NEWPORT- On Wednesday, August 15, Newport High football held their third practice of the season, in what was an extremely humid day. First-year head coach Dennis Borcuk (served the last 12 years as an assistant for Newport) has been getting a good look at his new crop of talent.
The first portion of practice was a circuit of drills, where the players were separated by class. It was obvious to tell that they are a young team, having just six seniors this year after losing a good crop of talent to graduation.
Having a young team will mean coaching will play a major factor in the success of the Tigers’ program in the upcoming season. Newport’s offensive coordinator, Kevin Tallman, said, “We are young… but that’s when the best coaching is done. In the pros and in college, they recruit players to fit their system. For us, we are going to try to build the system to benefit the players we have.”
The team is going to see early action in the preseason, with a jamboree coming up on Tuesday, August 21 for both JV and Varsity. The jamboree is held at Hanover High School, with Burr and Burton, ConVal, Hartford, Lebanon, Monadnock, and Plymouth high schools all participating.
Although the coaching staff is faced with a tall task to get the team game-ready by Tuesday, they have the experience on the sidelines to get the job done. Borcuk is now the tenth head coach that Bill Thurlow has assisted under. Thurlow, an offensive and defensive line coach for Newport, has been an assistant coach for Newport since 1965. Coach Thurlow has joined the New Hampshire Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and also won the Walter Smith Award for his contribution to New Hampshire high school athletics.
Newport has nine regular season games to prepare for, all between August 31 and October 27. The most noteworthy games are: opening night at Lebanon on August 31, hosting Stevens the following week on September 8, and hosting Kearsarge- Mount Royal Academy on October 13.
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