To see a sample of of the preseason photos in the Photo Gallery, view a slideshow in the video gallery at the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/videos/all/14
There’s comfort in numbers.
At least for members of the Central Bucks West football team there is. Last year, the Bucks saw their squad dwindle down to around 30 players by the time the season ended.
This year, the Bucks are opening the 2009 campaign with 62 players on their roster, which includes 30 sophomores.
“It does help a lot having the numbers go up,” senior captain Doug Tillman said. “It gives you depth at positions, and it really creates competition to better everyone.
“It gives you a better look with the scout team. It’s important to keep improving and giving yourself a good look before going up against a good team.”
Increasing the numbers was the first goal when Brian Hensel, previously an assistant at Central Bucks South, took over the helm of the struggling program last winter.
“We were looking for as many ways as we could to encourage kids to come out,” the first-year coach said. “We talked to two-sport athletes, and we even told our players – ‘Don’t come back to the weight room unless you bring somebody with you.’
“We went from 12 to 27 pretty fast.”
While the Bucks’ numbers have increased, their size hasn’t, but they hope to make up for that with speed and smarts.
“We have to know what we’re doing and be fast off the ball,” senior captain Dan Mastrangelo said. “We’re not the biggest team, obviously, and we have to be smart on the field.”
The Bucks are practicing hard and at a high tempo.
“We’re all trying to step up,” Tillman said. “We make sure everyone runs from drill to drill, play to play and then runs back to the huddle.
“We’re always trying to get people fired up for practice because I think it’s important to have a good attitude and a high tempo going into the games.”
Tillman and Mastrangelo, along with senior Andrew McCormack, are expected to anchor both the offensive and defensive lines. Tillman and Mastrangelo are both listed at 195 while McCormack weighs in at 190. Their heights range from 5-6 for Mastrangelo to 5-10 for McCormack.
Those are not exactly imposing numbers, but Hensel recognizes there is more to the game than just size.
“It’s important to be bigger in football, especially in line play, but being big doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good,” he said. “You have to have speed, which our guys have. You have to have technique, which we work at every single day, and you have to have determination. Are you tougher than the guy across from you? The other part that’s such a huge piece – are you smarter than the other guy? On every play – do you know where you’re going? Do you understand the whole scheme?
“We may not be bigger than anybody else, but we will not be out-strengthed, we will not be out-speeded, and we will not be out-smarted. Those three things are 100 percent within our control, and those are the things we focus on with these guys.”
Hensel will look to his three senior linemen to pull a young Bucks’ squad together.
“Doug is an athlete, and athletes can play anywhere,” Hensel said of Tillman, who is also the team’s long snapper. “He’s a kid that’s going to help us in all phases of the game. He really served in a great leadership role in the transition.
“He’s a very, very upbeat, positive kid. He’s the calm in the eye of the storm. He keeps thing settled.”
Mastrangelo, according to Hensel, set the tone for the team in the weight room, and in the preseason, he has held his own against opposing lineman who outweighed him by 60 or 70 pounds.
“He is pound for pound our strongest lifter,” the Bucks’ coach said. “No one on the team can squat more than him, no one on the team can bench press more than him.
“Quite honestly, he brings a level of grit and determination that is contagious on the team. No one wants to get hit by him. He’s just a kid that has no quit. He’s a throwback – the kind of guy that lays it on the line. He never complains. He’s a pleasure to be around.”
Hensel dubs McCormack ‘the funny guy.’
“He’s a happy-go-lucky kid,” he said. “He’s the kind of kid that always has that smile. He’s never high, never low. He’s an even-keeled kid.
“He’s a worker, doesn’t miss anything that involves the team. All three kids – I could count on one hand how many total sessions those guys missed for any reason since January. The level of commitment they have had is helping turn things around.”
The Bucks hope that commitment will translate into more wins. Two years ago, the Bucks won two games and last year, three, including a huge 38-35 win over Souderton to even their record at 2-2 early in the season. They won just one of their six remaining games after that.
“It was very frustrating,” McCormack said. “Beating Souderton was awesome, and I would have liked to win against other teams. We were close in a lot of games, but we couldn’t pull through.”
According to McCormack, Hensel has brought structure and a sense of stability to the program.
“We have had a new coaching staff every year pretty much with the exception of Chris Felton for the past two years, but the assistant coaches have been in and out,” the Bucks’ senior lineman said. “With the new coaching staff, the schedule is a lot better.
“We’re a lot more organized, and everything is on time, which works out nicely.”
Hensel with his strong emphasis on fundamentals has set goals – not for the season but for each game.
“I said, ‘We can’t promise you any number of wins, but we can promise to put you in a position to be successful,’” the Bucks’ coach said. “They’re giving a tremendous effort for us.
“A lot of kids – if they had faced the situation these guys had, they would have turned and run. The thing I tell the seniors – ‘You stuck it out, and there’s something to be said about your character by not quitting. These are life lessons – once a quitter, always a quitter. These guys have no quit in them, and that’s great.”
Despite their program’s track record in recent years, the players expect to turn things around this season.
“I expect and want our team to be one of the feared teams in the league,” Tillman said. “I want people to come into the game saying, ‘We’re going to have a tough opponent this week’
“That’s what I want to be known for in the league.”
The Bucks open their season with a tough non-league test when they travel to Bethlehem Freedom on Friday night. Win or lose, they plan to be a force to contend with this time around.
“Our whole team has been working really hard since December in the weight room,” Mastrangelo said. “We’re hungry. We’re ready to win.”
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