Masters wants to build a strong foundation at Simsbury

Simsbury’s Riley Shanley (13) made his first start at QB vs. No. 1 Southington last fall. Nick Worthington (45) puts pressure on Shanley.

SIMSBURY – Dave Masters may be in his first year as the new head coach of the Simsbury High football team but he brings nearly a quarter century of coaching experience to the position. Masters is the head baseball coach at Simsbury but he has also coached wrestling, ice hockey, lacrosse and basketball in Simsbury, Somers and West Hartford as the head coach and an assistant coach. 

The Trojans (4-7, 0-5 CCC Div. I West) had a challenging season a year ago in a very tough Central Connecticut Conference Division I West Division that includes two-time defending state champion Southington, which was the No. 1 ranked team at the end of the season last December, New Britain, which qualified for the playoffs a year ago, Conard and Hall, the last team to beat Southington in October 2013. 

“I have goals and I want to win but not at the sacrifice of rushing things,” he said. “I want to build a program.” 

Masters replaced long-time coach Jeff Osborne, whose teams ran a triple option veer offense, a run-based system that is great to run out the clock with a lead. It’s a hard offense to run and a challenging offense to stop. But it’s not very helpful if you fall behind. A year ago, the Trojans gave up 339 points – the second highest number at Simsbury since the state playoffs began nearly 40 years ago in 1976. 

“Our goal is to get better every day,” Masters said. “When I see our coaches, I tell them our mission is to get these kids better every day. We’ll win once they get better. We can’t force it. We can’t do it by yelling at them. We won’t intimidate them into doing it. We have to teach them, bring them along and help them understand.” 

Masters spent plenty of time recruiting players on campus to play football. He has several new recruits from the basketball program on the squad. There are nearly 100 players in the program. 

Simsbury will still run the ball but it will run a more traditional offense. Junior Riley Shanley (16-41-2, 204 yards, 3 TDs) and junior Jackson Masters will be at quarterback with senior Grason Foster (82-350, 8 TDs) in the backfield with Jayvon Holmes 

The offensive line will be anchored by Will Varble, who recently agreed to play at Colgate next fall. 

Simsbury’s top four receivers from a year ago are gone so sophomore Alex Haggerty, 6-foot-4 tight end Connor Ahrens and 6-2 Will Sickenger will see time at receiver. Ahrens and Sickenger are players in the Simsbury basketball program. 

“We have plenty of guys we saw great things from (in the preseason),” Masters said. “We had a few guys that were catching balls that never played football and that was kinda fun.” 

Defensively, Simsbury lost 10 of its top 11 players in terms of tackles from a year ago. Senior linebacker Vishnu Mackechery, junior linebacker Nick Gugliotti and senior lineman Evan Sanderson will anchor the defense along with junior defensive back Matt Greiten. 

Students and fans fill the Simsbury High grandstand last fall for Friday night football.

Simsbury opens at home against East Hartford on Friday before traveling to Manchester on Sept. 18. The Trojans travel to Southington to take on the two-time defending state champions on Sept. 25 and that is followed by tough games at Hall and home against New Britain. 

After playing the Hartford co-op team out of Bulkeley, Simsbury hosts Conard and Hartford Public before its yearly battle at Glastonbury. The Trojans close out the regular season by hosting Avon on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in its second game with the Falcons since 1968. Avon joined the CCC this year. 

SIMSBURY
Coach: Dave Master, 1st year
Last year: 4-7, 0-4 CCC Division I West
Key losses:  Elijah Barrows (1,146 yards rushing, 7 TDs), linebacker/receiver Sean Penny (15-135, 1 TD receiving), receiver Eric Bedson (20-432, 3 TDs)
Outlook: A mix of experience returns for Simsbury, which hopes to get back in the winning column this fall. “We had a good group last year,” Osborne said. “But we were inexperienced.”
Of note: Since the CCC realigned its football divisions in 2011, Simsbury is 3-13 in the CCC Division I Western Division. The Trojans went 3-1 in 2012 and have lost nine straight division contests. It will be a challenge this year with Conard, Hall, New Britain and two-time defending state champion Southington in Division I West. … Penny got injured during the summer wrestling so he won’t play this fall.

Schedule
Fri. Sept. 11: EAST HARTFORD, 7 p.m.
Fri. Sept. 18: at Manchester, 6:30 p.m.
Fri. Sept. 25: at Southington, 7 p.m.
Fri. Oct. 2: at Hall, 7 p.m.
Fri. Oct. 9: NEW BRITAIN, 7 p.m.
Sat. Oct. 24: at Bulkeley/Weaver/HMTCA, noon
Fri. Oct. 30: CONARD, 7 p.m.
Fri. Nov. 6: HARTFORD PUBLIC, 7 p.m.
Fri. Nov. 13: at Glastonbury, 6 p.m.
Tue. Nov. 24: AVON, 6 p.m.