H/B getting stronger each year

Friday, October 28, 2011

HOLLIS – The 2008 season looked like a tough one on paper for the Hollis/Brookline High School football team.

The Cavaliers, playing their first season in Division III, finished the year with a record of 3-6. Of their losses, four were by an average of 25 points, and one was to a team in Division IV in its first varsity season.

But for H/B, it wasn’t about the record. It was about how the season ended.

The Cavs shut out Bedford 27-0 in their next-to-last game and finished out the year with a 21-14 win over Pembroke that had the coaches in a state of euphoria. The emotion of that win rubbed off on a few impressionable freshmen.

“Four years ago, it was our first taste of success,” H/B coach Milt Robinson said. “We had three wins, we won our last game, and (the players) liked that.”

Now those youngsters have turned into seniors, and they have H/B poised for even bigger things in the final weeks of the 2011 season.

A year ago, the Cavs went 5-3 in the division and made the playoffs for the first time. This season, H/B started off 5-0, including a win over Division I Manchester Memorial and the program’s first win over Souhegan. After falling to Bedford 14-7 two weeks ago, H/B bounced back by beating Portsmouth 14-7 to go to 6-1 overall.

It’s a position the Cavs are relishing, and all of them agree it wouldn’t have happened without the senior class’s desire to get better. Getting better meant getting stronger, and that started in the weight room.

“We stressed that the weight room was one of the reasons for success,” Robinson said. “This class has been that driving force that believed in the weight room, wanted to be in the weight room and wanted to be successful.”

It started with the lineman. Rob Boivin, Zach Migneault and Glen Morgan have been starters for three years now, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that all three dedicated themselves to the weight room during that freshmen season.

“When I was a freshman, I used to lift all the time because it was something I enjoyed,” Migneault said.

But it wasn’t always that easy. The high school weight room can be a scary place for a freshman, so much so that players don’t always venture in there on their own.

“Freshman year, going in, you see (the seniors) putting up the big weight and you get kind of intimidated,” Morgan said. “You’re always kind of scared and kind of ashamed what you’re doing. You eventually learn that it doesn’t matter and if you keep working, you get stronger and stronger.”

This year’s seniors want to see the success they’ve had continue, so they’ve done whatever they could to make the weight room a better environment for the players who will follow.

“When we were freshmen, I’d go only once and a while,” said Jeff Taylor, a two-year starter on the line. “You don’t want to be embarrassed, only benching 110 pounds while another kid is benching 200. Now we’re getting to know the freshmen. They’re starting to be comfortable and it makes us a better team.”

It’s not just the linemen that have noticed a difference and tried to make a change in the weight room. Other players, like quarterback Kyle Gervais, tight end David Caponigro and running backs Colin Perllerin and Nate Ferenzchalmy, have transformed themselves into who they are as seniors because of that extra work.

“Blocking was usually harder for me,” Caponigro said. “I wouldn’t really have been able to play unless I’d stepped it up. It helps with my route running, I’m more agile. I could always catch, but I didn’t really get a chance before. Now I can get off the line and get around people.”

Gervais has noticed the change in Caponigro, and in the linemen.

“He’s really turned into a tight end, which is a perfect position for him,” Gervais said. “We both worked out a lot together in the offseason, and we both got a lot stronger than we were. We used to be some of the weakest guys. We’re certainly not the strongest, but we can hold our own.

“It’s beautiful. I don’t think I’ve been sacked this year. That’s awesome because I don’t like to get hit as it is. The fact that every game I only get roughed up a couple of times, I mean, I can sit back there and on film there’s usually no one around me.”

The Cavs are already starting to see their work taking root, as this year’s freshmen team is undefeated.

“The summer program for the freshmen this year was amazing,” Robinson said. “I think we had 20 kids, and 18 were there every time. That’s great. It shows the next class coming up that this is what you do. They already are committed to the program as freshmen. You don’t normally get that.”

What H/B has done on the field has also caught the eye of some younger fans.

“One of the coaches said that when we played Con-Val under the lights, a lot of kids from town, from the middle school who aren’t playing football yet, were saying next year they want to play football because that was awesome,” Ferenczhalmy said. “It’s getting close to being a football town.”