LYNN — In just his first year at the helm, Tyllor McDonald helped the Lynn English football program take a step forward. Last year, the Bulldogs went 7-3, earning a postseason berth and re-establishing themselves as a tough out on the North Shore.
Now, entering his second season, McDonald is looking for his team to carry that momentum into the fall. Last season’s success was driven by experience and offensive firepower.
“I think we had good senior leadership last year,” McDonald said. “It was my first year with those guys so I think having their leadership and the talent we had helped out a bunch. We were really talented offensively and scored a lot of touchdowns.”
Maintaining that momentum will require continued development and new leaders stepping up.
“You have to keep winning. You have to get good players as incoming freshmen to come here and we need to keep developing our players,” McDonald said. “The sophomores and juniors that I inherited, they’re getting better each day. We just need to develop our players and have them execute and make plays when the time comes. You have to win at the end of the day, and if you’re winning then everything’s good. Our focus is on development and using our athletes to our advantage.”
That development goes hand in hand with the team’s emphasis for this fall: effort.
“We’re always going to have good athletes, but you still need to put in effort in order to meet that ultimate goal,” McDonald said. “Whether it’s winning a certain number of games, getting turnovers, or scoring touchdowns, you can’t do any of that without giving 100% effort and we need that from everyone. Football is a team sport so everybody has to give the same effort and it has to be on full tilt for us to succeed.”
McDonald expects several young players to take on bigger roles.
“We have a bunch of great athletes but a lot of them are going to be freshmen,” McDonald said. “We’ll be leaning on a couple of those guys too, just because they’re really good, but they’re still kids at the end of the day. They’re still young so we have to coach those guys up as much as possible.”
Leadership will come from returners who flashed last season. McDonald pointed to Shane Knowlton-Simard, Jamaal Boyd and Dataree Brown as playmakers who already command respect in the locker room.
“It’s a bit different because a lot of the guys I have now didn’t play as much varsity up until last year,” McDonald said. “The class I had last year, those guys played three or four years and were kind of used to it. The guys I have now are doing great and there are a lot of young guys who played last year and will be sophomores this year that are stepping up into leadership roles.”
One of the most notable changes comes under center, where Knowlton-Simard will shift from wide receiver to quarterback.
“I think he’s the best athlete in the area,” McDonald said. “I think that’s what you should do when you don’t have that quarterback going into the season. I think he’s the best athlete when it comes to running and evading tackles and his ability to run by guys. I think he’s the best option in our offense where it’s a lot of RPO and making reads.”
The Bulldogs will also return key contributors at the skill positions and in the trenches. Running back Xavier Beauchamp will once again power the ground game, while Jason McDonald is expected to emerge as a playmaker at wide receiver. On the offensive and defensive lines, Boyd, Brown and Aaden Soto will anchor the front. Boyd and Soto, both sophomores who started as freshmen last year, bring valuable youth and experience, while Brown, now a senior, provides veteran leadership and toughness in the trenches.
“We’re going to be a physical team,” McDonald said. “That’s what I want our identity to be, physical and tough. We’re going to run the ball a lot because we have the guys that can do it.”
With a year of growth under McDonald and a strong mix of returning talent and young athletes, the Bulldogs will look to build on last year’s foundation and make more noise this season.
