Item Football 2009: Peabody hopes to improve all the way around

In the past few seasons, the Peabody High football team sustained some hard times.Last year, though, under first-year coach Scott Wlasuk, the Tanners, while still finishing under .500 (4-7), brought energy, excitement and enthusiasm in the form of four close victories, over Arlington, Lynn Classical, Salem and Danvers.”I lost a lot of fingernails,” Wlasuk said. “I had quite a lot of gray hairs over those games.”This year, the coach said, “We’re still in the rebuilding process. Every week will be a challenge for us.”The challenges begin with a season opener against St. John’s Prep at Coley Lee Field on Friday, Sept. 11.”Obviously, the St. John’s Prep game will be huge,” Wlasuk said. “There’s a local flavor and a rivalry. It’ll be a big challenge for us. But every game is a big game.”Wlasuk returns for this season with big-game experience from a different sport. His son Cody was an outfielder for the Peabody West Little League team that reached the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.”Every kid who plays Little League dreams of going there,” Coach Wlasuk said. “So few kids make it.”The Tanner football team’s on-field leaders this season are senior tri-captains Mike DeFrancisco, Jeff Egitto, and Mark D’Addario.DeFrancisco is a returning starting center who will probably play nose guard on defense, Egitto anchors the offensive and defensive lines (he is a third-year two-way starter) and D’Addario impressed as a running back last year, accumulating 750 yards on the ground.Wlasuk said that Mike O’Brien should be the Tanners’ starting quarterback, and praised linebacker/tight end Dave Richardson, who is coming off an arm injury from last season.”We’ll run an old-fashioned single wing,” Wlasuk said. “We’ll open things up a little bit more out of the single wing. We’ll try to be a little more balanced.”Richardson, the coach added, “is a tough, hard-nosed player, very intelligent, like another coach on the field.”The Tanners will also have kicker Justin Provencher back. Last year, Provencher connected on a 35-yard field goal to defeat Arlington.”Provencher is one of if not the top kickers on the North Shore,” Wlasuk said. “He has a very strong leg. It’s a luxury on the football field.”Junior Nick Allen will punt, and the coach has praised his work, as well as the efforts of kicking coach Tim Seaman. Ed Melanson, (a former St. Mary’s coach in the early 2000s) and Dave Henrich round out the coaching staff.The team consists of about 100 players, with around 70 sophomores, juniors and seniors, and just under 30 freshmen.Players lost to graduation include Nick Hiou, who led the team in rushing last year with just under 1,000 yards; Howard Brown, who had transferred from California; Kevin Bettencourt, a three-year starter at linebacker; Jonathan Balcacer, who played on both sides and on special teams and was described by Wlasuk as “multidimensional”; and three-year varsity player Tom Ciulla, a quarterback and defensive back. Bettencourt and Hiou are now at UMass-Dartmouth.Still, the coach’s overall mood is upbeat.”I’m very optimistic for the season,” Wlasuk said. “I’m sticking with my philosophy from last year. I’m not going to predict wins and losses. I’m excited. We’ve got a good nucleus of players coming back.”This season, the schedule will feature a few changes due to the realignment of the Northeastern Conference. The Tanners will not play Beverly or Danvers, but they will face Swampscott in Week Three and Winthrop in Week Five. They will also visit Stackpole Field on Thanksgiving Day for a showdown with Saugus after a two-year absence of the longtime Turkey Day rivalry. As for non-conference matchups, Peabody will play Cambridge and Malden Catholic in addition to The Prep.”Last year was a huge learning experience for me,” Wlasuk said. “I made a lot of mistakes. I don’t mind mentioning that. I hope to improve myself as a head coach.”He added, “I’ve gotten tremendous support from the school administration,” and that “the