Skippers will have a different look after graduating seven starters off the 2021 playoff team
COHASSET – A retiring senior can have a lasting impact on a high school program long after they leave. Read also : ‘Mr. And Mrs. Smith ‘: Michaela Coel, John Turturro, Paul Dano join the restart of the Prime Video series. That’s where the Cohasset High Boys football team is at right now as they prepare to make another run to the top of the South Shore League’s Tobin Division.
“The class of 2021 was undoubtedly a special group,” head coach Jim Willis said of the departure of 14 players, including seven starters, leaving big holes that need to be filled all over the football field. “The group had a dominant personality and they really made this program their own. Now, with her departure, we have to change our offensive and defensive approach.
The Skippers are coming off a 13-7-1 season that put them second in the division behind Rockland High’s strong offense. They earned a fifth-place finish in the Division 4 nationwide tournament, where they passed Lunenburg and Amesbury before losing 1–0 to Frontier Regional on penalties. Willis, entering his 16th season as head coach, recorded his 200th career win in that playoff run.
With top scorer Lucas Federle and last season’s best assistant Josh Kropke out of the team, the Skippers must look for a group of new players to generate the offensive attack. Luckily, Willis believes he has some talented undergraduates who will be up to the task. When Cohasset started the season at Pembroke High on September 7, there were up to nine sophomores on the opening day roster.
“Junior Zach Smith missed some time last season through injury, but he was still a solid attacking player last season (he scored four goals). Two sophomores, Nathan Askjaer and Cian Casey, are going to play up there with Zach this season and I think they’re going to do a good job of keeping the pressure up in the offensive zone,” Willis said.
Smith is one of four returning starters for the Skippers. The others are senior goalkeeper Luc Nivaud, junior defender Tyler Henry and junior midfielder Ian Linhart.
Nivaud has had a strong first season at the net for Cohasset, where he scored three shutouts. Linhart will be a key link between both ends of the field as the offense quarterback, and Willis said Henry is a “steady defender with a great head for the game.”
The team’s three senior captains – Andrew Buckley, Henry Hefner and Aiden Mensching – will all step into starting roles this season. Buckley and Mensching both play full-backs while Hefner will see time in midfield. Willis is impressed with the way his trio of new captains have taken control of the ship.
Cohasset isn’t the only SSL team undergoing some big changes this season. Top teams like Norwell and Rockland also suffered some big finishing losses and are looking to turn things around on the run.
“It will be interesting to see how the teams in our league look this season,” Willis said. Norwell and Rockland should be strong again and Willis said East Bridgewater should be a team on the rise again in 2022.
Cohasset won’t have much time to reconcile things as they face some tough teams straight away. It started with a non-league game at Pembroke High on Wednesday 7th September. The first home game of the year was on Monday 12th September against Rockland High and on Saturday 17th September Weymouth High will be played.
Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.
