New turf, same objective.
With scrimmages underway this week and Week 1 beginning on Friday, Sept. 6, football coach Jim Rudloff – who has been spearheading since 2009 – said he’s ready for another season of the game he loves.
“We just got our new (Piper Field) turf put in,” Rudloff said. “They replaced it with a new one after 10 years with the old field. It’s been nice. We’ve been practicing at 6 a.m. We go and do meetings, practice, and everything else. It’s difficult to tell where we are, but the kids are responding well.”
The team began using pads on Wednesday. That said, pads or not, Rudloff admitted the schedule is tough on paper.
“Wins- and losses-wise, it’s going to depend on our schedule. We have a loaded schedule this year, so we’re going to be up against it. We travel to Wrentham to face King Philip, which is a Division 2 powerhouse. We played them last year and got annihilated,” Rudloff said. “We’re playing North Andover, which is another Division 2 team. We face Peabody, too. We have some tough teams we’re facing this season. We have a long way to go, but I like what I’ve seen so far.”
The Magicians graduated 18 seniors – many of whom were starters. This year, however, the new senior class makes up half of the team.
“We have 27 seniors, which is a huge number. We only have 52 players on the team, so it’s a huge senior class. Some of the kids joined recently, but most of them have been with us for all four years,” Rudloff said. “Finding those guys a way to get on the field – the older, bigger bodies – will be guys who I’m looking forward to.”
Last year, Marblehead began its season 0-4 before rattling off three consecutive wins to clinch a Division 4 postseason berth. It was in the state tournament where the No. 14 Magicians upset No. 3 Middleborough, 21-12, before falling in the Elite Eight to No. 6 Grafton.
Rudloff knows a bad start can’t happen again.
“They have the experience (starting 0-4) of having that happen. Knowing the feeling of what it’s like to be down like that, but knowing how to come out of it. Hopefully, they learned they don’t want to be put in that position again. We need to change how we prepare and our focus is to make sure we don’t get off to a start like that,” Rudloff said. “God forbid, if we have a similar start to last year, at least we know how we can dig ourselves out of it.”
This year, the Magicians will start the season with back-to-back road games, starting with Bishop Fenwick on Sept. 6, followed by a trip to face King Philip the following Friday.
Luckily, for Rudloff and company, they welcome scrimmages against Lynn English, West Springfield, and Billerica Memorial to prepare for the ones that count.
“Two of our scrimmages – our first and our last – are home, but we do have a road scrimmage out in Springfield. The idea is to get our guys ready to go on the road trip before we do the King Philip and Bishop Fenwick road trips. Trying to get a travel day before we have an away game is important for the kids to learn,” Rudloff said. “They can learn the preparation, the timing, how long it takes, and how they need to be ready as soon as they get off the bus. You can try to schedule something like that and we’re fortunate enough to be able to get this game in. It might be a pain to our athletic department, but for the team, it should pay off.”
Rudloff announced his captains are Colt Wales, Bodie Smith, Justin Gonzalez, Brady Selvais, and Crew Monaco.
Regular season schedule
9/6 7 p.m. @ Bishop Fenwick
9/13 7 p.m. @ King Philip
9/20 7 p.m. vs. Shepherd Hill
9/27 6 p.m. @ North Andover
10/10 7 p.m. vs. Beverly
10/18 7 p.m. vs. Peabody
10/25 7 p.m. vs. Masconomet
11/1 6:30 p.m. @ Danvers
11/28 10 a.m. vs. Swampscott