It all starts at camp for the Bonny Eagle High School football team.
The two-time defending Class A state champs were up bright and early for an a.m. practice on Monday – the first day of fall practice for high school teams in southern Maine – at their field in Standish. After a two-hour session, the Scots headed to Camp Samoset on Pleasant Lake in Casco for a week of two-a-days, team bonding and, when possible, some end-of-summer leisure.
“It’s awesome,” said coach Kevin Cooper, whose Scots are looking for an unprecedented fifth state championship in six years this fall. “It’s our eighth year now that we’ve gone away. I think our players look forward to it. I know I look forward to it. It’s a nice setting up here.
“Kids can come off after practice and swim in the lake to cool themselves down. We basically have the run of the place while we’re here. Kids don’t have to travel to and from practice. The kids just get to hang out and be kids and enjoy the experience of playing high school football. All those things are immeasurable in terms of what they do for our program.”
Cooper, in his 12th year with Bonny Eagle, said he got the idea of a preseason camp from Massabesic coach John Morin, who, at the time, took his team away to start practice and spoke highly of what it did for team development. Cooper and his staff researched possible locales and decided to give it a shot.
It stuck.
The Scots have done some camp hopping – Camp Samoset is their third spot – but the purpose remains the same: to learn some football, bring the team together and have fun. Players and their parents foot most of the bill for the week.
“I think because the kids come home and they’ve had a great time, the kids are always willing to do it again next year,” Cooper said. “In a short time – eight years – it’s become a pretty strong tradition for us.”
Unarguably the state’s top program this decade, Bonny Eagle has a tough road ahead if it is to win it’s third straight state title, which no team has done since the Class A playoffs began in their current form in 1967.
Last year’s team overcame two regular season losses – at home to rival Deering on a late score and a forfeit against Westbrook for using an ineligible player in the final quarter of a blowout – and marched through the Western Maine playoffs before defeating Skowhegan 26-6 for the Gold Ball. Yet many of the players from that team, including Fitzpatrick Trophy-winning quarterback Nate Doehler, Josh Spearin, Josh Ruby, Dayton McPherson, Travis Dunn and more than a dozen others, have moved on due to graduation.
Cooper said that’s how the program should work.
“If you look at us next year, I think you’re going to see a team that has lost a lot of seniors,” he said. “Good programs have kids that when they come into the program, they’re sophomores and they play JV. When they’re juniors, they start to earn a little varsity time, but maybe play a little on JV to continue to gain experience and become leaders of the JV program. Then all of a sudden when they’re seniors, a lot of people haven’t heard of them, but they’re ready to play. They’re ready to follow in behind previous seniors.
“Our senior classes the past few years have been great leaders. They’ve been great role models for our younger players. Despite the fact that you haven’t heard of a lot of these guys, they’re going to be good players. They’re just ready and waiting for the chance.”
Joe Davis, a returning starter at wide receiver, was a big part of the team last year as a junior, reeling in a team-high eight TD receptions. He and the other returnees plan to take on an added leadership role this season.
“We’ll definitely have to step up,” said Davis, who will also start at strong safety. “We were a big part of the team last year, but we’re going to have to step up more and coach the other kids who haven’t been in this situation before. We’re one of the top teams in the state. People look at us, so we can’t be messing around at all.”
Davis said his first impressions of camp were positive, though he’ll have a much better idea of how the Scots measure up when camp concludes on Saturday, “Each year we come up to camp and by the end of camp I’ll know if we’re going to be a contending team,” he said. “So far, it’s looking good.”
Senior Ryan Nason, another top receiver a year ago, is taking over at quarterback.
“Based on our offense, we want the best all-around athlete there, the guy that can do the most things on the football field,” Cooper said, adding that Nason not only has looked sharp early on in transitioning to QB, but is also being pushed at the position by junior Matt Rollins, who took some varsity snaps under center last season once games were in hand.
Nason said the move is going well. He and Davis are best friends, so they’d been tossing the ball around during the offseason in preparation. He’s also close with Doehler, who is now playing football at the University of Maine,
“Nate’s one of my good friends,” Nason said. “We talk regularly. He gave me some good advice.”
The Scots may not be as big up front as they have been in years past, but Nason isn’t concerned.
“We’ve always said coming up to camp that the line would be the problem and it never has,” he said. “I think we’ll be fine there.”
Two former Bonny Eagle linemen are currently competing for playing time on the UMaine offensive line. Matt Spearin (6-foot-2, 295 pounds) is a redshirt freshman and brother Josh Spearin (6-4, 300) is a true freshman. The behemoth brothers were dominant for the Scots.
“Once you take out kids by the name of Spearin, all of a sudden, our size is going to go down,” Cooper said. “I don’t think that we’re small. I just think that the last couple of years, we’ve been incredibly big. I think we’re a normal-sized high school offensive line.”
Max Alfiero, a senior receiver and free safety, rattled off a string of descriptors when asked what the Scots’ offense will look like this fall.
“A lot faster paced,” he said. “Not as big. Speed. Agility. Energy. Wiry. Squirm. Quick.”
He and the other players stepping into expanded roles have a tradition to keep up.
“We’re one of the top teams in the state,” Alfiero said. “We’ve got to maintain that and let everyone know that we’re still at the top of the state. Let them know that they’re going to have to work twice as hard to beat us. I love having a bull’s-eye on my back, having people trying to take us down, because we work hard. I know there’s not a single team out there that works as hard as we do. We work until we can’t work anymore. We run all day, practice hard, hit hard.”
Cooper, his staff and his players know all about the challenges that lie ahead. Cooper said Windham, Thornton Academy and Deering – all three with their standout quarterbacks returning – look like contenders. Expectations and the chance at making history with another Gold Ball are in the back of everyone’s minds. Plenty of hurdles can and likely will crop up during the course of the season.
But as the team sweats through practice on a modest, dandelion-pocked field in Casco, with the bunks and glistening lake just a dirt path away, those concerns are tucked away for now. The team is at camp.
“We don’t have to worry about anything else than having fun and playing football,” Cooper said. “That’s a pretty nice opportunity.”
The Bonny Eagle football team goes through a tackling exercise at the start of the season’s first practice on Monday in Standish. After practice, the Scots left for Camp Samoset in Casco for a week of practice and team bonding.Send questions/comments to the editors.
