MARBLEHEAD — Most people do not like to spend any time in the principal’s office, but Marblehead High football coach Jim Rudloff doesn’t mind getting sent to there, or going there on his own volition.
Dan Bauer is the principal. And before he came over to Marblehead, he was the head coach in Beverly and Rudloff was an assistant.
Rudloff was a defensive coach for Marblehead from 2001-2004, he was an assistant under Bauer for the Panthers from 2005-2008, and he’s now entering his ninth year a head coach with the Red and Black.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s been nine years, but I guess it has,” Rudloff said.
The coach said he’s not shy about talking football with Bauer when he gets a chance.
“He (Bauer) is busy running school now, but I do still bug him from time to time. It’s no different than running a history lesson plan by him, I will bounce an idea off him and see what his perspective is. It’s great to have him here.”
As far as the 2017 season goes, Friday night’s opener can’t come fast enough for just about everyone associated with the Magicians football team.
“We had a pretty good season up until the last game (a 34-13 loss in the Division 2A state title game, Rudloff said. “We thought we prepared pretty well and we went down there and unfortunately really got punched right in the mouth by Falmouth.”
That loss to the Clippers was the only blemish on the Magicians record last season.
“I really though the kids got better and stronger as the season went on with the new weight program we put in place, we got over the hump in the Division 2A final with a win over North Reading, but the Falmouth game showed us we need to do a lot more,” the coach added. “You canlt ever be satisfied, and that Falmouth game was tough to swallow, but hopefully, everybody that’s back can take something from that game and use it to make us better.”
Rudloff’s three senior captains this season are Teddy Mayle, Nick Corsini and Aidan Gills. Mayle said the Falmouth game left a rotten taste in everybody’s mouth and the entire team is anxious to get going Friday night against the Vikings.
“Last season certainly didn’t end the way we wanted it to, I actually thought we were stronger at the end of the season than the beginning because of the weight program the coaches put in,” Mayle said. “We got better, I think, as last season went on, but obviously, the Falmouth game showed us we have to do more.”
Triton also had a disappointing end to their season in 2016; they won the Division 3 North crown before the eventual state champs from Hanover knocked them out.
“We have a lot to prove this season,” Corsini said. “No one was satisfied with how we finished last year, and we’re excited about opening up at Triton.”
“We’ve put in a lot of work to get ready for this season,” Gillis said. “It starts Friday night and we have to continue to work as hard as we can all season.”
Rudloff is working on choosing who will get the ball at quarterback when it’s snapped by his center Gillis.
“I’m looking at three good athletes, Chris Gally, Dewey Millett and Dan Doherty, they’re making it a tough choice,” the coach said.
Whoever gets the starting job will have a solid bunch of people to throw to, Andy Clough, Derek Marino, Sean Karass and Seamus Keaney. Mayle will be one of the guys starting in the backfield, with several sophomore and junior running backs looking to crack their way into the starting lineup.
“The kids have been great, they worked hard and were enthusiastic when we had our pre-season workouts at 6 a.m., I think they were as excited as I was getting up early and working on football,” Rudloff said. “We don’t know a lot about Triton, but we really need to do what we have to do to every time out to be successful this season.”
