Danvers hires new football coach

Danvers High has a new football coach.Sean Rogers, who has been offensive coordinator for the Falcons for the past three years, is taking over for John Sullivan, who stepped down after last season.Rogers, who teaches at the middle school, attended Merrimack College and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. His coaching experience also includes time at Framingham State College as an offensive coordinator (2004-2006), a defensive line coach (2003) and a tight end/wide receivers coach (2003).Rogers said the fact he’s been with the program for three years, has known many of the players since they were in middle school and is keeping much of the existing staff should make for a fairly smooth transition.”We already know each other,” he said.Rogers, who got the job last Thursday, said he already has the strength and conditioning aspect of the program up and running.”One lesson we definitely learned last year is that wins and losses are determined in January, February, March, April and May,” he said. “If we wait until June or July to start working out, we’re already too far behind.”Rogers said the program will lose 23 players to graduation. Most of them played some sort of role, he said, adding that the entire backfield will graduate.Among the players he’ll be counting on to help with the transition will be captains Zach Ryan and Greg Little. He said he has players returning who didn’t start, but saw decent playing time. The Falcons were 6-5 last fall.