Shrine Camp: Day 7
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
The New Hampshire Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl team began to scale back Wednesday, when head coach Ken Sciacca reduced the number of practices from three to two.
Sciacca said his biggest area of concern is fine-tuning the Wing-T offense New Hampshire will use in Saturday's game 92:30 p.m.) against Vermont.
"We're still making assignment mistakes on offense," Sciacca said. "It's little things. Nothing significant. There are so many kids playing it's hard getting all these guys reps."
Sciacca submitted his list of starters to Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl officials Wednesday and listed both Dylan Brodeur (Nashua North) and D.J. Petropulos (Souhegan) as starters as quarterback.
"The Wing-T works best with a running quarterback who can throw," Sciacca said. "Dylan is an outstanding runner. D.J. is the better passer. I'll probably alternate betwen the two (each series) and then I'll get a feel."
New Hampshire's other starters in the offensive backfield will be Steven Jellison (Souhegan), Mike Cavanaugh (Manchester Central) and Derek Furey (Timberlane).
"I have no qualms about putting any of our skill kids in the game," Sciacca said. "If you're at the game you'll see a lot of kids going in and out."
New Hampshire is scheduled to practice twice Thursday, but only once in full pads.Sciacca said Thursday will be the team's final full-contact practice.
Footnotes
The Vermont captains are Keegan Corbett (Mt. Anthony), Devin Rhodes (Brattleboro) and Leo Cohen (Rutland). ... New Hampshire assistant coach Bob Camirand served as an assistant coach under Sciacca for 13 seasons at three schools: Trinity, Manchester Memorial and Salem. This is the fourth time he has coached on the same Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl stafff as Sciacca. Camirand stepped down as Concord's head coach after the 2008 season. ... Salem coach Jack Gati, who is also on this year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl staff, has coached in five Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl games on the same staff as Sciacca. Gati's first varsity job was as an assistant coach on Sciacca's Trinity staff.
