Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

The second day of Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl practice included a trip to a local swimming hole, and was capped with a Wiffle Ball tournament.

It was also a day when New Hampshire coach Mike Beliveau decided to reduced the number of daily practices from three to two.

"We just felt like three wasn't productive, so we decided to go a little longer with two practices," Beliveau said. "This is an all-star game. There has to be a balance betwen football practice and having fun.

"Some will say if one team practice three times a day and the other team practices twice, the team that practices three times is going to be better. That's not necessarily the case. There's lots of way to skin a cat."

Beliveau said a short-yardage offense was installed Friday, as were the final pieces of special teams. Defense was the focus of the Friday afternoon practice.

"Defensively, a couple of kids who stood out were the Plymouth kids -- Cole Brooker [SS/OLB] and Nick Reisert [OLB]," he said. "They're just solid football players. We also like our middle linebackers, [Josh] Hughes [Trinity], [Connor] Donovan [Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough] and [Tom] Cifrino [St. Thomas]."

There are four quarterbacks on the New Hampshire roster, but Souhegan's Rob McCormick and Timberlane's Evan Bidgood have been getting most of the repetitions at that position. Manchester Memorial's Cody Dalton is being used in the defensive secondary, and Manchester West's Aaron Martin is playing receiver, a position he is expected to play at Bridgton Academy.

"Those two have the ability to help us at the quarterback position as well," Beliveau said. "Rob knows our system real well. Evan has a good arm. He just has to get some of the nuances of a new offense down a little bit."

The New Hampshrie team is scheduled to practice Saturday from 9:15 to 11:30 a.m., and from 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Beliveau said he will announce captains before the team visits the Shriners Hospital on Sunday.

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General admission tickets for this year's game are $8 if purchased in advance or $10 on game day. Reserve tickets are priced at $20 and can be obtained by contacting the Shrine Bowl Football office in Lebanon at (603) 448-1042. 

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