Beliveau to coach in Shrine Game

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl will return to Dartmouth College in 2012, and a familiar face will be on both sidelines.

Souhegan High School football coach Mike Beliveau will be the head coach of the Granite State team for the second time and will take on a Vermont team led by Rutland coach Mike Norman, who will be coaching in the game for the third time, in the 59th edition of the game on Aug. 4.

“We welcome both coach Beliveau and Norman to our elite team for 2012,” Wayne Shepard, the game’s general chairman, said in a statement. “The Board of Governors appreciates the selfless time and commitment that this position requires as they prepare their teams for another challenging game.”

Beliveau previously coached New Hampshire in 2000, when the Granite State lost to Vermont, 47-40, in the highest-scoring game in the series. That was also the last time New Hampshire lost to Vermont.

“I’m very excited,” Beliveau said of the opportunity to coach the game a second time. “I’m excited the game is going back to Dartmouth College. It’s terrific not only for the players, but for the people who support the game, and I think it’s an honor for me to be able to coach some of the finest football players in the state. It was something that, when I did it 11 years ago, I said I wanted to do it again.”

This year seemed like a good opportunity to Beliveau, given the game’s return to Dartmouth’s Memorial Field, after three years at Windsor (Vt.) High School, and knowing the potential players on the New Hampshire roster. The rosters for both teams won’t be announced until January.

“This year, there is some really outstanding talent in the state,” Beliveau said. “Hopefully some of that outstanding talents had been nominated.”

In Beliveau’s first Shrine Game appearance, the game was one of the more wide-open contests in the series. The Sabers coach expects his team will play the same way, as he plans to bring the spread offense he runs at Souhegan to Dartmouth.

“We’re going to be a spread offense, and have that changeup power offense, which a lot kids come from,” he said. “We’ll line up in a straight-T with double tight ends and we’ll go the complete opposite. It’s what we do at Souhegan. Sometimes we’re in the shotgun and sometimes we’re under center.”

Norman, who is also the athletic director at Rutland, coached Vermont in 1998, winning 21-13, and in 2001, when New Hampshire won 21-0. He became the head coach at Rutland in 1994 and has won seven championships since then.

The teams will begin practice on July 26 at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden.

Turkey Bowl on until 2015

Souhegan and Merrimack have agreed to continue their annual Thanksgiving Day game until at least 2015.

“That’s not to say it’s going to end,” Beliveau said. “We’ll just revisit the conversation. We didn’t want to go through it every year, should we do it or not do it. We’re excited and glad to continue the tradition.”

Souhegan won this year’s game, which was set to be the final game in the 15-year series. But after some thought, Beliveau, who had wanted to end the game, had a change of heart.

“Merrimack always wanted to play,” he said. “It was on us. I didn’t realize how many alumni from both schools, players and non-players, come down and watch the game. It’s something to do on Thanksgiving morning. I was blown away by that. This had to keep going.”

The Sabers lead the series against Merrimack 10-5, and brought the Milk Jug back to Amherst after losing to the Tomahawks in 2010. Prior to that, Souhegan had won the previous seven games.