It’s opening day for football

Now that summer has finally arrived, it’s time for fall.Monday marked the first official day of practice for high school football teams and coaches wasted no time getting their players’ minds off the beach and back to the gridiron.Click here for a Classical photo gallery.Last year was a time of transition for three of the city’s four high school football teams. Classical, English and St. Mary’s all had new coaches, or in some cases familiar faces in new places. Peter Holey took over the helm at English, replacing Gary Molea. Tim Phelps took over at Classical for Matt Durgin and Durgin landed at St. Mary’s when Jeff Smith resigned to take the vice principal’s job at Malden Catholic.This year, it’s all quiet on the coaching front. Tech’s Gary Sverker, who retired from teaching but not coaching after the 2008 football season, is back at Tech, a job he has held since 1990.At Classical, Phelps is settling into his sophomore season.”It’s a little more familiar,” he said. “A lot of the small stuff is easier this year.”One big difference for Phelps is that this year, he’ll have all his players under one roof. With the two-year re-construction project at the school winding down, the freshman class is back on O’Callaghan Way.”That should make it a lot easier for us. The Freshman Academy was great. They did some really nice things over there,” Phelps said, adding, however, that it will be much easier to check up on the players and meet with the players.Phelps said there are also indications that the numbers in the freshman class, which took a hit when all the building issues arose, are heading up. Phelps said he had between 70-80 players out on Day One, including a dozen or so freshmen. He expects more ninth-graders once school gets going.Three graduates from last year’s 5-5 team are playing in college this fall – Tony Johnson and Quivari Jackson, who are both at Merrimack College, and Cam Smith, who is playing at Curry College. Phelps did add to his coaching staff. Former Classical standout Tony Hill, who was an All-American at the University of Rhode Island, is back with the Rams.ENGLISHAt English, Holey is also settling into his second year.”I’m much more comfortable with the administrative part of the job,” Holey said. “Plus, the kids know what to expect of the staff ? We’ve established our identity as a coaching staff.”Holey had about 65 players on deck for Day One, not including most of the freshmen.”I was really happy with the day’s work,” Holey said. “The kids are in good shape, which means we can start teaching sooner. They worked extremely hard in the off-season.”The Bulldogs, who finished 7-3, took a hit both in the ranks of players (17 graduated and about a dozen of them were regular players) and on the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Brian Vaughan left to take the head coaching job at Pope John. Steve Hill, who had coached the junior varsity, took over Vaughan’s spot.Holey said six players from last year’s team are playing in college this year. Receiver Justin Young is suiting up at Bentley University. Quarterback Jesse Fowler is at Merrimack College and offensive tackle/defensive end Steve Haberek is at St. Anselm. Brian Castellanos and Charlie Rucker are both playing at Westfield State College and Dan Lucier is playing at Bridgewater State College.”We sent a good crew on (to college) this year,” Holey said. “The idea is to keep it going.”As far as the prospects for the upcoming season ?”I think we’re inexperienced, but athletic,” Holey said. “At times we’re going to do some great things athletically, and at times we’ll do some very stupid stuff.”Holey said the idea is to minimize the stupid stuff.’I’m really looking forward to the challenge,” Holey said. “We’re farther ahead at this point than we were a year ago.”TECHAt Tech, Sverker is encouraged by what he’s seen so far, and he’s hopeful the experience he returns will make a difference. Sverker, who is in his 37th year of coaching football, has 16-17 players back w