ahead of us and Brad has been working extremely hard.”