LINDEN — It took North Football Coach Josh Thompson a few extra minutes to put the Chargers’ roster together this fall, because there are a lot of lines that had to be changed.
It will be a new-look North squad that takes the field this fall, as a majority of the starters from last year’s team took the graduation route.
There are plenty of spots to fill, but Thompson and his veteran staff have faced that challenge before.
“We return some very experienced players, but we will have quite a few holes to fill,” the coach said. “We are looking forward to this upcoming season. All of the players on this team have been dedicated to improvement throughout the summer and the season thus far.”
A total of 10 seniors heads the roster, with seven juniors and 13 sophomores behind them. All will be looking for playing time. There are a dozen freshmen new to this roster, and hope to find some varsity downs.
“We do have players returning with lots of experience; they will need to be leaders for us,” Thompson said.
That preseason work went back into the summer and then these practice days leading up to the first game Aug. 23 at North Putnam. The Chargers, looking to hold on to or better last year’s 6-5 overall record (4-3 in the Sagamore Conference), will also have to be road warriors, as six of their nine regular-season games will be away from Charger Field. Their first three are on the road, as they don’t have home game until Sept. 13.
“We scrimmaged twice over the summer and scrimmaged ourselves last Friday night,” Thompson said. “We have improved each time.”
Stressing team first has been a North trademark, and that doesn’t change just because there are new faces.
“Our goals each year are to win county, conference and sectional,” the coach noted. “In order to accomplish those, we will need to make sure that the players understand what we will need to do for each opponent, and we will need to get into game shape very quickly.”
