Hopkins prepares for Homewood showdown

Fresh off an undefeated regular season — but a gut-wrenching first round playoff knockout to Wesley — the football team is poised to return to the gridiron as a force to be reckoned with in the Centennial Conference. Jays faithful will remember Wesley quarterback Joe Callahan drilling wideout Steve Koudossou in the bread basket on a post pattern at the goal line for the game-sealing touchdown with just 12.8 seconds to go in the fourth quarter — the death knell for the Jays playoff hopes.

Despite last year’s disappointment, all time winningest coach in Hopkins football history Jim Margaff will be sure to have his boys in top shape come kickoff Sept. 6 against Randolph Macon on Homewood Field. Margraff enters his 25th season as the Hopkins head football coach with a record of 167-82-3 (.669), toting two of the last three Centennial Conference Coach of the Year awards. He will be joined by first year Offensive Coordinator Greg Chimera (who has mentored two All-Conference running backs in Andrew Case ’09 and Jonathan Rigaud; one All-Conference tight end in Brian Hopkins ’09; one All-Conference wide receiver in Dan Wodicka ’13. Second year Defensive Coordinator Mickey Rehring, whose defense finished fifth in the country in third down percentage against (.266), eighth in sacks per game (3.45), and fifteenth against the run (100.2 yards/game), will coach as well.

Chimera’s offensive staff will be rounded out by Running Backs Coach David Josephson, Offensive Line Coach Nick Schloeder, Wide Receiver Coach Dan Wodicka and Offensive Assistant Robbie Matey. Rehring will be joined on the defensive side by Defensive Line Coach Andy Laychur, Strong Safety Coach Mark Nastase and Defensive Backs Coach Mike Toerper. Toerper will also be at the helm for the special teams unit.

The Blue Jays offense will be lead by senior quarterback and captain Braden Anderson. Anderson, out of Langley High School in Great Falls, Va., will be starting for the first time this year, taking over for Matey, the Jays’ starting quarterback in 2012 and 2013, who steered them to a 22-3 record, two conference championships and two trips to the NCAA Playoffs. Anderson may have big shoes to fill, but he and the rest of the offense seem quite capable of filling the void left by the second winningest quarterback in school history, whose .850 winning percentage is the highest in both Hopkins and Centennial Conference history.

Anderson will be protected by an offensive line which returns only one starter: junior right guard Colin Egan. Egan will be joined by seniors Martin Scheuring, Kyle Flynn and Zach Lorenz. Scheuring figures to take over at center, while Flynn will likely see time at tackle, though he remains versatile enough to play guard, and Lorenz will line up opposite Egan at the left guard position. Juniors Rowan Cade and Baxter Debruyn each saw time last year and may emerge from camp as the team’s starting tackles. Preseason First Team All-Conference running back Brandon Cherry returns with his running mate Stuart Walters to make up the same two-headed monster that rushed for 1,649 yards and 13 touchdowns a year ago.

The Jays offense returns no seniors at wide receiver but will be lead by juniors Kyle Morgan, Ryan Finkel, Josh Bernard, Nic Wisor and Eric Adamo, while the corps will be filled out by five sophomores and three freshmen. Tight ends Brad Foulke, Michael O’Conner and Phillip Harris figure to play important roles in both catching passes and clearing the way for Cherry and Walters.

The Blue Jay defense will be captained by senior defensive back Ryan Rice, a six-foot, 170-pounder from Frisco, Texas, who is shifting from cornerback to centerfield to play free safety this year. Rice’s comrades in the defensive backfield are all returning starters from last season and include junior TJ Reeves, who will swap positions with Rice this year and move to the outside, and senior Jimmy Holder, who will remain entrenched at the other cornerback position. Junior Curtis Antrum also figures to play a meaningful role in the rotation after recording 25 tackles a year ago. The Jays will continue to use a base 4-4-3 defense this season, with the fourth linebacker being referred to as a strong safety. The defense returns all three starting linebackers — senior Hani Annabi and juniors Keith Corliss and Brady Watts — to be joined by senior Chris Ibrahim, who is making the transition from the secondary to strong safety to take over for graduated standout John Arena ’14. Finally, the defensive line returns three senior starters in Matthew Connery, Michael Longo and Michael Rocca, who have combined to play 100 games for the Birds. Rehring is oft to use a deep rotation on the defensive line, with senior Brannock Furey, senior Chris Matey, junior Preston Stafford and junior John Hardin hoping to fill the void left by graduated players Joe DiTrollio, Andy Laychur and Mike Zikoski (all of the class of 2014).

Since returning to the practice field in August, the Blue Jays have been working hard to build on the great success of last year’s regular season and avoid the great disappointment of the last 13 seconds of the playoffs. The team returns 13 starters but expects significant help from players who will receive serious snaps for the first time. With this experienced and hungry group of coaches and players, Hopkins students can expect their football team to continue its run of dominance in the Centennial Conference and remain competitive for the NCAA Championship.