With a current 1-4 standing: NU football team rebuilds after loss of veteran players

By Matt Nelson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Despite the fact that the Norwich University Football Team lost a significant number of graduated seniors and has a partially new coaching staff, their dreams of winning the Freedom Football Conference is still within reach, according to the head coach.

The cadet's lost a total of 19 seniors and three assistant coaches. They replaced two coaches with last year's graduated seniors, who are now student-coaches.

"Losing 19 seniors has a great impact on a team, because the more seniors you have going out to play their last football games or last season, have a tendency to be a lot more emotional," explained Mike Yesalonia, the Cadets' head coach.

This year, the team has seven seniors who will be graduating from the program, almost three times fewer than the amount from the previous year.

"The first step in rebuilding a team that lost an eye-boggling amount of seniors starts with the recruiting process," explained Brendon O'Brien, 22, a fifth-year Physical Educational major and assistant coach from Waltham, Mass.

"We had a great recruiting year," Yesalonia said. "When you lose a large group like we did, more prospect players are apt to join a program where they can see playing time."

When new faces arrive at camp, it is a beginning of a new bond of brotherhood, a learning process that starts out difficult to comprehend, stated O'Brien.

"It's hard, coming from a program in high school where I started, but you need to start somewhere," said Brett Walton, 18, a freshman accounting major from Bridgeport, Conn. "You have a new defense and offense to understand."

Two weeks before regular students arrive on campus, the football team endures a long and exhausting training camp. At camp, players are required to practice for a two-week duration, three times a day, with a positional meeting before every practice.

Yesalonia said, "We lacked the team chemistry which is needed to make for a successful camp. The upperclassmen also needed to step up and find their identity early in the season."

"It was different coming in this year as opposed to last year, returning knowing the system and stepping into a starting role," explained JJ Conboy, 19, a sophomore physics major from Troy, N.H. The Norwich football team opened their season with three straight road games. They lost their first two games to Curry College and Kings Point.

The cadets then regrouped and became victors in a 19-14 game over St. John Fisher College, O'Brien said.

"It was very tough having the first three games away; it was an adversity, but our players did extremely well, staying focused and getting through the long haul," Yesalonia said.

Some of the Cadets who didn't make the traveling team have been practicing for over a month now and have never seen their team on the playing field.

The suspense is over; the Cadets finally faced Plymouth State College here on Sabine field, on the most rewarding weekend of all, Alumni weekend.

The team encountered a tough offensive battle and faced a dominant Panther defense, going scoreless throughout the game, and lost the well-fought showdown 21-0.

This past weekend the Cadets also lost to the United States Coast Guard Academy, 20-17.

The captains for the 2001 team are Steve Hare, Rob Robichaud, and Brian Carloni, all defensive players.

"It's tough coming off a 7-3 season with an 1-4 start this year. We need to find out what we are doing wrong and correct it," said Steve Hare, 21, a senior communication major from Stillwater, N.Y.

With the record of 1-4, the Cadets' goals still remains the same: to win the Freedom Football Conference, which is still in reach, Hare explained.

"I feel we need to come together as a team and worry about the next game," Clark stated. "I think that a lot of us forgot why we play the game; it felt like we broke up as a team, and we just need to come together."

With a rebuilding program, Yesalonia said, it is difficult to predict how this year's team will match up against the conference powerhouses like Western Connecticut and Springfield College.

"I feel that if we put everything together on both offense and defense, we will be in the running for every game," said Axel Hernandez, 21, a junior biology major from Fall River, Mass.

With the Cadets' hard work and good attitude throughout the season, Yesalonia added that they will soon become a conference powerhouse.

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